Video of 2024 Squirrel Smash

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JimNM

JimNM

Member
Aug 15, 2016
3,874
1,119
New Mexico, United States
1st off - I know the camera is not straight with the cross hairs - my bad. The gun was re-built over the winter with a new valve stem and spring. My distances are not dialed in yet.

It was nice this a.m., but it got to 110 degrees towards noon. It was only during video selection and editing that I realized how many squirrels went to heaven today. I had one burrow that delivered 7 young. I quit filming that location to concentrate on removal. This is a war on pests, I do try to maximize results and some shots are not DRT.

Kral Puncher Breaker in .22 ~ 23 FPE
Hades Classic/FX Atomic
Discovery 5-25x50 FFP
Tactacam FTS (needs more work)

Shoot'em good, amigos
 
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The zoom of the FFP scope makes it hard to tell distances from the video. I run 10x to 20x most of the time. My point blank zero is 20-35 yards, and that is my preferred distance. I usually set up within that range on my intended target if possible. The drainage ditch is about 15 yards wide from lip to lip, and I try to stay back about 10 yards from the edge to cover the ATV from view. The longest shot (that fell 2 feet short) was at 78 yards. The shortest shot was 9 yards. The re-work on the gun has affected my scope dope.

I enjoy the video capture as it lets me review the shots and diagnose problems like slamming the trigger, or not allowing for wind drift. The two clips that stand out for me were;

The Sprung a Leak shot, I thought I had missed it low, but the blood trail is unmistakable in slow-mo

The Bounced off the Ground - where the pellet hit low and ricocheted into the spine. Slow mo review showed an effective hit despite bad dope.

FX Atomic pellets are the same design as the Hades - all shot from my Kral PB.
 
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@JimNM The video capture is nice. I don't use mine much because I'm lazy when it comes to setting up video equipment on a hunt, especially squirrels. A lot of time I just don't make time for the prep time and cameras are distracting to me. It is a helpful diagnostic tool. The quality through that Discovery scope looks good on film. I forgot to mention that before. "Sprung a leak" was captured nicely. I wish I could have seen the ricochet clearly. I really couldn't tell. Now I just learned a few things. I was under the impression that ground squirrels are very skittish and needed to be shot long distance. Is there truth to that? Were the ground squirrels in your area used to being shot at? What's the max effective range you've achieved shooting Hades?
 
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Video does add another step to setting up a shot. My usual workflow is; approach the spot while scanning for movement, kill ATV motor, grab the range finder to pre-range landmarks = 45 yards to the landmark on the left and 60 yards to my landmark on the right. Dial the scope to the Point Blank setting. Switch to binos, scan carefully from left to right and right to left. Wait 60-90 seconds, scan again. If no targets show, play the squirrel sound on the game caller app. Scan while player is making noise. After a minute or so, shut off the sound and continue to scan. If no movement in the next 2-3 minutes, drive off to another burrow/trash pile.

Early in the season, the GS are much easier to shoot, albeit the young are very small. There is not doubt that they get more difficult when I shoot more often. The farm workers buzz around on UTV and ATV every day, I think that helps me blend into regular daily traffic.

As far as the range of the Hades - I don't remember. With good dope, I don't hesitate to go for 90-100 yards. A miss is a miss, I am not shooting for bench scores. Early on I was into the High-FPE chase, and modified the PB to about 45 FPE. Using the heavy Senaca pellets at 28.5g, I have hit squirrels at 110 yards and rabbits at close to 150. HADES do not like to be pushed that fast and I appreciate the energy transfer I from their design, so I matured a little bit and tuned the power back down. I settled on the same FPS for the HADES that I get at full power on the Senecas... same dope for hunting range - so I can move back to the heavy pellets just by turning up the TP setting. From a 200-bar fill, I get over 60 shots with less wear and tear on the valve and hammer and a much more stealthy gun.
 
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Dang, I got sidetracked and forgot about the shot cycle...

Eyeball or bino a target. Range find if needed. Set parallax on scope. One press on the camera button (Tactacam is much better than the phone/sideshot I used to use). Safety off, mount the gun and then settle in for the shot.

For the kids' shooting team, I have a mantra I teach.
Breath
Make sure the crosshairs stay or settle on target
Breath
Find the trigger
Breath
Break the shot
Hold the trigger all the way back until you see the result through the scope

I edit the camera footage, so you and I are not forced to watch me wave the POA all around and to keep my "under the breath comments" and heavy breathing from being public ;)

What you don't see is that I already have the target spotted before the camera turns on.

I would love to host AGN members on the small permission. When y'all are near El Paso, TX or Las Cruces, NM - let me know.
 
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JimNM said:
1st off - I know the camera is not straight with the cross hairs - my bad. The gun was re-built over the winter with a new valve stem and spring. My distances are not dialed in yet.

It was nice this a.m., but it got to 110 degrees towards noon. It was only during video selection and editing that I realized how many squirrels went to heaven today. I had one burrow that delivered 7 young. I quit filming that location to concentrate on removal. This is a war on pests, I do try to maximize results and some shots are not DRT.

Kral Puncher Breaker in .22 ~ 23 FPE
Hades Classic/FX Atomic
Discovery 5-25x50 FFP
Tactacam FTS (needs more work)

Shoot'em good, amigos
Click to expand...
Damn! That's all in one day? I'm lucky to see one maybe two each time I go out...Last 3 days out I've only seen one rabbit. I neeeed new hunting grounds.
 
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