Not once but twice

[shovel leaner 7,648]

I wasn’t going to share this , but in the spirit of “ keeping it real” , here goes. 
       I was out doing my usual drive and spot with thermal . I had Adam spotting . We went around a hedge corner and he tapped my arm and whispered “ to the left , straighten up , stop “.  “ I think it’s a roe led down, what do you think “. He handed me the thermal and before I’d had much chance to decide it got up and was a fox . It slipped through the hedge , so we drove around and spotted it the other side , but it went back through. We scooted around to where be first spotted it and it was running to the other side of the field . I grabbed the rifle and got ready for it to stop by the hedge , which it did . I took the shot , but no “thump”. I felt myself flush with embarrassment as this was only 60 or so meters , a bread and butter shot . Nothing needed to be said and I quickly reloaded and headed for the gap in the hedge to see if I could get another chance . Sure enough I spotted it in the distance making for a wood . I thought , let’s try the caller. We set it up and tried rabbit distress, then pheasant distress. Adam nudged me and said “ over there to the right “ . I twisted around and half hanging out of the mule I managed to miss it the second time . I should have known that if I’m not comfortable, with the rifle properly mounted, a miss is likely, but confidence was high on the back of consistent hits . 
            Zero was checked the following day , and was bang on . It was all me , my fault, no excuses.
         

[Stavross 13,713]

We’ve all been there, I’ve missed a couple of sitters in recent months 

[shovel leaner 7,648]

When I recall both shots and analyse what went wrong, I know what I did . I rushed the shots , I didn’t have the rifle in my shoulder properly and I wasn’t in a comfortable position. The basics . I was also really tired .  I’m up at 5.0am feeding, then I’ve been out for three nights straight. 4 or 5 hours sleep a night . I was dead on my feet . I had an early  night last night and a kip in the afternoon . I feel human again. 

[FOXHUNTER 5,020]

Yep we've all done it , I learned a long time ago that if you're not comfortable it invariably results in a miss. But on the other hand there is the view that if you dont  pull the trigger you will not get it either , decision lies in the moment ....right or wrong. 

[BenBhoy 4,706]

A wise old man once said to me "beauty of thermal & NV at least fox won't associate anything with being shot at.............grasshopper" Or something like that! 

[shovel leaner 7,648]

20 minutes ago, BenBhoy said:

A wise old man once said to me "beauty of thermal & NV at least fox won't associate anything with being shot at.............grasshopper" Or something like that! 

The IR will give you away , and if you miss , believe me , foxes learn quickly. Put that with the sound of the ATV . I’ve got my work cut out now . I might get it with a sit out under the moon ( no need for IR) . But this fox is a good 1/2 mile from the pheasant pens , so not the end of the world.

[FOXHUNTER 5,020]

Yep they soon learn about IR , seen a few foxes coming in to the caller then the IR switched on and off goes Mr fox sharpish............

[BenBhoy 4,706]

1 hour ago, shovel leaner said:

The IR will give you away , and if you miss , believe me , foxes learn quickly. Put that with the sound of the ATV . I’ve got my work cut out now . I might get it with a sit out under the moon ( no need for IR) . But this fox is a good 1/2 mile from the pheasant pens , so not the end of the world.

Haha it was you that said it to me ya plum!! 

[shovel leaner 7,648]

2 hours ago, BenBhoy said:

Haha it was you that said it to me ya plum!! 

You are worse than my Mrs for remembering shit I’ve said and bringing it back to beat me with those words . 
          Ben “sensei shovel “ has pondered on this and has changed his mind . Here endeth the lesson namasday , grasshopper.

Edited September 17, 2021 by shovel leaner

[si brown 8,486]

4 hours ago, shovel leaner said:

The IR will give you away , and if you miss , believe me , foxes learn quickly. Put that with the sound of the ATV . I’ve got my work cut out now . I might get it with a sit out under the moon ( no need for IR) . But this fox is a good 1/2 mile from the pheasant pens , so not the end of the world.

And that’s why I got the thermal scope sl… the penny well and truly dropped when I had to set my stall out to coincide with a car coming round the corner to light a field up

ive not forgot y to do a post/review of it but fox wise it’s just not happening

me and my mate had been on a full on campaign before he put his birds down and although we nailed a lot there are ransoms that travel… shot loads of rabbits and rats with it on air guns but the only shot I’ve had on a fox that was safe or within range I fcuked up because I was using sh1t mounts that didn’t return to zero after swapping rifles.. checked the next day and a mile out 8” low and 6 left at 100…. I’m now £100 down on some good quick release mounts

Can’t see this fox of yours lasting long

[shovel leaner 7,648]

11 minutes ago, si brown said:

And that’s why I got the thermal scope sl… the penny well and truly dropped when I had to set my stall out to coincide with a car coming round the corner to light a field up

ive not forgot y to do a post/review of it but fox wise it’s just not happening

me and my mate had been on a full on campaign before he put his birds down and although we nailed a lot there are ransoms that travel… shot loads of rabbits and rats with it on air guns but the only shot I’ve had on a fox that was safe or within range I fcuked up because I was using sh1t mounts that didn’t return to zero after swapping rifles.. checked the next day and a mile out 8” low and 6 left at 100…. I’m now £100 down on some good quick release mounts

Can’t see this fox of yours lasting long

Good luck with the new mounts Si . They have started to combine the beans here, so might redeem myself soon .

[FLATTOP 3,655]

5 hours ago, BenBhoy said:

A wise old man once said to me "beauty of thermal & NV at least fox won't associate anything with being shot at.............grasshopper" Or something like that! 

That wise blokes name was Yang Shang Po it’s an age thing

[si brown 8,486]

41 minutes ago, shovel leaner said:

Good luck with the new mounts Si . They have started to combine the beans here, so might redeem myself soon .

Wish they were cutting the beans up this way, loads of fields full of the stuff where I go, still waiting on a few silage cuts as there still leading straw

ive given up till I get a call, watched Houdini vanish into the maze the other night too

dive into your cash stash sl, bet you’ll like these thermion scopes.. the 38mm is more than enough for what we need

[shovel leaner 7,648]

4 hours ago, FLATTOP said:

That wise blokes name was Yang Shang Po it’s an age thing

It was Master Po in Kung fu with David Caradine , the Yang Shang po was the Water margin . Did you also watch Monkey ? Looking back those programs were shit . But I think we only had 4 channels. How times have changed. 

[FOXHUNTER 5,020]

I hated that Monkey programme , what a load of shit but my brother always watched it. It was on a par with Rentaghost ....remember that ?