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Last nights effort.


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After binning Sky and BT sports off because they are far to expensive i spent most of yesterday afternoon sorting out a TV package through a firestick. Eventually i succeeded just after tea time, Mrs M likes to watch various things on the box so all was well again. I watched a film with her till eleven after which she said she was off to bed to watch something or other and i said i will go out for an hour or two.

I decided to go down the road from me partly because it only takes two minutes but also because i thought they would have cut the grass. After getting my gear together and jumping into the Jimny i drove straight to the little layby in front of the first field. This field is six hundred yards long and four hundred and twenty yards wide. It had been cut and the grass was gone but there was nothing on it bar a lone hare. To the left of the field ( where i had stopped ) there isn't a hedge between this and the next field but there is a gutter that runs in from the marsh two fields away. I scanned that field aswell but apart from cattle, sheep and several hares nothing else of interest to me. The field gate was open so i thought i may aswell drive to the other end of this field and have a look in the last field before the marsh starts. I drove down parallel to the gutter and reached the gate at the far end of the field.which was also open. I drove into this field through a gap in the old flood bank and saw that the field had been cut and was in the process of drying out to make haylage.  

I parked up just through the old flood bank with a view to calling for an hour or so although the wind at seven miles an hour was not in an ideal direction. It was an east north east wind which blew over my left shoulder at an angle of forty five degrees, meaning it would blow towards the marsh halfway along the new flood bank which runs around this field. After readying the rifle i set the caller off on rat distress. Ten minutes passed and i thought the sound may not be penetrating enough in the breeze so changed it to pheasant distress. This call is louder and a higher pitch so reaches further. About seven or so minutes later i saw a fox in the next field bto me on the left but it was making away from me across the cut grass. It reached a sheep wire fence and went under it taking up a position behind the long grass either side of the wire. I could see it with the thermal and just it's eyes through the scope. I wondered if it had got a whiff of my scent as it must have entered the field via the new flood bank from the marsh. Either way it was hanging around interested but too hesitant to commit to coming in. I couldn't kill it where it was which happened to be three hundred yards although that wasn't the problem.

The problem was i could only see a small portion of it and that was behind a grass curtain and wire so no shot. No i would have to try to bring it to my side of the fenceline by calling. I switched to adult rat distress again and saw it twitching about but still staying put. Next i tried the field mouse distress always a good one to shift a wary customer but to no avail. Right i will try a fox call next and so i changed to fox rally. Quite a bit of movement now but still the other side of the fence. Last ditch i tried fox squall, that did it we're off! Under the fence it came and ran back across the field on my left making for the bridge over the gutter. I lost sight of it momentarily as crossed the bridge as the bottom of it is solid. A few seconds later it was in the field i was in and following the fence round to my right. If it went much further it would wind me for sure and would surely bolt through the wire and back over the flood bank back to the marsh. I was just getting ready to shout to stop it when it suddenly halted in it's tracks and started eating something it had obviously smelled on the cut grass. I was on it quickly and touched off a shot into the bib. I heard a pop of sorts but not like i normally hear although i thought i saw it go down. I took a mark as to where i had seen it, wrapped everything up and headed off in the Jimny to find it. I parked up where i thought it was and got out with the thermal. I looked all around the motor and saw nothing. I got  on the back shooting step of the truck to gain a bit of height and scanned all over but saw nothing. I walked fifty yards in front of the motor scanning as i went but saw nothing. I went fifty yards the other side of the truck scanning again but saw nothing. I was beginning to think i had missed but climbed on the back of the truck for another look around. As i scanned downwards to my right i could see the unmistakable heat source that could only be a fox at a distance of twelve yards from where i had parked. How i had missed it before i dont't know but i was relieved to have found it. It turned out to be a dog and i had killed him with a shot to the bib at two hundred and twenty seven yards.

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Good result. And another interesting write up . It’s amazing how hard they are to find sometimes, I’ve had it myself in grass , and you need to get up a bit to see the heat source . I’ve given up before and gone back the next day and found them exactly where I was looking quite easily in daylight. 

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