LAST EDITED ON Feb-23-06 AT 07:06PM (MST)[p]Squirrel hunting in my backyard. It was a cold cold winter evening when i spotted a squirrel with a massive tail like you would have never seen. It was truely a beautiful animal. I reached in my closet and grabbed my trusty .338 magnum, i was out for blood. with my Alaskan Guide spotting scope I watched him grazing on a few acorns 200 yards south of my house. slowly i openned the sliding glass door. I froze in my tracks.... he had spotted me. I stood, knowing that if i moved he would be gone forever. Finally he blinked and i dove into a nearby plum thicket (the squirrel never even noticed me moving). Then from the cover of the plum thicket i glassed the squirrel. He was back to eating acorns. I knew that it was now or never. I did two summersaults to get to the cover of a little red wagon that my nephew had left in the lawn. Then, I lept over a fence(this whole time i avoided being seen by the squirrel.) i looked through my spotting scope, the squirrel, still 100 yards away, was getting a little ancy. I knew it was time to take the shot. i braced on my survival pack-which i carry at all times when i go hunting in case i run into a really really mean squirrel.
I prayed to God that i would make a clean shot. i did not want to track a wounded squirrel into the cover of a hackberry tree. My crosshairs settled on his vitals and i squeezed off a shot. I saw the squirrel take the bullet, but i had shot to far back.... I had a mad wounded squirrel on my hands. I considered my options: 1. i could go home and say i missed. 2. I could run off and join a traveling band in India, or 3. i could track the wounded squirrel through his habitat and hope to come out alive.
I walked to the place where the squirrel had been standing, there was good blood sign yet it had green chunks of acorns in it. "definately a gut shot," i said to myself. I followed the tracks of the wounded squirrel to where they entered the hackberry tree. Then all the sudden there was a scream and the squirrel jumped on my face clawing at my eyes. I grabbed for my .357 which i had tucked into my belt, and chunked the squirrel off of my face, when he hit the ground i unloaded my gun on him. not a one bullet missed.
After poking the squirrel with my rifle barrel to make sure it was dead, I took a few pictures with it.
This hunt did not involve the most hiking but it was by far the most physically demanding, and it is also the closest to death i have ever been. So if you only take 1 thing out of this story i hope you rember to shoot your gun and shoot it often because there is just no reason not to.
