Went squirreling up in NE CA for about three days with two friends, last week. Arrived on Monday, 4/20/09, at the ranch and pestered the squirrels until Thursday 4/23/09. We were using a variety of calibers including 17 HMR, 17 Ackley bee, 17 Ackley Hornet, 17 Hayes Jet, 223 and 22-250.


Monday afternoon and all day Tuesday were comfortable with light winds unfortunately the alfalfa was high enough to provide concealment for the squeeks. Very few little ones were out and about. Numbers taken were low and the shots were generally long. Shooting was available out to 600 yds in the field we spent most of our time in. Wind came up and the temp dropped Wednesday morning. Of course the squirrels were hard to find after that and it continued until we gave up the ghost and left on Thursday.

Yes, it was still worth the trip.

Them things look an awful lot like groundhogs....

We tend to take out the ones that shoot back as a priority too...

hunterjoe21 wrote:

Them things look an awful lot like groundhogs.... We tend to take out the ones that shoot back as a priority too...

Well, there is a size difference tween a groundhog and them critters. Those are Belding Ground Squirrels and the adults are about 2" wide and maybe 7" tall this time of year. They are also cannibalistic, sometimes the dead ones become bait for survivors.

Yeah, those armed squirrel terrorists are scary. They like to run up your pants leg and you know they've got that .045 in a shoulder holster. You don't know whether to shoot, sh!t or go blind.