After mounting a vintage 6-18 Redfield scope on the rifle and a quick trip to the shooting bench for sight in, the rifle was ready for squirrel duty. Initial test and sight in was done with Eely ammo with excellent results. The rifle shot consistent groups at 50 yards 5 shot groups in the .3” range with an occasional wind induced flier producing a .4 group.
Needless to say the 5 day wait for the rifle to arrive had made me a little antsy to get to the big woods where the squirrels were just dieing with anticipation of my arrival, or maybe it was the other way around, they were to die after my arrival.
Condition for squirrel hunting were not good by any standards, it was cold overcast and windyBut the urge to loose the Kimber’s virginity was to strong to resist. Dawning enough clothing to keep an Eskimo worm, it was off to the oak thicket. The woods is about 400 acres of mixed hardwoods, beach nut, oak , hickory, walnut and spotting of cedars thrown in for good measure.
Squirrel hunting is like Varmint calling, they get 15 minutes per stand, if they don’t show themselves they get to live to cut nuts again another day. The first stand was on the edge of a deep ravine thick with huge Oak, Hickory, small tree and thorny under growth. My normal method of keeping myself comfortable enough to sit still for 15 minutes is to use a short folding stool placed against a tree for a back rest.
Don’t mean to sound to Zen but there is something about sitting quietly in the woods and becoming just a small part of it all that is soothing to the soul. Maybe it’s the smell of the woods, a woodpecker working over a dead oak limb looking for breakfast or the sound of Dairy cows mooing in the distance.
That Zen moment was quickly broken by the rustle of small claws against the bark of a tree from directly behind the stand, understand we are not talking about 10 minutes into the stand but 10 seconds. The squirrel was no more than 20 feet behind me and moving in my direction. Here I was presented with an almost impossible shot at a target directly behind the stand, a scope set on 6 power and no way to swing the rifle on target.
Sometimes you just have to get inventive, leaning back hard against the tree the rifle was mounted to my right shoulder, swung to my left and aimed directly behind me with a move a slinky would have been proud of. All that was visible thru the scope was a brownish red blob, knowing the rifle scope perched 1.5” above the bore the cross hairs were placed on top of the blob. The rifle cracked and the Pro Varmint had forever lost it’s virginity.
Normally sitting in the sunshine and soaking up the suns early morning rays is the calm relaxing part of my squirrel hunting regiment. Not so this morning as there was no sunshine and a cold breeze was blowing out of the south. The best I could do was snuggle up behind the huge oak tree, stay out of the wind and stay warm. About five minutes into the stand, suddenly this calm moment was broken by the rustle of leaves from directly behind the big oak, to loud to be a squirrel flashed thru my mind.
Then it flashed thru my mind as to where the stand was, It was in Gismo pasture. What is a Gismo you ask? Gismo is the rancher’s stud bull and Gismo and I have quite a history. The first run in with Gismo took place while scouting for deer almost three years ago. While moseying along on my atv looking everywhere except directly in front of the atv, suddenly there stood Gismo, head down, slobbering and hooves pawing the ground. Gismo stands about 6’2” at the shoulder and weighs about 2500 pounds and the only thing he has in common with a red squirrel is his color.
Gismo charged the atv and continued to chase the atv all over the 40 acre pasture bellowing, pawing and slobbering. Eventual after about 20 minutes and due to the atv’s speed and agility, drivers sheer fright, Gismo was wore down and an escape was not only possible but very desirable.
Needless to say that was a lesson learned, don’t take the atv anywhere near Gismo. When I mentioned the encounter to the land owner he laughed and sad “by the way Gismo has a thing about atv’s.
The though of confronting Gismo on foot armed only with a 17 marc 2 and harsh words is not exactly confidence inspiring. The though flashed thru mi mind of me posting picture of Gismo lying with four hooves in the air and the post headline reading “Shot a really huge squirrel today with the Mach 2”.
Needless to say it wasn’t Gismo but a really hungry squirrel digging for acorns, the Kimber barked and we saved a few acorns that day. The scene repeated itself four more times during the two hour hunt and the Kimber reached it’d legal bag limit. Four of the 6 squirrels shot were shot at ranges from 10 to 20 feet, all were head shots as were the longer shots.
To say that the Kimber has left me with a huge smile on my face is an understatement, couldn’t ask for a better squirrel hunting package. As is always with a rifle it’s the total package, right caliber and a great looking rifle/scope combination, this rifle has it all.
the remington 504 mach 2 doesn't do to bad either......
