Probably not my best shot ever but damn proud of this one...

Yesterday, I got a rare glimpse of a ground squirrel sprawled out flat on its belly just chilling on part of my retaining wall about 30yd from my office door so I go to the safe and grabbed my Edgun Leshiy 2 with red dot to dispatch of it. Of course, as soon as I open the sliding glass door to take aim at it, the squirrel scurries off into the bushes. Disappointed, I lower the Leshiy 2 . . . only to see a tiny bit of movement about 5yds past the squirrel's previous location.

I had to squint and do a double take to see what it was . . . but lo and behold, it was the very tip of the head of the pocket gopher that has been digging up a large portion of the backyard. I've been trying to poison it for weeks but it was still digging out new mounds of dirt everyday. It was pretty skittish, only popping its head above ground for a split second at a time before disappearing again. I knew I'd probably only have one shot at it and my chances of hitting it with the red dot on my L2 were probably low so I went back to the safe and pulled out the trusty Impact M3 0.25 w/ 30x Hawke Frontier scope on it.

By the time I got the M3 back to the door, there were all sorts of thoughts running through my head. 1) This M3 has been sitting for weeks without being shot so there's inevitably going to be some amount of reg creep so how much lower is the POI going to be on this shot? 2) This rifle is fully decked out and pretty heavy but I don't have time to mount in on my trusty tripod so I was going to have to brace it against the side of the sliding door and hope for the best. 3) It was mid-afternoon so there was a pretty brisk right to left breeze to contend with. 4) I'm going to have a split second to time the shot before it ducked into its hole again (which, by the way, was slightly obscured by the dirt mound in front of it so the line of sight was obstructed). 5) And finally, I've got another Zoom meeting starting in 3 minutes so I've got to get this shot off right quick . . . needless to say, the adrenaline's pumping pretty good now!

Taking all those things into consideration, I steady myself against the door, tried as best I could to anticipate its head popping rhythm and pulled the trigger . . . then logged onto two consecutive meetings without being able to see if I hit my target or not. The meetings end and I walk out to the gopher's location with more gopher pellets in hand thinking that, at the very least, I would have a fresh opening into which to put the pellets in the hopes of maybe finally getting the poison to its intended target.

Here's what I found:

The red arrow is pointing to the gopher hole just in front of the palm tree trunk (about 35yds out)
mole1.jpg



This is the hole:
mole2.jpg



This is what was waiting for me in the hole:
mole3.jpg



This is what I pulled out:
mole4.jpg


I mean WOW - a shot straight through the back of the head coming out the front dead center at its neck. Talk about a DEAD RIGHT THERE shot; that thing didn't move an inch after impact. Pretty amazing!!! Imagine something smaller than the size of a golf ball, popping in and out of a hole (partially obscured by a mound of dirt) for a split second at a time and getting this result!

I just hope that was the last one b/c I don't know if I can pull off another shot like that (or even have the chance to)!!!
 
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Love it. After more than 30 years of laying on my belly with a bipod popping groundhogs that were clueless, I’ve returned to the more exciting side of hunting. As I read your story I was chuckling, because I’ve lived it. We all can play sniper Joe in our slippers and bathrobe from our house. Blowing stuff off a feeder is one thing. But there can be some challenging mini hunts from the confines of our homes that showcase some skill. Or luck which I will openly admit. Great story.
 
Aye the simple natural joy of dispatching a cute little fuzzy creature with a trusted dialed in L2. :cool:
Hey Jack, I wish I could've made this shot with the L2...but the reason I put the red dot on it was to make 30-40yd shots a little more challenging (whereas aiming a scoped Impact at anything within that range is pretty much a sure fire hit). Given the conditions, I didn't think I could hit the gopher's head 35yds out with the L2 and red dot - which is why I opted to go with the 0.25 Impact M3.
 
Here's an interesting update to the original post:

A couple of hours ago, I looked out my door to the usual ground squirrel hangout spot in my yard and saw a FAT squirrel laying at the base of the fence post where they typically enter my yard. This guy was not only fat, he seemed very lazy/lethargic and was very content to just lay there enjoying the shade. Normally they're running from one spot to the next and don't stand still very long for me to get a good bead on them. I went to the safe, got the same 0.25 Impact M3 again, opened the sliding door (he didn't budge at the sound of the door sliding open like most of the others do) and put the crosshairs on him.

Easy shot and, again, he died within a foot of where I shot him . . . pretty boring and easy enough (as is usually the case with the M3 inside 50yds). The interesting part was that when I went out to dispose of the squirrel (and confirmed it was a HUGE, FAT one), I saw another dead critter next to him. A closer look showed that it was another pocket gopher . . . so I'm thinking "wow, TWO dead gophers in my yard in two days - that should surely eliminate my gopher problem!"

Then I took a closer look at the gopher and realized that it was most likely the one I shot the other day because this was right about the area where I disposed of that gopher. However, it was now missing most of its right shoulder and rib area allowing me to see its internal organs! Turns out the squirrel was busy eating the gopher and that's why it was so content to sit so still at that spot for me to get such an easy shot at it!

So killing the gopher was already gratifying enough on its own but its carcass allowed me to bag a monstrously fat squirrel a couple of days later!

I should've taken photos of both the huge squirrel and the partially eaten gopher (this post would've been a lot better with those pics) . . . but, of course, I only had minutes before the next meeting started so I had to quickly run out there to dispose of both carcasses before either my wife or our dogs found them!!!
 
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Talk about whack a mole! What a shot!

Squirrels like all other rodents are omnivores and will eat meat if given the opportunity. They are known to raid bird nests to eat eggs and hatchlings.
Ground squirrels will eat what ever is dead close to them. Even when I know I've whacked them good and they get back to their burrow, when they die they are on the menu.
 
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Great shot and write-up!

FYI on ground squirrels: Here at the ranch I hunt them all the time and they are challenging - much more so than tree squirrels. GS take off or dive in their hole when they see you, only often they re-appear later nearby to see if you're a danger. Typically this takes 5-10 min, but if you can be patient they often re-appear. Many times I find they've climbed up a shrub or tree stump to scope me out - sometimes only showing their head. So they can be hard to spot but sometimes easier to shoot while they sit and glare at you.