Gateway To Airguns forum (GTA) 1st annual Airgun Hunt (meet/greet)

     On this adventure, I was invited to a meet and greet with fellow airgun hunters/shooters by Baxter Walton over on the GTA forum.  GTA stands for Gateway To Airguns and the forum has a vast database on everything AIRGUN.  From hunting to target shooting to gear to general socializing.  This meet was conceived by fellow airgunner Baxter Walton or BWALTON and was put together for all of us to get together and talk airguns, camping, hunting, target shooting and life in general.  It was a meet and greet sorta event with Ground Squirrel hunting being the primary focus.  Overnight camping was also an option as Baxter and Dale camped out Saturday afternoon/night.  Myself and Napoleon would arrive there Sunday morning as you will soon see in the video.  Not very many members showed as promised (RSVP).

 THE HUNTING GROUNDS 

THE MEET:  Well, only 4 of us participated and that was fine with me.  It was Baxter, Dale, Napoleon and Myself.  As explained earlier, Dale and Baxter spent the night so they were already at the campsite.  Napoleon and myself showed up Sunday morning with me arriving 1st.  After arriving, I was greeted by Dale and Baxter and it already felt like I had known them previously.  We talked for a while and kept hoping more folks were gonna show then up comes Napoleon.  Napoleon, Dale and Baxter hunt together all the time with each other and they have their own personal hunting crew.  Napoleon then shows up and we meet and greet also.  It was like i had hunted with them a few times already and that's a great feeling when you are just meeting someone for the 1st time.  After we all talked for a while, we decide to pack up from the camp site and head out to do some early morning hunting.

THE GUNS:  We didn't spend too much time talking guns and gear and such nor did we spend a lot of time on each others guns.  But, I brought along the TD257, Baxter had a customers HATSAN 25 that he customized, Napoleon brought along his very nice looking and quiet Evanix Rainstorm .25 that was tuned and shrouded by Will Piatt and Dale brought along some Daystate 22's and a couple other guns.  As it figured, I was the only cast bullet shooter or the other guys were the only pellet shooters.....lol!

THE HUNT:  After we leave the Camp Grounds, we head up into the mountain range and we stop to glass the area.  It was also a chance for me to take a look at the surrounding mountain range and to do some preliminary videography.  Baxter decided that since I was new to the area, i should team up with either himself or Napoleon, both which are very familiar with the area.  Baxter and Dale decide to team up and Baxter sent me with Napoleon.  We then pack up and head to our 1st locale in which Baxter exits his truck and immediately spots a ground squirrel at 255 sitting atop a gigantic rock formation.  Baxter gives me the 1st shot as I'm the GUEST as he put it.  I had not properly sighted in at this locale since going on my last outting elsewhere but I trusted in my gun and how well I knew it.  So, I stalk to within 138 yards and decided that this is "THE" distance from which I will take my shot.  After a few fair misses, I soon learn my POI/POA and make scope adjustments accordingly. I was shooting 2" high and 2" to the right. The squirrel also moved from his original location to a new one due to those nasty .257 cal BUMBLE BEES flying over his head......lol!  1 sting and your a goner.  On the next shot, I give the squirrel shoulder as many crosshair/mildot points as I could spare knowing that if I were just a little off, I would either hit the head, the heart, the lungs or the spine.  I aimed for the base of the neck where it meets the shoulders and THWACK, it was a solid 138 yard shot.  IN THE EYE!

10 minutes later, a GS that my GS was playing with earlier came out of the same rock formation and started running towards Napoleon and I like it wanted revenge or something.  138 yards and counting (DOWN).  The squirrel reached another small rock formation that was 71 yards from Napoleon and I and it was Napoleon's turn to shoot.  The squirrel disappeared into the formation for a minute or two then came up.  I told Napoleon that the squirrel was headed for the highest rock and that he should get ready.  Sure enough, the squirrel appears and I start rolling film and ranging for Napoleon.  I then re-ranged the GS for Napoleon and it was again right at 71 yards.  But this time, the left to right breeze had picked up slightly.  As the squirrel crested the rock, Napoleon and his Evanix made the 71 yard shot look pretty simple.  SUCCESS!  We had 2 in the bag at this point.  After retrieving the GS and snapping some video/pictures, Napoleon and I find Dale and Baxter and decided head back to the campsite to do lunch.  But not before we had a small talk about our success the start of that morning.  We soon find out Baxter shot a ground squirrel also.

So now, after lunch, Myself, Baxter and Napoleon decide to go back out for part 2 of the days hunting adventure.  Dale opted out due to his extremely long drive back home.  So it was Myself, Baxter and Napoleon at this point.  Baxter goes out by himself and Napoleon takes me to another good spot of his.  We venture out to this area and it was beautiful and down in a shallow valley.  Upon arriving, we sit, take out our binoculars and within like 20 seconds, Napoleon sais, "I see one", "he is 88 yards directly in front of us sitting and some dead shrub branches".  I pull up my binoculars and after a few spotting tutorials from Napoleon, I spot the squirrel, FINALLY....lol!  Napoleon ranges the GS at 88 yards and I dig into my Strelok Ballistics Program to find that 82 yards is my 1st UPPER mildot.  I knew my gun was still shooting just a tiny bit high due to the extremely high altitude so I aimed the upper mildot slightly lower than the chest.  This would allow for a level hit right in the vitals of the chest cavity.  At the shot, I heard the distinctive THWACK and another GS was down!  This one makes #3 for Napolean and I.

We then pick up and decided to try one more spot that Napoleon had told me about earlier before calling it quits.  We drive a quarter mile over the next hill and park our vehicles.  This locale was a lookout point that overlooked a nice shallow valley.  We both get out and start glassing the area.  Neither of us saw anything then again, ALL OF A SUDDEN, Napoleon shouts out again, "I see one"!  This squirrel was sitting atop a rock that i had JUST looked at also and he wasn't there when I looked.  Napoleon ranges the GS at 95 yards and I began gathering my gun and chair and camera/bipod.  I cross over to where Napoleon was and set every thing up to prepare for the shot.  Napoleon is roughly 1 yard behind me.  The GS was definitely NOT in a rush to leave and I made sure I didn't give him a reason to leave.  Once set up, I made 2 vertical turret clicks down and put the 1st upper mildot dead square on the squirrels right eye.  I then call the shot to Napoleon as a Head Shot.  Upon the muzzle blast, a split second later, I could hear the very audible and one of a kind sound of a connecting projectile.........THWACK!  Napoleon was watching out of his binoculars and screamed out, "that was a head shot, I could see his head get slammed down before his body went down".  Upon arriving at the downed 4th squirrel, lets just say, we could tell the squirrel LOST HIS MIND!

Napoleon and I decided to find Baxter and call it a day.  It was nearing the 4 o clock hour and we all had a drive ahead of us.

HERE IS THE HUNT ON VIDEO:

STAY TUNED FOR THE NEXT AIRVENTURE!

TOFAZFOU