The Sniping Tree - with VIDS

[cynic]

Late July I had a morning sortie at the B&B.

 

A quick lap of the grounds, and I didn’t see anything! Disappointing, as there had been quite a lot of rabbit activity here on previous morning visits.

 

So I settled down at the base of my sniping tree to wait for squirrels.

 

However, the first signs of movement didn’t come from the trees and branches overhead, but from the wood-pile in from of me, as a young rabbit emerged. Unfortunately, my first shot wasn’t perfect, and I had to swiftly follow up with another. Not a great start.

 

I did another circuit of the grounds, and again, saw nothing more of interest. So back to the sniping tree, and wait for the squizzers.

 

I sat waiting about half an hour before the first one appeared. I spotted it in my peripheral vision, over my right shoulder, as it was bounding along the lawn. I carefully rolled into prone position, but my movements were also spotted, and the squizzer ascended a nearby tree. He re-emerged on a branch further up, and began barking at me (this young male must have been pumped up with testosterone and feeling territorial). I had to wait quite some time for just the right moment to take the shot, as a twig was obscuring the kill zone. As soon as he shifted his head I dropped him cleanly. He hit the ground with the usual satisfying thud.

 

Just five minutes later I dropped another from the large oak directly in front of me. A tricky shot this one, as the squirrel was in amongst the ivy, but again, it dropped cleanly.

 

Half an hour later, two squirrels appeared on the V shaped tree, and began chasing each other. I love this tree, as it’s a main travel route for the local squirrel population, and its lack of horizontal branches means that the squirrels path will be predictably down, and then up the V shape. These two squirrels danced about and didn’t give me chance to get a bead. They temporarily disappeared behind the wood-pile and then one of them popped back up, and presented a perfect shot! A gentle squeeze of the trigger and….. dry-fire! I must have popped the wrong mag into the gun. I fumbled about in my pocket, found the (full) spare mag and swapped them over. Luckily, the two squirrels were still focussed on each other, and both remained on the V tree. A momentary pause by the lower of the two, and the S410 chalked up the third squirrel of the day. This sent the other squirrel darting off into the canopy.

 

Shortly after, another squirrel came to investigate the V tree, probably picking up the scent left by the others. He stopped in the exact same place as the previous squirrel… and met the same fate.

 

That wrapped the morning up nicely. I headed home with 4 squirrels and a young rabbit for the freezer, all taken from the exact same place, my sniping tree.

 

the group shot

 

the sniping tree

 

 

Edited September 29, 2012 by cynic

[demonwolf444]

good shooting mate! looks like it all came good in the end. Thankyou for sharing!

[Goldfinger]

Great video mate.

[Ant8681]

Nice matey, enjoyed that!

[grasshopper]

Enjoyed that,good watch

When you shot the 1 out of 2 playing on the tree...there was a third just above the Squirrel you never shot