2 out of 3

[sandersj89]

2 out of 3 aint bad but it should have been 3 out of 3 ideally!

 

Met Brian at 7pm this evening for a night of mooching around after some rabbits and then to have a look for a fox.

 

Started at our usual kicking off point at rabbit central and still amazed at the numbers there at this permission. We have taken over 300 rabbits of this 30acre plot since the spring and another shooter has taken over another 100 from it. Still plenty about when we arrived and I rigged up the HMR whilst Brain had brought along his Mossberg .410 pump for a try. Some of the shooting is not ideal for FAC rifles and the mossie would be ideal in some spots.

 

We take a walk around the perimeter potting a rabbit here and there and Brian also has a go at a pigeon as it flies over but no joy. Most of the rabbits we shoot show signs of Mxyi, mostly just small scars and I think they are shrugging it off to a degree.

 

We end the walk sat up on the top of the hill over looking a heavily populated corner and start to plink away with the HMR, some shots prone and some of sticks. Not sure how many we had but I let Brian take some of the shots and he bowled over two lovely shots at over 140m. I know I have said it before but I love the HMR on rabbits, neat head shots and we do take multiple shots back to back with it on the rabbits, they so often appear to be confused as to where the noise is coming from.

 

I think we ended after 90mins with 20 plus in the bag.

 

We then moved on to 2 fields we have never shot before, pulled in the gate and there was a pick up pulled up under the hedge. Brian and I wander over to see what is what and it soon turns out that they have legit permission to be there so we spend a few minutes chatting. They had been after a few pigeons on the standing wheat but left it too us as it was getting dark.

 

Brian hops up in the back of the landie with his 3 shot 12bore semi and we do a circuit of the first field looking for signs of rabbit, not much doing and little sign of damage but Brian does snap of one shot at the only rabbit we saw and takes a nice hit.

 

Nice looking pigeon shooting to be had here, lots of large trees all around the fields, roll on the combine doing its work as no laid corn here at the moment.

 

We move again and decide to try a spot that is used as lambing fields back in the spring, not been here for a while and I did wonder how the grass would be. Park up and we have to walk across a wheat field to start with, me with my 243 and Brian working the lamp for me.

 

First grass field and it is tall and not mowed and hard to see anything but we move towards the gate into the next field, before we cross the gate Brian shines over the field and it is cut for hay but not yet baled, he then says “Badgers” as we see movement.........I see 2 sets of eyes and then Brian says......”no, 3 foxes!!!!”

 

I set the sticks up and the 3 foxes have split and run in different directions, some frantic manoeuvring by me to get one in the scope over the gate off the sticks resulted in the sticks collapsing as I tried to track one of the foxes to the right. I then move to take a shot of the gate at one of the foxes almost dead ahead that has moved in a bit, squeeze the shot of and it goes down.

 

Brian calls to try and bring one of the others back and indeed we get another set of eyes at about 100m. This time I try of the sticks and fluff the shot completely, I struggle off sticks when standing to be honest, most annoyed!!!

 

But the foxes are not moving off to much so we move forward and pick up the fox, vixen cub.

 

We move around and get eyes almost straight away, bit of manoeuvring for a safe shot and again I try of the sticks, don’t believe it, just over it’s back. I am now very annoyed but we persevere with some calling and get more eyes at about 100m, this one I can take of the bipod and no messing, firm solid hit.

 

We move up to retrieve it and I was sure it was on a fence line but nothing doing, we do spy a well used run and I think the corner we are in is the den. We scout around for a few minutes and Brian finds the fox, dog cub this time. It was about 10m away from the fence line so so much for my observation skills!

 

Clean kill again, the 243 with 100gr bullets has a devastating effect on these cubs, neither moved an inch after being hit, a simple and clean case of lights out.

 

We turn our back to head back to where I took the shot and there are eyes just past the gateway, cub 3 is still around but not a safe shot. We move to try and push it away from the road and up the hill, going into the next field to do so. He obliges and moves as we plan and indeed makes a bee line to the spot we had just shot one of his litter mates confirming our suspicion about the den. This time though I cant get a clear shot, he is moving behind the cut hay and most of the time I can just see his head or the top of his back, he wont react to hand calls or the WAM and moves out of site......

 

Oh well.

 

We try a few more scouts around but nothing doing so call it a night.

 

2 in the bag so not all bad.

 

 

Jerry

[6mmBR]

Sounds a bit chaotic there, I know what is like with sticks they seem to have a horrible habit of collapsing at the wrong moment.

Well done anyway 2 out of 3 ain't to bad.

Good luck with the pigeon shooting, they've started to combine with us already

Cheers

Dave

[Guest varmartin]

As Dave said it sounded a bit chaotic, but thats when you have some fun and the adrenalin is pumping....

 

Well done getting two of the cubs....I am looking forward to a bit of sport on the pigeons down here soon...if I can drag Varminter away from his little love nest ...

[nemasis243]

Hope you mop up the other one soon , if you know were he is try putting some bait down to give something to keep him interested in , this will hopefully give you a chance of a shot at him, cheap cat food and pilchards mashed up are nice and smelly ,make sure you spread it around to make him work for it and it keeps his head down so you should be able to get into possition without to much hastle to get the shot

[sandersj89]

Yes, it was a little chaotic, seeing the 3 of them there almost together at the start was a bit of a shock. Real shame we cant get the landie into that area at the moment as it would have been a doddle to knock them over shooting off the roof like we normally do.

 

We will be back to that spot next week I expect to see if we can have another look see, the hay will be baled by then, just hope the bales are lifted as well as they get in the way so often.

 

Think I am going to swap to bipod shooting sticks rather than the 3 leg sets, less fiddling around when you need to be slick.

 

But it was a good evenings work at the end of the day, would get boring if we got everyone we saw, nice to have a challenge!