I wanted to get an early start to make the most of my short day. When you beat the sun up and get on the road early enough, you will be fortunate to see sites like these. Ahhhhh...the SUNRISE:
As usual upon arriving at one of my shooting locales, i recheck zero to make sure the gun is still sighted in from the last outing and to my pleasant surprise it still was very close to Point of Aim. Gotta love quick sight in sessions. I then grab a handful of JSB pellets and refilled my gun back to 2000 psi, locked my truck and began to scour the desert floor in search of some California Black Tailed Jack Rabbits. It wasn't long until i ran across my first Jack sitting under a desert creosote shrub. I lasered him at exactly 52 yards and surprisingly, i did not spook him. I quickly set my CM22 (the air rifle) on my shooting mono-pod and set the video camera to record. I calmly placed the cross hairs center mass on the rabbit head as he faced me and then I gently begun to squeeze the trigger, and VOILA...my first Jack of the day at 52 yards:
I then begin to hike in search for more jack rabbits. Because of the hot weather, i did not see as many as i normally do nor did i want to walk too far from my truck. So i searched for another 1/4 mile or so with no luck, and i decide to go back to my vehicle and drive to my Ground Squirrel location. About 150 yards from my truck, i spot movement and it was another rabbit about to make his way up the side of a hill that i was walking alongside. As he trotted off i thought, "hear he goes...up the side of the mountain and down the back side.....HE'S GONE!". And to my surprise, he only sprinted off a couple of yards and stopped, and sat up on his hind legs to catch a glimpse of what i was. That would be his mistake. Again, i set up my shooting sticks and took aim all the while turning on my camera and hitting record again and placed the crosshairs center mass of the rabbits head. Being as the rabbit was 64 yards away, i knew the shot would fall low and penetrate the chest cavity striking the heart region. A gently squeeze of the trigger again and BOOM....rabbit number 2:
So now i head back to my truck to take a look at the time and i had decided that it was time to move on to hunting a couple of ground squirrels and try and get some video footage. Off i go to my ground squirrel area and upon arriving, the wind had picked up just a little and i didn't have very much time to hunt. I arrive and I quickly get out of the truck and grab all my necessities and refill the gun back up to 2000 psi again. My first squirrel would come in at a lasered 41 yards and I did not have much time to set up on him as he was skiddish. It was a cleanly placed head shot that would do that fellow in. As i walked the area, i spot another squirrel at 79 yards but i did not want to make that kind of shot cause i'm still getting used to this gun. So i stalked to right at 52 yards of the squirrel. I sat on the ground and collapsed my shooting stick to where i could place the rifle on top of it while sitting and quickly started the camera rolling. I then lasered the log the squirrel was sitting on just to verify the distance and it was again......54 yards. The squirrel was looking at me with his head turned sideways giving me the perfect shot opportunity (between eye and ear) and i decided to place the JSB right down his ear canal. Once i squeezed the trigger, i could very clearly hear the impact. The CrosMods .22 had again, done her job:
Attached is a video of the above listed shots. The video runs 2 minutes and 32 seconds. In that video, i included the last 2 ground squirrels of the day. Whats different about the shots in the video on the last squirrels is that.....I MISSED! I included the misses cause missing is a very real part of hunting and or shooting. And i'm not afraid to say or admit that i have enough video of misses that i could make a 2 hour video out of it......lol. Ok, so not 2 hours worth but enough. Whats kind of funny too is that the majority of the time that i miss, i miss very cleanly and the animals are not wounded and run down their holes to die and agonizing death. The first ground squirrel i OVERCOMPENSATED by like 2 mil-dots and the shot was to the far right. I missed the squirrel but i did manage to kill the log he was sitting on...lol. The second squirrel again, was a clean miss as i simply did not ADD enough compensation for wind doping and the shot was close but, i got no cigar. Both squirrels lived to see another day:
STAY TUNED!!
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