3 men in a boat…..sorry I mean a Landrover!

[sandersj89]

Just back in from a cracking evening out with Sussex Lad and A-Bolt.

 

We started on one of my spots for some bunny bashing to start with and met at 7pm. The day had been wet but things had brightened up a little and it was dry but breezy.

 

I carried my HMR, Brian his .22 and Rob carried my .22 air rifle so we had all the bases covered.

 

Of we set and we soon started to get a few bunnies in the bag, sad to say though Myxi has now arrived at the spot and will soon make a big impact. Shot a good few with early signs of the disease which is a real shame…….

 

However this spot is still heaving with rabbits and we had a good couple of hours slowly walking the circuit dropping the rabbits as we go. (There is a railway line that runs along the bottom of the ground and we always make sure we smile nicely and wave at the trains as they go by).

 

Shortest shot was by Brian using my air rifle….oh about 10 foot on a very ill rabbit, with a follow up shot of about 3” to make sure.

 

Longest shot was me right at the end, 180m and the rabbit simply rolled over. The new Leupold scope on my HMR has now been tested in anger and I am very pleased with it indeed.

 

We then moved onto one of Brian’s spots and shifted into fox mode. Brian was designated driver and Rob started as shooter using his 22.250 while I worked the lamp and did the calling.

 

On this farm the ewes had lambed a few weeks ago so they are a good size but there are always foxes there. Drive through the first field and lots of eyes belonging to sheep in the next field over so we move into that field to see if there was anything in amongst them.

 

Nothing obvious but we sit and scan for a bit and then in the next field, bingo, eyes working left and right, range about 200m so Brian drives closer up to the fence and I start to call, first with the “Fox Call”:

 

http://www.foxcalluk.co.uk/

 

This seemed to work and the fox started to work around to our left to try and wind us, I kept calling and then swapped to a Wam call and he seemed to move in a little closer and Rob ranged him at about 120m I believe.

 

Shot on…..

 

Bang and the fox jumped a good 3 or 4 foot into the air and dropped into the long grass, nice hollow sounding thump too. I get out of the landie and run to open the gate so we can get into the field and we start out search. Long grass all over the place and we cant find anything…..aaarrrrrrgggghhhhhhh…maybe my “luck” is rubbing off on Rob/Brian!

 

We spend a good half hour working a systematic box pattern search but nothing so move on.

 

After a bit I swap seats with Rob and take over the shooting with my .243. First thing we see is a Badger, and then another one, that gets the heart rate up a bit and then eyes out long way away on a fence line, it is a fox but way too far out so Brian moves in a little. Now it is 3 sets of eyes skulking around, get my eyes to the scope and we have a fox and a couple of badgers milling around but the fox wont stay still and is off into cover. We stop the engine and kill the lights for 15mins while I call, only result is a badger back out looking at us.

 

We move around a bit and head off to where Rob dropped the first fox and bingo, eyes again. The fox is skulking around in amongst the ewes, indeed at one point he dropped in behind a ewe and I only knew he was there as she moved over her lamb and stared at the fox for some time.

 

We call but this one is a bit crafty and knows what is going on, he moves right and back to get to a fence line, if he followed that too far to the right he would present a shot but he turns and heads left, getting further away from me, I follow in the scope but no shot, too far and not clear. No amount of calling will turn this one.

 

It then starts to rain so at about 11.45pm we call it a day and head home.

 

Good night though as usual…….cheers guys!

 

Jerry