My wife told me the other day she 's been hearing some noises in the attic. I confirmed them yesterday morning around 8am. It sounded like an animal was living or visiting the attic and was making small scratching sounds and it even sounded like it was running.
I grabbed one of the "weakest" guns I have, the 850 .22, and decided to climb up into the attic to see what was going on up there. I hesitated for a couple of minutes when the thought crossed my mind what if it's a raccoon(?). I probably don't have enough gun. I was contemplating what to do because I did not want to shoot one of the Condors or 350 .22 in fear it might go through the plywood and roof shingles, when we heard some noice outside the kitchen on the gutters where the raised porch-addition attaches to the house on the 2nd floor. I run to the porch and I see through one of the windows a squirrel jumping from the roof and corner of the porch down on the chain-link fence which is only a few feet directly below. I followed this good sized squirrel with the crosshairs until he got to the trees on the hill in the back of the house. A couple of minutes later I spotted hm again coming down a tree trunk and was on the ground walking around. He finally stopped but was kind of facing away from me at an angle. I put the crosshairs in its chest for a vitals shot and squeezed the trigger. The squirrel immediately rolled down the hill about 12ft and came to a stop half way down with no death dance. It was a big male. Distance was 25-26yds. The 14.3 CPHP clipped part of a lung and caused massive internal bleeding with blood coming out of mouth and nose. No exit wound. The pellet came to rest up higher near the base of the neck.
I never shoot squirrels out of season but I will not tolerate one entering my house. I found how he got in. I had not checked that little opening under the shingles for a while but not it was twice the size where the squirrel(s?) had chewed more of the 2x4" to enlarge their point of entry.
Later yesterday afternoon I shot a Grackle with the 850 .22. I sneaked up on it from one of the windows in the porch. It saw me as I was ready to squeeze the trigger and flew only 20-25ft to a near-by branch. It was ready to take off again but this time I was faster. As soon as I got it in the scope I squeezed and I heard a loud "crack" with feathers flying everywhere. It dropped dead. Distance was 22-23yds.
Today I saw what I 've been hoping to see for the last 3-4 days. One of the neighbor's trees on the hill just a couple of feet from my property had falled down and landed on his tool shed. When I was there with him surveing the damage, I noticed a couple of Chipmunks running around like their home was displaced. I 've been wondering if they would relocate a few feet over onto my property. I 've been watching these Chipmunks for about 4yrs now and have not been able to take a shot because they are mostly on the other side of my property line which is about 26yds from the far side of the porch. But these little guys were usually further back and on top of the hill 30+yds out and very hard to see with the naked eye. This morning I spotted one on my side coming out from under a fallen branch. He started making his way towards the back of the house pretty high up on the hill. He finally stopped and gave me a good broadside shot 25yds out. I was on 8X and because of its size I felt I needed more like 12X but I only have a 3-9x32 on the 850.. I put the crosshairs on its tiny head and squeezed. I saw the chipmunk roll down the hill almost 20ft towards a very large abandoned G-hog hole behind a tree. This hole goes directly down and I thought I had lost the chipmunk. I climbed the hill and found it less than a foot from the large burrow and it was still breathing! It was shot on the side of the head too. I put another one in the back of its head to end its misery and took a couple of pics. The first pellet had hit it near the eye but exited on the other side from the jaw area so maybe it missed the brain..
The last time I got a chipmunk was last Fall when I went hunting on 32 wooded acres, and before that it was 29yrs since I got one, so I was happy to make this rare (for me) kill.
The 850 .22 is still performing as well as the 1st day I bought it 2.5yrs ago, with very little or no maintenance. Probably the best $185 I have ever spent. Sorry for the long post!
