Two Dogs!

[ianm 2,594]

Thursday night arrived and there was a brief respite from the incessant rain we have had all week, make that weeks. I had to get out i couldn't stand being indoors for another night. I had arranged for my mate to come for seven and we would go to a couple of farms not too far away to start with. We arrived at the first one about seven twenty and drove through to a good vantage point looking down two fields directly in front of us. I had set the caller out at fifty yards whilst my mate got his rifle ready. I tried half a dozen calls in half an hour before deciding to move on as there was no sign of fox here. It took us fifteen minutes or so to move to the other end of the farm and set up, again looking down the side of a hill we could see for hundreds of yards with the thermals. After another half hour and several calls it was obvious there where no foxes within earshot so we moved again. This time we went a couple of miles down the road to a little spot that has sheep and liveries horses. Another half hour and another blank. Not to be undone i said we should try a mate of mines place three miles back in the opposite direction. He thought something was knocking about as he had found where a fox had been digging in his muck pile to retrieve rats he had shot with his air gun. On arrival i opened a metal gate on the lane into a field which rose up in front of us and my mate drove the Defender into the field. We stayed just inside the the gate hole as the ground is saturated. I put the caller about five yards away as this place has a telecoms mast and if it is any further the signal from the mast interferes with the caller. I checked my mate was set up and started the call on "vixen in heat". You can see quite a distance from where we where all looking uphill. Within a minute both of us had spotted a fox running in downhill in the next field to our right. It only took about a further minute to be in our field and one hundred and fifty yards away so i muted the caller. It continued to run in another twenty or so yards before stopping and stood listening for it's potential mate. Two seconds later the sound of the rifle broke the silence followed by a distinct hollow thud and the fox dropped on the spot. I started the caller up immediately and continued to call for a further ten minutes but nothing else showed. We both went to retrieve the fox which was a decent sized dog of eighteen pounds.

Neither of us was ready for home yet so i suggested we go to my favourite spot where i had shot five this year. It generally produces a fox every . three weeks and i was due to visit it. As usual we drove down a track adjacent to the river for about five hundred yards. My mate placed the foxpro out into the field fifty yards in front of us. This spot is also good for long distance visibility all uphill. I had set the rifle up up on the defenders roof aperture which has been specially constructed for shooting off. I tried the good old "vixen in heat" first. The caller had been on for ten or so minutes when i spotted a heat source coming into the field through a hedge five hundred yards away.From it's movement it could only be a fox and it was in a hurry. I switched the scope and laser illuminator on and looked for it through the scope. I picked it up around three hundred yards out and it was still coming strongly. The inexplicably at around the two hundred yard mark it veered off to our right and began tracking along the base of a hill. I continued to track it's movements through the scope and thought it looked uneasy about something. Eventually it stopped broad side on and was looking back towards the caller. I didn't think it would come in any closer so elected to shoot it where it was. The safety was pushed off and the trigger set. I settled the reticule on it's chest just behind the shoulder and squeezed off a shot. The fox dropped and was followed by a loud "thock" coming back to us. Fifteen minutes further calling produced nothing so we headed off to find the shot fox. It had appeared to be a decent distance so a mark was taken on the phone app. It wasn't too difficult to find with the thermal and on arrival we took another mark on the app. It was another dog which weighed sixteen pounds and the shot had been two hundred and sixty two yards. A worthwhile venture out seeing as it is uncertain when the weather will allow us to go again.    

 

Edited February 29, 2020 by ianm

[Stavross 18,714]

Cracking write up with a cracking result, with a bit of luck after the weekend we’ll get a break in the weather 

[ianm 2,594]

6 minutes ago, Stavross said:

Cracking write up with a cracking result, with a bit of luck after the weekend we’ll get a break in the weather 

You'll get on top of them shortly, at least you know they are there.

[Stavross 18,714]

With a bit of luck, I’ll keep at them the proper way for now and if one or two outsmart me I’ll bait up, it’s been a long time since we have had them in these numbers on the shoot, they must of had a good breading season last year, they are not much of a problem at the minute but as spring approaches we definitely want to be on top of the numbers