First order of business was a trip to the range to check zero. A click here, a click there and my home made Savage was ready to go.
That 100 yard 5 shot group measures .545" or .302" center to center. If I had been more careful it would have been a real bragging group, but one doesn't kill squirrels with brags. Not bad for a rifle built in my garage with commonly available parts. The action is a Savage Precision Target right out of the box, no truing, etc. Brux barrel and pillar bedded semi-finished stock from Sharp Shooters Supply. Ammo is new cases, primer pocket uniformed and deburred, neck chamfered and loaded on a progressive press. Nothing fancy, even used Wolf primers.
I was sure the results on squirrels would mimic results I had in Oregon. It wasn't to be. First squirrel hit was curious, bold and close, it died when a chunk of its abdomen decided to seek new territory. Nothing different from any other squirrel rifle impact. Then two more appeared just under 100 yards, I saw hits on both. When I checked, one was found as a mangled mess at the base of the stump it had been sitting on.
The second was closer to what I had been expecting. All that was left was a piece of red meat on the stump, a chunk of something in the dirt and a splash of red on the grass. Nothing else was found.
Now it was time to move. So I pushed my shooting cart under a large oak, and set up on a squirrel colony about 165 yards away. Results were mixed. First a little squirrel popped up about 30 yards in front of the cart and boldly ran toward me! It took a second to crank the scope down. He ran the other way, then stopped and took a look back. Never look back. He suddenly had that hollow feeling he had made a mistake. The bullet impacted dead center on his belly.
Next a squirrel presented itself on a large old oak across the field. The wind was gusting, but I took dead aim at his head and squeezed. I missed low, but the thing about Varmint Grenades is that you don't always have to hit the target if you hit under it. Impact was directly under where I aimed, the bullet plowed a trough through the oak and fragged the squirrel. Bullet fragments and oak splinters cut the squirrel's throat, nearly severing his head. I was reminded of the damage cannon balls did to sailors in the age of sail when liberating showers of oak splinters as they impacted the hull.
A few more were shot on the down limb under the oak. They were small new squirrels. I dropped a cartridge beside one for a bit of scale.
Well, I was confused by why the results were so different from those in Oregon. After mulling it over I came to the conclusion it has to do with what the squirrels are eating. In Oregon we hunted irrigated fields that were being watered as we shot. The squirrels were full of wet alfalfa.
In California it's an arid climate where the grass is already drying out and hay like. The squirrels aren't full of wet waterlogged alfalfa, so they don't pop like a water balloon. Drat! That little colony under the oak (arrow below) was eating low moisture food. So, I'll just switch back to the .204 Ruger and .223 Remington and save the .243 WSSM for next year's trip to Oregon.
No matter, it's just good to be able to get out under the sky and hunt.
Gary