A decent night out.

[walshie 2,804]

We went out for a few hours on Wednesday night. When I arrived about 9 Jack was leaning over a fence squeaking a fox in. As his fox call sounds more like a duck call, I was dubious, but sure enough a skinny cub stopped in its tracks and came trotting towards us. Unfortunately this was a horse paddock and not somewhere we can shoot. We chatted for a while, waited for it get a bit darker then headed out. 

Pretty soon we saw 3 young foxes looking at us from the bushes. Right behind them was a main road, so we left them to it. Strangely we didn't see any more cubs for the rest of the evening.

The first hour after dark was pretty quiet but it's often like that where we go. Soon a fox presented itself behind a forked tree. I could only see its head and chest but enough of it to take the shot. Jack lit it up and as I took the shot, it moved just far enough to see the bullet hit the ground just behind where it had been. Damn.

Shortly after that a dog fox was laying on the ground about 100 yards away, and it wasn't at all put off by the lamp. The 223 did its job and the first one of the night was in the bag.

It went quiet for a bit after that and as I was drinking my coffee, my glamorous assistant spotted a vixen through the thermal. He whispered to get the gun and indicated where it was. As he lit it up, I took the shot. A vixen took off running but we found it dead in the undergrowth about 30 yards away. While we were dragging it out, another appeared only 70-80 yards away and that was another vixen accounted for.

My turn to be spotter and Jack's to be shooter. It didn't look good for him as there was nothing visible through the spotter and it was getting cold. We persevered for a bit and rounding a corner I could see an oval of white though the spotter about 2 feet off the ground. I thought it might be a pile of compost giving me the heat signature, but as we got closer the image went orange and it was a fox laying on top of a pile of grass clippings. I told Jack roughly where it was and when he was ready I lit it up and he gave it a good headshot. Vixen number 3, fox number 4 for the evening. He was made up as he can be a bit sulky if he doesn't get anything. 

It was nearly 1 a.m by then. We had a quick look round then headed back to the car. Nice when it works out like that. 

 

[Stavross 13,713]

Nice work, just looks like foxy dreams for me as the weather has buggered my night up, still nice to read about other people’s adventures

[Sausagedog 7,381]

Well done, a ground nesting bird might stand a chance now.

[shovel leaner 7,648]

Nice write up Walshie , spotting with a thermal and lighting them up is obviously working for you . I miss using a lamp . Everything I see now is in thermal image or a black and white digital image , it’s not the same . 

[walshie 2,804]

3 hours ago, shovel leaner said:

Nice write up Walshie , spotting with a thermal and lighting them up is obviously working for you . I miss using a lamp . Everything I see now is in thermal image or a black and white digital image , it’s not the same . 

Yeah, I've got a N355 on my Hornet which I use if I'm going out on my own. It's quite unsociable when you're out with a pal. "Did you see that?" "No."  

I have just as much luck with that or the lamp

[j j m 6,480]

nice going