My father always tells me he has seen squirrels running around in the rain. I can’t say I entirely believed him, or thought it to be worth going out in it to find out. On Wednesday December, 30 I had nothing to do and the weather was calling for rain all day, but the temperature was in the mid forties, so I decided to go out and put that to the test.

I’ve done a lot of hiking in the last five years and have learned quite a bit about dressing for different weather conditions. With that said, I had no issues on what to put on to protect myself from the wet conditions. One thing I was unsure of was how my .22 would hold up in the rain. Having a full synthetic stock helped in this situation. The scope on the gun would get rain drops on it here and there. I ended putting an extra pair of fingerless gloves I had over the ends, which helped a lot.

Fully dressed and ready for action I started out to one of my favorite spots in the J.E. Roush hunting grounds. As I walked out my body temperature increased and I actually got a bit too warm, but once I sat down in the spot I began to cool off fairly quick. The rain had slowed down by the time I was sitting and I heard a piny chatter nearby. That got me a little excited about this rainy hunting adventure. “Hell old dad could be right about this one,” I mumbled to myself.

I sat for maybe ten minutes when I saw a big fox squirrel decending a large oak tree about thirty yards away. I waited to see where he would end up in his foraging rampage. The squirrel made his way towards me and I got him sighted in the scope, waiting for the right moment to take the shot. He stopped on a tree about fifteen yards away and I pulled the trigger. Miss! But I could see him running cautiously back the way he came then stop again. I took another shot. Missed again. Then he went up a tree and disappeared into a hole. I waited a good twenty minutes but he never came back out.

I sat there wondering how I missed two good clear shots? Well, maybe the rain was throwing me off, or I pulled right before I shot. Could be I just got too excited and fudged it up completely. I decided to move on to another spot.

I saw three more squirrels that day and missed every single one of them. I was not a very happy hunter. It was time to seriously look into why I keep missing perfectly clear shots.

I learned two things during this hunt. Squirrels do actually run around out in the rain and actually quite active. The second thing I learned is that once in awhile these scopes need to be readjusted for more accurate shooting. I’m not an expert using scopes, honestly its pretty new to me. Growing up i had always used a shotgun with iron sights. Lesson learned.