Stop Lying

I am not hunting right now, even though the weather is very nice. I spent a long time in prayer today, and I didn’t leave the bed until around 10:30, so I am falling behind on the trivial things.

I’ve been thinking about my squirrel hunting problems. Yesterday I wrote about the issues I had with killing squirrels quickly. I wrote about the liars who claim they always shoot squirrels in the head, dropping them instantly.

I looked up some things I wrote in 2018, when I had the same problems. Guess what? In that year, I shot two squirrels in the head, and they didn’t die instantly. I may have shot more than two in the head, but right now I only know of two.

I shot one squirrel in the head 4 times. The third shot didn’t close the deal. I shot another one in the head once and had to finish it with at least one more shot.

What does this tell us? The Annie Oakley head shot liars are lying about more than one thing. They’re lying about hitting squirrels in the head consistently, which is impossible with rimfire weapons at realistic squirrel distances, and they’re lying about the squirrels dying instantly.

It looks like you have to get pretty close to the brain to get the job done. A really good .22 will consistently shoot within 1″ at 50 yards, from a rest. In the field, without a rest, shooting a target you know is likely to bolt at any second, you would be doing well to keep the majority of your shots within 2″. Let’s face reality. If you want to hit squirrels in the head, say 75% of the time, you’re going to need to be within about 10 yards. Either that, or you’ll need perfect conditions and a good solid rest.

No one but me will admit this on the web. Out here, everyone bench presses 450 pounds and has black belts in tae kwon do, jiu jitsu, wing chun, aikido, and moo goo gai pan. Everyone has an IQ of 200 and sexual prowess that puts women in the emergency room. I’ll tell the truth. I’m a good shot. I’ve proven it over and over. I can’t hit a squirrel in the head reliably unless it’s pretty close. Neither can you. Stop lying. You may think you used to do it all the time, consistently, but your pride is pulling the wool over your eyes.

Memory says, “I did that.” Pride replies, “I could not have done that.” Eventually, memory yields.
–Friedrich Nietzsche

We’re not the problem. The equipment is. Put your favorite .22 in a clamp, and you will still get a fairly big cone of distribution, plus flyers. Experts have done it. You can look it up and see photos. Rimfire ammunition is just plain bad, even if it says “match” on the box.

Given that most of my shots will run 30 yards or more, thinking about head shots will generally be unrealistic for me. Add that to the fact that head shots don’t guarantee quick deaths, and you end up with a paradigm in which tactics have to change.

I also read up on my shotgun exploits. As of yesterday, I had forgotten how unreliable shotguns are. If I take my Sweet Sixteen out, my shot-squirrel count will probably multiply by 4, because I’ll be able to take shots at squirrels way up in trees and because hitting a squirrel with a shotgun is easy. Nonetheless, my past experience shows that a squirrel shot with a shotgun may not die right away.

I will have to be careful about the shots I take, and I believe it’s time to man up and accept the fact that I will cause some suffering. Most hunters don’t get too agitated about it. If they did, they would stay home.

The other day, I saw the Robertson family on the web, shooting ducks. I noticed that some of the ducks were clearly alive and awake as the dog brought them in. I saw one duck looking around on the trip to the blind. Obviously, the Robertsons know this happens, and they wring ducks’ necks a lot. They’re very experienced. They know what they’re doing. What they do must be normal and ethical. Obviously, you have to come up with a good balance between utter failure and increased suffering.

Maybe I should make an effort to be less conspicuous, so the squirrels will come closer. They can see me. I have seen them watching me. I read that squirrels can see blue and yellow. What do I wear when I hunt? Blue pants. Maybe I should switch to brown.

I don’t own a stitch of camo. Maybe I should invest.

I will keep popping squirrels. They’re pests, hunting is a very good thing, and that’s that. I just hope I can wade through the lies and come up with the best way to do it.