I had put my AA 410ERBSL away after shooting her with the new 18 grain JSB Heavy pellets and was taking a leisurely lunch break, when something caught my eye. I dug out my binooculars and took a peek. Sitting on a piece of downed limb was, what looked to me like, a California ground squirrel. It's not, but it sure looks like one. He's sitting in the shade and doesn't seem concerned with me at all. I put the range finder on him and get 59 yards.

I open the case and pull out the RWS Rapier and set up my Stoney Point bipod. I drop a couple of the 18 grain JSB's in the two shot shuttle. All the time I'm glancing quickly to see if the ground squirrel is still there. He hasn't moved.

I step away from my vehicle and drop the rifle onto the bipod. Looking through the scope I tweak the parallax. The squirrel is still sitting there looking at me. I know I'm on at 50 yards and one and a quarter inches low at 60, I hold a little high, wait for a lull in the breeze, and squeeze the trigger. The pellet knocks him off the limb.

When I get over to the squirrel it looks a lot like a California Ground Squirrel without the white shoulders. This is what in Arizona is called, a Rock Squirrel.

As I'm looking this guy over, an Abert's tree squirrel runs across the ground and up a tree no more than 40 yards away. When I put my binoculars on the tree, I can see him sitting on a limb quartering away from me about 30 feet up. I put the crosshairs on his ribcage, hold just a little low and launch the pellet. The satisfying THWACK of a solid hit comes back to me as he is falling to the ground dead. The pellet entered low in the right side rib area and exited near the left shoulder.

Neither squirrel gave so much as a twitch. I think I'm really liking these new pellets.