Friday 5 November 2010

In The Woods Pt3 - Stalking Squirrels


The day was still warm, but in the wood the canopy keeps the world in shadow. The constant changeable breeze rattled the coppice and the whooshing of the trees hid the elephantine sound of our footsteps. A footpath runs along one boundary of the wood and, being mostly clear, meant we could if not properly creep, it at least reduced the noise of our ‘stalking’. 

A flicker of movement ahead and to the right revealed our quarry, munching on a nut at the base of an Oak. I twisted so my body would obscure my hand signal to TNM. The squirrel froze, and did a very good job of disappearing into the leaf litter. I shouldered the air rifle and realized just in time that the scope was set on too higher level of magnification. Finding a grey camouflaged thing against a backdrop of leaf and shadow wasn’t that easy. The cross hairs danced over his shoulder and as I should have been at my stillest my squeeze of the trigger must have pulled the muzzle to the right. The squirrel jumped four of five feet to the left; I worked the bolt back and forward and sent a perfectly aimed puff of air towards him. Sadly the puff of air wasn’t pushing a pellet.

The Air Arms S400 is a single shot rifle; I have an aftermarket ‘pellet feeder’ that must be clicked forward by hand each time. Right hand - Pull bolt back, Left hand - index pellet into place, Right hand - slide bolt forward. Ready to shoot. Supposedly. I’d missed the middle step and worked the bolt over an empty chamber. The squirrel gave me a withering look but stayed still. The next pellet jammed on loading. The squirrel sighed and bounded up a beech tree to wait patently to be shot. Now frantically fiddling I managed to free the now deformed pellet from the feeder. Through gritted teeth I start again. Bolt back, finger on the pellet feeder…No feckin’ pellets!! The Northern Monkey bounded off toward the hut to get more pellets and the squirrel and I kept each other under observation.  TNM is back in a flash and I feed a pellet into the chamber. The squirrel was now further up the tree and had disappeared from sight.  

As my heart rate slows, the terrible sinking feeling begins: had I shot him? Had I made a clean miss? The only way we could know would be to keep him treed until another shot opportunity presents itself.
I made that sound easy didn’t I? Several glimpses later a Holly bow lashes me across the eye and half blinded I give TNM the rifle. Due to the dense undergrowth and the fence line it’s not possible to get to the far side of the tree that the squirrel is now hiding up, I leave the wood to get a better view from the footpath. Twenty feet up the tree is the classic rotted hole at the intersection of two boughs.  A hidey-hole with a bushy tail poking out. Dead, dying or hiding?

Several attempts to climb the tree prove fruitless so we cut a long pole from the coppice and rig up a lasso loop to grab the tail with. By the time we get back to the footpath armed with our retrieval-rig the tail is no longer poking out of the hole.

I’d love it if this blog were a long and triumphant record of hunting success’s and delicious meals, I’d settle for an amusing record of failures and frustrations. This time I’m just gutted, I just don’t know if I hit him, earlier in the day I was putting pellet after pellet through a hole smaller than our smallest coin. Did I fluff the shot completely? Did I allow a wounded squirrel to get away? I’m just not sure and worst of all I doubt I’ll ever know. The following day my eye swells up and I’m sofa-bound for a day feeling very sorry of myself.

More soon
Your pal
SBW


18 comments:

alistair said...

I know I don't comment on your blog enough however today I really enjoyed your post and felt for you - listen, we are involved in sports that mean animals sometimes get injured and do not die immediately - it is just one of those things - if stuff like this happened all the time you would have something to feel worried about but just every now and then a mistake happens - something to think about yes but nothing to lose sleep over - I think people that knock over animals should be more guilty :-)

Anonymous said...

Squirrel nutkin dragged his bleeding carcass into camp last night and begged for the coup de grace. E whittled splints together and with witch herbs and wood-made cordage she patched him up, gave him a small knife and your photo. I get the impression he's the patient type, so I'd advise sleeping with one eye open next time you visit(assuming you can get one open after the holly and the kick-backs).
Must get back to the bath - R

Chad Love said...

Don't beat yourself up about it, because it sounds to me like you flat missed and even if you didn't you made more than a good faith effort to retrieve it. Those things are going to happen.

Ok, so now that I've said that, is it now OK to say I laughed like hell reading your account?

Most of those "long and triumphant accounts of hunting successes" you read about ad nauseum are, quite frankly, either wildly embellished or outright bullshit.

Trust me, I've been on many, many more hunts just like what you've described than I've ever been on hunts where everything went right.

Of course, there's always the possibility that that just means you're as wildly incompetent as I am...

The Suburban Bushwacker said...

Alistair

Thanks man, them's the breaks and sometimes we've just got to suck it up.
SBW

The Suburban Bushwacker said...

R

WOW you've commented.
Tell E rest assured the tree eating menace will shortly be devoured. I know where he's hiding.
SBW

The Suburban Bushwacker said...

Chad

I fear it's just one of many things we have in common. Maybe 2011 will be the year we finally get to have the first of those hunts together?
SBW

Hubert Hubert said...

Yep. Sounds like hunting.

HH

The Suburban Bushwacker said...

HH
Only warmer and dryer
SBW

David said...

I think we all in the pursuit of our chosen quarry sometimes mess up, whether it be the hasty shot, the deep hooked fish or the badly placed snare. It shows a deep respect for what we do and the responsibility that comes with it that we get upset when it goes wrong and try our best to right it or not do it again. Great you had the guts to admit your not the gun slinging all round marksman we all thought you were.

The Suburban Bushwacker said...

David
I was and remain both gutted and puzzled by what happened. A couple of people have taken the 'its only a squirrel' line but I don't subscribe to that myself. If he has scampered away to die, that I can live with, he's fox food by now. It's the thought of his walking around with a pellet in him that still troubles me.
Thanks for your kind words.
SBW
Thanks even more for your description of me as a marksman - it cheered me up no end.

Albert A Rasch said...

Hmmm...

Note to self: Send SBW some Revision Eyewear ballistc eye protection...


Best Regards,
Albert A Rasch
The Rasch Outdoor Chronicles: The High Fence Discussion Continues

NorCal Cazadora said...

You're not the gunslinging all-around marksman I thought you were? Damn, I'm outta here. Because, you know, I'm perfect and can't be caught associating with hunters who aren't...

The Suburban Bushwacker said...

Norcal

Wait don't go! It gets better

SBW

The Suburban Bushwacker said...

Albert
Several people have pointed out that I may be about to lose an eye in an Odinesque sacrifice on the road to hunterdom.
SBW
PS Liz Hurley has been asking after you.... TBC

Albert A Rasch said...

I so look forward to it!

Albert

The Suburban Bushwacker said...

Albert
Me losing an eye, or the dulcet tones of Ms Hurley?
SBW

Brian said...

It is always tough to feel like you may have wounded an animal no matter if it is a squirl. The reality is that happens. I think what helps us sleep at night is if we did everything to recover that animal. Sometimes it just does not happen.

The Suburban Bushwacker said...

Brian

It left me feeling a bit depressed, buy as you say it happens, just gotta suck it up and move on.

SBW
PS please email me