Finally Got Out!

[Big58cal]

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With the warm weather we had this past weekend, the boy and I were finally able to get out and snipe some squirrels.     The bad thing about this time of year is that without any cover of any type, you're usually looking at some pretty long shots.  Nothing the .17 HMR can't handle though. 

I shot at one Saturday morning and thought I'd hit it by the way it acted.  Got up there to the tree and looked around a pretty good area and couldn't find the squirrel, any blood, nothing.  OK, chalk that one up to a miss. 

Walked down the hill a piece and after about half an hour of sitting I had just gotten up to go to another spot when I saw one coming down my side of a tree.  He stopped, I put the crosshairs on his head and squeezed it off.  Saw my bullet peel bark about 4" to the right of his head.     Jacked another in as the squirrel went back up the tree.  He finally stopped in the crotch of a limb.  I got the crosshairs on his head and then applied some "Kentucky Windage", moving the crosshairs about 4" to the left.  At that shot, the squirrel fell. 
Knowing that the scope was off, I went ahead and left the woods.  I stopped down at the creek and cleaned the squirrel when I was coming out.  Normally, this wouldn't have been an issue, but standing in freezing cold running water, even with rubber boots, your feet get a little chilly!  Got back to the truck and the boy had it started up and was sitting in it getting warm.  I had heard him shoot 4 times in pretty rapid succession with his S&W M&P 15-22 earlier that morning, so I figured he had at least 1.  Yep, only 1.      After sitting in the truck to let my toes warm up, we went back to the creek to clean his.  Now it was his turn to stand in the water.  After he got done he said, "Now I need to go to the truck and warm my toes up." 

A few hours later I got on the bench to realign the scope.  The first shot didn't sound or feel right when it went off.  I tried to put another in, but the cartridge wouldn't go in.  Tried a couple of times with different cartridges before I finally pulled the bolt out and tried to look through the barrel.  I pointed it up to the sky but couldn't see any kind of light through it.  Went down and looked at the target and there wasn't a hole in it.  The only thing I could figure is that I had a dud round that probably didn't have any powder in it.  When the primer went off, it had just enough power to unseat the bullet but that was it.  Of course, I didn't have a .17 cal cleaning rod with me, my nephew didn't have one, and my brother wasn't there.  My rifle was effectively out of commission for the weekend.   
Sunday morning my nephew let me borrow his .17 HMR.     While my nephew and the boy hiked up to the top of the knob between us and the WMA property, I went back across the road but to a different spot that doesn't really get hunted.  I could hear some squirrels in the leaves, so I took a seat and set up the bipod.  There were several little hollows that came together right there so I could see a pretty good ways, so I just sat and waited.  Finally 1 squirrel showed himself about 50 yds away.  1 shot, 1 dead squirrel.  The next one stopped on a limb to cut a nut about 75 yds away.  That one took a dirt nap with the next shot.      I saw another a little over 100 yds away that kept going back and forth on log.  That little S.O.B. would stop long enough for me to get the crosshairs on him and start tightening up on the trigger, and then take off again.  I did that 4-5 times on that little bastage, never getting a shot off!     My nephew's .17 still has the factory trigger in it, which breaks at 5-6 lbs.  I've got an after-market trigger in mine, with it breaking at about 2 lbs.  If I'd have had my rifle, that would have been a dead squirrel!  I ended up seeing 5 total but only got the 2.  Still not too bad of an outing.Got back and neither of the boys had gotten any squirrels.  No one really traps down there anymore, so there's an overabundance of coons.  Because of it, I've got a standing KILL ORDER on any coons.     When they were up on top of the ridge they saw a big one going up a tree.  Between the 2 of them they put three .22 bullet in it.  He died of lead poisoning.     That was a big freaking coon, at least 20 lbs.!   

After we got back up here, I dropped the .17 cal cleaning rod down the barrel of my rife and gave the rod a good smack on the handle with a hammer.  The bullet popped right out.  I've put literally hundreds of rounds through that gun, with none causing any issues.  All have been the Hornady V-Max Ballistic Tip.  This was the first bad one that I've run into.  To make sure it doesn't happen again though (especially with this box), I'm going to get out my grain scale and weigh each round to make sure they've got powder in them. 

[MOSPARKY]

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Glad you finally got out. Good thing the HMR wouldn't chamber. Things could have gone sideways in a big way. JA can use that coon in the camp stew. At least then we will some idea of whats in it.

[John Andrews]

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Glad you finally got out. Good thing the HMR wouldn't chamber. Things could have gone sideways in a big way. JA can use that coon in the camp stew. At least then we will some idea of whats in it.

  Yeah on that, MO!

That was a great read, BC! My last two months of hunting has been nixed mostly by bad weather and working. I got off to a decent start, killed 32 squirrels mostly with my Savage BMAG .17 WSM and one with my Browning Buckmark .22 pistol.