Grey Squirrel Control with the DNT ZULUS 4K Digital Day & Night Vision Scope

This article was first published in AIRGUN EXTRA by Rich Saunders, who takes us into the woods to show how the DNT ZULUS 4K digital day & night vision scope makes grey squirrel control more precise than ever. We’re happy to share it with our readers.

The return of the grey menace

Rich Saunders gets his squirrel cull reports rolling again, and puts the DNT ZULUS 4K to the test while he's at it...

Airgunners. We’re a contrary bunch, aren’t we? We’ll tell anyone prepared to listen that we shoot grey squirrels because they’re an invasive species that damage trees, have all but killed off our native red squirrel and predate on songbird eggs and chicks.

And then a mast year comes along, producing a glut of natural food which makes the squirrels abandon our peanut traps and us panic they’ve gone for good, leaving us none to shoot. I mean, you can’t have it both ways, can you?

In fact, it turns out you can because, round by me anyway, the natural harvest is well and truly over. All the nuts, seeds and fruit have either been eaten or rotted away and the squirrels I’d feared had evaporated are flocking back to my peanuts once more. Balance, it seems, has been restored to the universe.

I shoot on an estate in which the trees are farmed for their lumber value. As a result, grey squirrels are most unwelcome. So too are the roe and muntjac deer that are controlled by a small team of shooters, but I’m left to tackle the squirrels on my own.

The woodland management consultants in charge of the woods are the bane of my life. One of their eggheads has told me I need to spend three to four hours per hectare per year shooting squirrels. To be fair, he’s just spent three years at university so he’s an expert. That equates to 258 to 344 hours, or 10.75 to 14.3 days a year.

To be honest, I easily cover the time, but the sense of being on the clock rankles. So does the requirement to complete a time sheet and detailed cull report each month, especially as egghead won’t hesitate to fire off an email if he thinks I’ve been slacking.

Recently though, he had a point. Thanks to the mast year, the appeal of sitting in a hide for hours with nothing to show for it was wearing thin. Despite little in the way of success, I kept the faith and kept the feeders topped up. Each one has a trail camera and, although they registered the occasional furry visitor, the alerts were few and far between.

And then, just after Christmas, pings on my phone from the trail cameras gradually came more frequently. I crossed my fingers and before long the squirrel traffic was as busy as ever with scores of alerts each day.

Payback. It was time to make up for the hours of blank sessions and having to own up to the woodland management narks that I’d failed again.

Below: Trail camera footage confirmed that the squirrels were back on Rich's peanut feeders

Does the early bird catch the squirrels?

With even more care than usual, I planned my session and monitored the weather forecast obsessively. At last, the day came and the rain that had been consistent for weeks went somewhere else.

The woods are a 45-minute drive away and I left in the dark, leaving early enough to overcome any unforeseen delays. There were none and I arrived far too early and had to spend another 30 minutes sat in the truck waiting for the first hint of pre-dawn greyness.

After what seemed an eternity, my phone pinged with an alert from one of the trail cameras. It wasn’t on the feeder I planned to shoot that day, but it was all the impetus I needed.

I’d had the foresight to leave a chair in the hide from a peanut filling trip a couple of weeks earlier, so all I had to carry was my rifle and tripod with all the usual bits and bobs packed in a rucksack.

Twenty minutes later I unzipped the door to the hide and crept in. I’d made use of my enforced delay in the truck by filling the 14-shot magazine on my 12 ft/lbs FX DRS Classic with 18.13 grain JTS Dead Center Take Down pellets.

There was a moment of panic when I couldn’t find the magazine in my pocket and thought it had dropped out on the walk to the hide, but eventually it was located and inserted into the rifle’s breech.

Below: 18.13 grain JTS Dead Center pellets were Rich's ammo of choice for this hide shoot

A stable shooting platform and reliable low-light performance

With the FX DRS clamped into the tripod and the legs adjusted accordingly, I switched my DNT ZULUS 4K scope on. It was still very murky outside, especially amongst the thick trees, and I could only just make out the feeder 28 yards away. However, the scope’s excellent low-light performance meant I could see it clearly and in full colour. I twiddled the focus and then fiddled a bit more with the tripod to ensure the rifle was pointed roughly at the feeder. With all that done, all that was left was to sit back and wait.

Below: A very accurate FX DRS airgun mounted on a rock-steady tripod and paired with the optical performance of the DNT ZULUS 4K - a formidable squirrel hunting setup

The first squirrel arrives to dine

I’d been through the same routine many times over the preceding months and sitting in the half-light, listening to the forest waking up and not seeing any squirrels had become all too familiar. I clung on to the thought that the trail cameras had shown plenty of activity to ward off the growing sense of déjà vu.

It worked, as barely 10-minutes into my vigil I caught sight of movement on the tree above the feeder. As slowly as I could, I tilted the rifle in its tripod and peered through the ZULUS 4K.

Sure enough, I could see the squirrel as it peeped around the side of the trunk. I could have waited for it to descend to the feeder, but the memory of too many of the rodents coming close only to run off peanut-less was still fresh in my mind so I lined up the shot, placing the reticle just behind the squirrel’s eye.

The rifle popped and the 18.13 grain JTS pellet struck home. The squirrel clung onto the small branch it had been sat on for a few seconds before dropping to the floor beside the feeder with a thud. I tracked it on the floor as it did the funky chicken for a few seconds as its nervous system shut down and then lay still.

Below: The DNT ZULUS 4K day and night vision scope gave Rich crystal clear viewing with the reassurance of a ballistic calculator for precise shooting

Some unusually welcome paperwork

I’ve shot thousands of grey squirrels over the years but the relief at being able to report at least a little bit of success to the management narks was intoxicating. I cranked the side lever on the DRS and sat back.

There was barely time to get comfortable though as only a few minutes later another squirrel came down the same tree, making it all the way to the feeder this time before I took another clean shot.

An hour later I had another three on the ground and by the end of the day managed to claim 10 in total. I’ve had many more successful sessions in the woods, and indeed from the same feeder, but this one was special. I don’t like paperwork, but I enjoyed filling out the cull report for the woodland management people that evening.

RICH'S KIT:

RIFLE: FX DRS .22 (sub-12)

SCOPE: DNT Optics ZULUS 4K digital day and night vision scope

AMMO: JTS Dead Center .22 (18.13 grain)

JACKET: Jack Pyke Half Zip Sherpa Fleece

GUN SUPPORT: Rekon Tripod

BACKPACK: Jack Pyke Rucksack 25L