ShootingSquirrels.com

I mounted a video camera to my Savage 17HMR so that I could video tape the squirrels I shot last Saturday in Unity, Oregon. It took me awhile to figure out how to do it, but when I was done, it looked way more professional than I could have hoped for, especially since I did the whole job without any duct tape at all.

Here’s how I mounted my Sony Handycam to my .17HMR rifle:

First I went to Wal-Mart and bought the tallest set of rings they had. Wal-Mart had pretty good prices on their rings, and I got a set of Leupold scope rings for less than $17.00.

I then went to the local camera supply store and bought a whole bunch of odds and ends that they had in their junk drawer. The main things though, that I ended up needing for my scope mounted video camera, were the base screw and washers that are used to screw video cameras to all tripods.

I then went home and dug through a box of over 150 scope bases that I bought a few years ago at an auction. I ended up finding one that was the right length, and fit the rings I bought at Wal-Mart to a “T”. Then, all I had to do was drill a hole in the base so that I could mount the screw so that it would hold my video camera to the rail.

I then attached the new set of scope rings to my scope, which now has 4 scope rings on it instead of the usual two. Unfortunately, the rail with the video camera on it now goes over the vertical adjustment knob on my scope, but, oh well, I can live with that.

After getting the whole thing put together and mounted on the rifle, the thing was crazy top heavy. So I ran back to Wal-Mart and bought a bi-pod for $40.00. Once I got the bi-pod attached to the rifle, everything worked like a charm.

I then sighted in on the neighbor’s house down the block. (Don’t try this if you live in a town with jumpy cops. LOL) When I put the cross hairs on the scope on the doorknob on my neighbor’s house, the camera was dead on. As a matter of fact, the knob was actually 3/4 of the way down the screen, which is perfect for catching squirrels on tape when you pop them into the air with a Hornaday 17HMR ballistic tip.

Here’s a picture of the rifle without the camera. Notice the extra set of rings and the rail on top of the scope:

Here’s a picture of the rifle with the video camera mounted to the scope:

Here’s a picture that shows you where the action takes place when you pull the trigger. You can see how the picture captures your subject about 1/4 of the way up from the bottom of the camera.

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I went to the range the other day to make sure my 17’s, the .223 and my new dog were dialed in for squirrel shooting season, and they all did OK. There was a quartering wind at 10 mph for most of the morning, but the guns still did pretty well when I remembered to breathe and squeeze the trigger instead of yanking it whenever the cross hairs on the scope got close to the mark.

The first thing we did (did I mention the Verminator went too) was to have the Verminator shoot some .17 HMR while I held the new puppy, who isn’t really that new anymore and hardly qualifies as a puppy. He’s around 6 months old, weighs about 60lbs and is an all black, Black Lab and Golden Retriever mix. He is by far the smartest dog I’ve ever owned, but that’s not saying much.

When the Verminator shot, I jumped and “Hunter”, looked at me like I was some kind of pansy. “I wasn’t ready”, I said, but he still kept looking at me like I was a wimp. I then had the Verminator fire off a couple more from the .17 just to make sure that his reaction wasn’t a fluke. It wasn’t, he still looked at me like a pansy when I jumped the next two times.

“Well, that doesn’t seem to bother him”, I told the Verminator, “Why don’t you try the .223?”

“OK, but why don’t you let him go then, instead of hanging on to him, he’ll get jumpy if he feels you jump each time the gun goes off”, said the Vermin… ator.

I hate him sometimes!

So I let Hunter go, and he wandered off and started eating shell casings, gravel, cow crap and anything else that looked like it wouldn’t bite him back. That dog is a fricken goat, and will pack away tons of garbage, and then puke up this big pile of rocks and sticks and plastic bottle caps and stuff… he’s gross. But he is also soft, black and smart, so I’m willing to overlook a few small character flaws.

The Verminator then broke out the Bushmaster .223 Varminter and fired off a round. The dog, who was about 20 yards away, looked up with a look that said, “What the heck”? I told Vermin to do it again and the dog had the same reaction, but went back to eating whatever he was eating when the 2nd and 3rd shots were fired. After awhile, he came over and lay down under the bench where we were both shooting the .17’s and the .223’s. He is by far the calmest and coolest dog I’ve ever seen under fire… he doesn’t even look up while you’re shooting; unless you drop your doughnut or something, of course.

The first rifle I got out to get sighted in for this year’s sage rat season was my Savage .17 hmr with Accutrigger. I didn’t have any of my usual 17 gr. Hornady Ballistic Tips, so I used some CCI Hollow Points I had left over from last year. The first couple of groups were all over the place, until I remembered to squeeze instead of jerk. Then the groups settled down to a decent inch, with one group coming in at about 5/8th of an inch.

I then tried my Remington 17 gr. Ballistic Tips. The Remington’s shot about the same size groups as the CCI’s, but they shot like 2 whole inches to the right. I’m not sure why that is, but it’s a little weird don’tcha think?

The Bushmaster was OK, but I was still trying to use the Ammo I got at Wal-Mart last year, and it had a deviation of like 79, which leads to 2 inch groups at 100 yards. I need to go to the store and pick up a couple of different brands and see which does the best in my rifle.

All in all, I think I can hit some squirrels next month in Lakeview. I’ll also do some filming when I’m there, so look for some new squirrel shooting videos on Youtube in about a month.

SS
ps. I shot the Henry Golden Boy in 17HMR, and it works fine, but none of the rings I took to the range fit it, so I will have to get some and go back and sight it in later… Sorry.

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I got my new Henry Repeating Arms .17 HMR lever action rifle today, and will take it to the range tomorrow. It has a scope mount on it, so I will be checking it out with 2-3 different scopes to see which one works best. It’s a really nice rifle and the action is very smooth, but the thing weighs a ton (yea, I need to eat some more wheaties). My wife tried it out and was like, “Holy crap Squirrelman, that thing weighs a ton.”

When I picked it up from the gun dealer today, we both tried it out and it was a little short for a couple of grown men to just throw up to the eye in total comfort, but it still felt good. My guess is that it will become really easy to adapt my shooting style to take into account it’s shorter length, and that teenagers and women are going to be snatching this thing off the shelf. If I had it to do over, I would spend a little extra and get one of the “Big Boy” rifles from Henry, but that ’s because I am a “big boy” at 6 feet tall and 300 lbs.

I’ll let you know more tomorrow, after I’ve tried it out.

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I found out this week that I can take my old 10/22, which shoots like crap after running 200,000 rounds through it over the years, and turn it into a 17Mach2 for less than $250. My understanding is that I just need a new barrel, a couple of bolt buffers and a new bolt handle.

The 17 Mach2 shoots at 2100 ft per second and is just a regular 22 long rifle cartridge that has been chambered for the Hornady 17 caliber 17 grain V-Max Ballistic Tip Bullet. Here’s What ShootingTimes.com said about it.

From a rifle at 175 yards the .17M2 is still going faster than a .22 LR at the muzzle. The muzzle energy of the .17M2’s 17-grain bullet (166 ft-lbs) is 18 percent greater than a 40-grain .22 LR (140 ft-lbs). Its trajectory is flat! Zeroed at 100 yards, the .17M2 has only a 0.7-inch mid-range rise at 50 yards; a .22 LR has a 2.9-inch rise.

For $239.00, don’t you think adding a stainless fluted bull barrel in 17 calibre to your old 10/22 is worth it? Check out this Ruger 10/22 to 17 Mach2 conversion kit if your looking to really kill some squirrels, but would rather pay $5.00 per 50 rounds instead of the $11.00 per 50 rounds that it currently costs for 17 HMR ballistic tip ammunition.

SS

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I know this is a squirrel shooting website that drifts into shooting other varmints from time to time, but I just had to show you guys this bunny rabbit video that is posted over on youtube. I’ve never seen so many rabbits in one place. The rabbits in this video are almost as thick as the squirrels are when we go ground squirrel hunting in the Spring. If anyone knows where we can find a bunny rabbit infestation like this, let me know and I’ll see if I can get a couple of guys to show up for a bunny rabbit shoot off. LOL

Just click on the play button to watch what a .17 HMR Ruger will do to a rabbit, and then click on it again if it doesn’t start.

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This is a pretty good video, but I had to turn the music off when they changed songs in the middle since they started dropping the F-word. If you have any kids in the room, just make sure the sounds is off.

It looks like the shooter is using CCI Hollow Point ammunition instead of the Hornaday Ballistic Tip ammunition, because way too many of the squirrels are still moving for a long time after they are shot. If I was shooting these squirrels I would have finished them off, especially the one that is “Trouting” for so long at the end of the video. (I may be wrong though, since I’ve found the most active squirrels to be those who no longer have a head.)

Click on the play button to watch the video.

Enjoy,

SquirrelSniper

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So, I was telling a guy the other day that I was a squirrel shooter and that I used a 17 to shoot squirrels with. He was really impressed and wanted to know how bad the kick was on the 17. Which, of course, made me laugh. I told him that the 17 hmr was like shooting a bb gun, and why was he asking?

He said that his uncle had a 17 and had shot coyotes at over half a mile. I told him that the 17 hmr shot a 17 grain ballistic tip at 2550 and there was no way in hell that it would get out to half a mile, let alone drop a Coyote when it got there.

That conversation got me to thinking, so I went out on the net to see what I could find out about other types of .17’s besides the .17hmr.

Read the article at Guns And Ammo. According to the article, here are some of the 17’s that used to be available:

17 Hornet and run the gamut, with the following cases necked down to .17-Hornet, Bee, .30 Carbine, .221 Remington, .222 Remington; .223 Remington, .222 Remington Magnum, .225 Winchester and .22-250 Remington.

what the guy I was talking to must have had in mind was the .22-250 necked down to a .17 caliber. Check out these velocities:

A .22-250 necked down to .17 using a 25-grain bullet in front of 30 grains of 4350 developed 4,444 fps from a 22-inch barrel. The same weight bullet in front of 33.5 grains of 4350 in a .225 necked down to .17 developed the same velocity.

This must be the rifle he was talking about that could drop a Coyote at over half a mile. Does anyone know where I can get one of these? I would love to get video of a 25 grain .17 caliber round going through a squirrel at over 4000fps.

SquirrelSniper
ps. Just a wanna be without a .22-250 necked down to .17 LOL

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The guys over at Arkansas Hunting have a poll going to see who likes to shoot squirrels with which calibers. Right now, the 22 long rifle is in the lead, with the 17 HMR way down in the bottom of the barrel, next to the bow hunters. So, I need all the hunters out there who shoot the 17 to go over there, sign up for an account and vote for your favorite squirrel shooting caliber (as long as it’s the .17 HMR…). If they want to know where everyone is coming from, tell them SquirrelSniper sent you. LOL

Here’s a breakdown of the current poll. I’ve never used a shotgun to go squirrel hunting with, but you have to remember, these guys are shooting tree squirrels. I don’t have a clue as to the bow hunters. I can’t imagine shooting squirrels in trees with a bow. Every time you missed, you’d have to climb the dang tree and pull your arrow out. Doesn’t sound like much fun to me.

.17 Mach II            0        00.0%
.17 HMR                6        11.32%
.22 LR                29        54.72%
.22 Mag                5         9.43%
Shotgun               11        20.75%
Bow                    2         3.77%

So, get over there and vote now!

SquirrelSniper

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I went back up to Enterprise, Oregon on Thursday with Wanna Bee, Verminator’s brother. Or, in other words, one of my other brother-in-laws. He has 3 Ruger 10/22’s, which I personally think is a complete and utter waste of money. But, as he pointed out, even though my Savage AccuTrigger only cost $30.00 more than his 10/22, I pay 10 times more for the ammunition for my 17 hmr than he does for his Ruger 10/22, and he doesn’t have to take 10 shots to my one to keep the kill count equal. So, I guess he may have a point; at least on the cost issue.

But, once you check out this video of me shooting ground squirrels with my Savage AccuTrigger in 17 hmr, you will understand the difference between the pathetic pop of a .22 long rifle, and the explosive power that the .17 delivers to the target. The 17 is, oh, so much more satisfying in every way. I really don’t ever see myself using the 10/22 anymore for any reason. The .17 HMR is so much more accurate, the ballistics on the rifle are so much better and the foot pounds of energy delivered on target are so much higher than a 22 long rifle, that I see myself using the .17 for everything I used to use the .22 for.

Here’s the latest squirrel hunting video, enjoy.

Double click on the play button to get the video started.

SquirrelSniper

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OK, I suck. I tried hitting this Badger at like 40,000 yards with my Bushmaster .223 over the hood of my truck with a 10-15mph side wind, but I couldn’t hit it to save my life. Watch the video, it says it all. I finally had to drive up the valley and whack him with my .17 HMR.

Don’t worry, all you tree huggers, it didn’t kill him, just gave him a headache. You can see the 17 HMR bounce off of his fricken head at 50 yards. After I finally got him in the head, he didn’t come back out of his hole, but he’s probably fine and will only have a hangover in the morning, along with a really cool dueling scar. LOL

Double click on the play button to get the video to play.

SquirrelSniper

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