A 1st, in over 40 years of squirrel hunting

[Mgderf]

I've been hunting squirrel in Indiana for more than 40 years.

A few weeks ago, I aquired a new (to me) Henry .22Lr and decided to take it out for some tree rat practice.

I only got one, but had a great time in the woods, as I have every outing whether it was for squirrel, rabbit, deer, and the list goes on. I enjoy the time outdoors as much as the hunt or kill itself.

I do, however, eat what I harvest. I don't just kill for the sport.
O.K. so I picked up my trophy for the day and headed home.

After fighting off the dogs long enough to herd them outside, I got the squirrel into the kitchen sink for one last "bath".

I started skinning, and felt a lump. WTF? This ain't normal.
I carefully pealed back the skin to find my .22LR slug! In a squirrel?
REALLY?

No kidding.
One reason I only got one squirrel is because of shot opportunity. I like to use a .22, but that limits your shots if you're a contientious shooter. I will take a shot at a squirrel in a tree ONLY if I have the tree as a backstop.

I took this squirrel up in a tree, at a decent angle up, but had a pretty good backstop. The trunk was about 2-1/2' across were the squrrel sat when I shot. I was sure I had a head shot, but this gun was new to me. I took a few sight-in shots to ensure accuracy before I went out, so I knew I was taking safe shot.

The shot hit him just behind the left ear, so close I amost didn't find it. The slug traveled the entire length of that squirrel along the spine, and lodged itself in the right-rear hip.

I have dug slugs of different calibers out of a lot of animals in my days, but I've never before taken a bullet out of a squirrel carcass.

 

[jeremy]

That is odd....

Did you buy a lottery ticket this weekend as well...

 

[Mgderf]

That is odd....

Did you buy a lottery ticket this weekend as well...

Matter of fact I did! We'll see how that goes

 

[jeremy]

Matter of fact I did! We'll see how that goes

Could go either way, you might have just used up your luck already!

 

[singlestacksig]

I have seen the same thing, upward head shot, bullet travels down spine.. found it in the hips..

 

[patience0830]

Many times

I find if you flatten the tips and then hollow point std velocity tgt ammo, sometimes you'll even recover a bullet on a head shot that would normally be a pass thru. Usually only on a big fox squirrel though.

 

[buckstopshere]

That's an awesome story. Your cool brand new to you Henry gives you a memorable first outing with tree rats. You were destined to have it!

 

[NDhunter]

When we were cape-ing (caping?) out my buck at the taxidermist this year, a slug came out from underneath the hide at the brisket. It was really expanded, and looked to be a foster-type slug. It had fat growing into the concave section in the back. All of this seemed fishy as I shoot SST's, but we figured what were the chances.

When we processed the the rest of the deer, we found my SST. This buck had lived 5 or 6 years and survived being shot with a 12 gauge rifled-slug. Sometimes stuff is too unreal to seem true. There were no wounds from the slug we found under the hide in the brisket, I figure he'd been carrying it around for at least a couple of years.

When you think you understand hunting and nature, think again.

 

[Redskinsfan]

Both stories, the recovering of the bullet in the squirrel and the deer that survived a 12 gauge slug are very interesting. I have not seen either and one or the other would be total surprise.

Thanks for sharing,

Terry