Lamping the night away November 2008

[JohnGalway]

Saturday 1st November.

 

Late start tonight, Schindlers List was on the box and it was a good half way through, to be honest I wasn't really paying it much attention. I've been breaking in a new lamping backpack. It's waterproof and ex French army. Large compartment with a smaller one in it against my back, I keep the battery in there wrapped in a balaclava as a bit of cushioning. Two side pockets. got an LED torch plus a hat in one and gloves and my two tail removing dowels in the other. I had two reasons to change my old one, it had started to get a bit weak looking. There were a few holes appearing and I didn't really need a battery falling out through the arse of it in the middle of nowhere in the dark. Also, I wanted a backpack that would carry the battery a bit higher on my back. I was fed up with getting smacked in the lower/middle back anytime I needed to jump an obstacle - which can be quite often. First impressions are very good, it's very sturdy and not fairly quiet once I'd taped up the surplus buckles, it's a little squeaky due to the waterproofing material but that's no major hassle.

 

I loaded up my 20amp battery and connected the Striker, checked I'd my remote caller and it's bits and bobs, rangefinder, head lamp, bullets and oh yeah, my rifle. Usually comes in handy. I set off for my first port of call, just a quick stop in a place I can lamp the front of the hill my dad has his ewes on. Sometimes there'll be a fox crossing it from right to left, they don't often go the other direction for some reason, only once have I seen it happen. Maybe they do it very late in the night when I'm warm in my bed! After scanning and waiting around then scanning again there's nothing to be seen. Not much patience tonight so time to move on.

 

Second spot of the night is rather hilly and quite boggy. Tough going for walking in. I'm there a little while when I see a funny looking eye near a bunch of ewes on a hillock. I'm suspicious right away but not entirely convinced because of the way it's acting. I dim my lamp and decide to sneak in for a closer look. I've to go slow, it's a quiet enough night not much wind, and the ground is sodden. I loose sight of the funny eye as I stealthily squelch my way towards a rocky outcrop. As I move through the rocks I see a better position to take a look from so I make my way there. Just as I approach it, a nice little hillock with a good rock on it for shooting from I spy that funny eye again. This time it definitely looks foxy. A quick spy through the rangefinder gives me 138 yards.

 

I extend the bipod legs fully and chamber a round. I've settled nicely now and through the scope I can see my fox moving left to right across a little rise. She's near enough the top of it for me to hold fire and follow her hoping she'll find a little hollow to dip into for a moment so I can take a safe shot, which she does. As I shout "Hey! Hey!" I mentally slap myself good and hard for not yapping or barking first. Whatever. My fox stops and looks, I've the crosshairs lovely and steady just behind her shoulder and I squeeze the Jewell trigger.... Nothing. Guess which dimwit left the bolt up when he chambered the round? Mmmm no, wasn't me, honest injun.

 

Bolt down good and fast, make sure the safety is off. I look over my scope and spot eyes to the right of where she'd stopped. Back into NXS view and I see her against the reticle. I shout again, yes, shout, duh. She's stopped well down the rise looking at me, Boooooooooooooooooooom! - Thud!

 

*Exhale*

 

That's about all my luck used up for this month I think lol. She was 140 yards off when the little Vmax connected, knocked her right over and it was lights out.

 

 

 

I take the tail, and decide to bring my fox back to the car. I need to bait some hoodies and they love when fox is on the menu. Besides, why let her go to waste. I take note of my surroundings and head off across the bog towards the car. Or at least I think I do. I'm walking for a while when I cop on I should really be there by now. Oh yeah, this is about the time when a 20amp battery, a varmint barrelled rifle and a vixen start to get real heavy. Remember the thermals and waterproof trousers? Exactly....

 

Right, think. Get to the top of a hillock, can't be too far away. Now, getting lost in this place isn't a nice prospect. Think bogs, swamps, lakes and rock. That's about it. I am lucky enough the sky is lightish behind the mountains, and I take another bearing with a local lighthouse. OK I know which side of the road I am as well so after exercising the grey matter I work out I walked too far and went past the parking spot. It wasn't that nice a feeling walking to a spot and finding a lake and bog when I expected a car lol. Drama over.

 

Wednesday 19th November.

 

Last night I went to Jurassic Park, by now familiar with a lot of you. I had checked the weather forecast, got ready and neglected to stick my head out the door beforehand. It was awful, properly heavy mist, the kind you stretch out your arm and wonder what happened your hand. Well, I'd gone to all the trouble to get ready, and I'm damned if I'm going to unpack everything. So off I set more on faith than anything else. It cleared a little but I saw nothing. To be honest I was just as happy since I don't think I'd have seen much through the scope. Tomorrow might be better.

 

So, tonight, I check the weather forecast. Rain and heavy mist. This time I look out the door, aha see I can learn. Guess what, lovely night for lamping. I reach the conclusion Meteorologists know nothing about weather.

 

Earlier in the day, I'd moved our cow and Heifer to a different part of the farm. So I was busy after that tidying up gates etc. Phone starts ringing and I let it ring out. If it's important they'll leave a message or ring back. Anyway, jobs done and I've forgotten about the voice message as I've just read about the handguns ban here, so I spend time thinking what I can write to our no good politicians. After a while I get fed up of that. It's around 6pm and I think of the message, better listen. Two AWOL hens the evening before. Most locked in at 5.30pm, one other got at 7.00pm, one MIA presumed eaten!

 

So I look, 6.05pm and am I ready? Am I hell.

 

Gear up, throw everything into the car and just as I'm about to pull away from the house... Along comes someone I need to talk to...

 

Five minutes later I'm speeding (legally) on towards Jurassic Park. As I'm nearing the farm I spot some real bright eyes with the headlights of the car! "Oh no...", I think, "Please don't let me be late by THAT much!" Got to open the gate, get the car parked, get all my gear on and the rifle ready. This doesn't take long, but it don't take a fox long to travel either. All ready I'm off as carefully and quietly as I can be on this sodden ground. At least I have the wind in my favour. Blowing across between me and where I've seen that fox.

 

I walk up to a small hillock, it's a group of them really which are handy for shooting from. I need a choice because as I've said in past posts when I find a good viewing point on this farm there's usually a tree in front of me. Again, I'm overlooking that gully, they just seem to love this area. I've a shine around with the lamp and all I see are sheep eyes. I'm wondering has he gone over the top out to the hill or along the ridge behind me. Time for a quick squeak to see if anything show. Heuston, we have a go. I get the flash of a sly little eye out to my left about 250 yards away. I get down with the rifle and quickly realise I'm on the wrong spot so I change position fast.

 

By now he's ambling along, interested in that short call, not running in but committed to investigate and moving left to right. Passes through a fence and as I'm settled in my new prone position he goes in behind the block wall of a sheep pen. So what's he up to, will he stay there if I move? Doubt it. Will he do that so annoying fox trick of vanishing into thin air behind obstacles, might do. So I sit and watch. I think, probably because of the lamp, he was figuring something wasn't as it should be, which worked out real well for me. As he moved out towards the hill he was in open ground away from that wall. "Arf!" (stop laughing).... Booommm... thud!

 

I hit him a little low but he went down in the spot he got shot. Quite a hole in this one :yes: Ranged it at 194 yards, longest shot for me this season, nice looking dog fox!

 

 

Friday, November 21st.

 

Headed out to Nialls tonight, brought out his new window bag I got from BJ. He was more than delighted with it. We'd this trip out planned for a while and I was looking forward to it as I don't often get to go out on that ground. Last time I'd been there, social visit, I saw a fine looking fox crossing the road not far from where we'd be shooting tonight. A good sign! We were shed bound for a while letting a shower pass, I was watching himself and his brother play darts, I'd a go and managed to hit the board twice, surprising myself. After that I was basically trying to put them both off, WAM and Callmaster calls were brought into it, given the scores I think I achieved reasonable success there!

 

Nialls brother dropped us off at a gateway out to the hill. We'd not gone far when we spotted a shifty looking eye behind a gorse bush. I couldn't see where he was through the scope, we tried calling and waited around a while. No joy, the ground was so bad we didn't think much of sneaking over to him, one for another night. We then done a tour of the hill, which took some time, getting three very dirty showers in a place with zero shelter, ah the joys. Someone has burnt the gorse on the hill, burning their fence at the same time, some people just don't care do they, take one step and you'd crackle ten little twigs, another step and it was squelch into the bog. Right, time to go somewhere decent.

 

After we left the hill we made off down a laneway towards Nialls dads land. There's quite a bit of cover on the land and it's such that when you get down onto it the fox has the advantage, not the shooter. So we decided we'd stay on the top of a hill overlooking a lot of the land. We make our way out towards the edge of the hill and see a fox straight off in the middle of a bunch of horses that've just been covered and scanned. No shooting that fella then.

 

We move a little bit farther along the hill and see a fox way down the land right beside the stable. I range the stable 250 odd yards. We're not sure what his intentions are, he's looking when we call but not all that inclined to leave the stable area. If we get closer we'll have the ground against us. There's a stiff enough breeze blowing right to left in off the sea. We talk it over and decide to take the shot. I get down on a nice rock and put the scope on 12x, as is their habit the fox disappears behind the stable. We wait a little bit and he pops out the other side of it. He's stood sniffing at something, nice and still and side on to me. Perfect. I line up the crosshairs, giving myself a little extra seeing as it's zeroed for 200. I take my time and carefully squeeze off the shot. Booommmmm.... thud! He takes a few steps then goes down. I'm not happy though as he's biting himself, I've trouble loading the second round due to an extractor issue I've to manually remove the spent case from the top of the magazine and push the next live round back down again before ramming the bolt home. In that very short time he's made his way off into some rushes. We looked for him for a long time but no joy. I feel myself he's not too far away but the cover is really against us. I'll look again tomorrow if I get the chance to go back.

 

Didn't get to go back myself but Niall had a terrier out on the Sunday afterwards and found our fox 40 yards from where I shot him. He guessed right on the night that I hit him farther back than I should have and I guessed right that he'd be in those same rushes. Together we got something right I suppose!

 

Back on top of that hill we see two more foxes, well I see one, Niall sees one, but we're not looking at the same fox! While I'm busy tracking the guy moving through the rushes Niall is hitting me in the arm about something, a fox about 40 yards away on a wall. Being down with the rifle I couldn't see what he was on about so kept following the fox I knew about. He comes out of the rushes and I bark at him, he looks, he shoots, he scores! Fox takes a few steps and falls over. Second round loaded this time and the crosshairs firmly on that fox, if he so much as twitches he's getting another, but it's lights out. Nice dog fox at 150 yards. Niall was intent on stuffing him, until he got the smell then thought he'd make better hoodie bait, lol. We spent a LONG time looking for this guy, which really annoyed me. I knew for 100% certain he'd dropped and died but again that ground was against us, I eventually found him after we went back to the top of the hill and had a long conversation about where he dropped.

 

 

While we were looking for that one, I saw another in some rushes (where else). He was sitting nice and quiet, I took a shot at his head from 106 yards and missed. No point in blaming anything, bad shot choice on my part. Time to a return to basics for me.

 

A few other bits and pieces happened on what was a very enjoyable night. Shooting could have been a bit better but I'm convinced of two for three shots so not too unhappy. I'd have had Niall out where I was shooting the last night only he told me because of work he was only going out Friday nights. Got told tonight I should have asked him to go Wednesday night. What can ya do!

[kip270]

A cracking write up John, and some good results too.

[nemasis243]

cracking write up John , and some great pics too

[6mmBR]

John thanks for taking the time to do a fantastic write up.

You should send some of your posts into the mags for publishing, they're far better than the rubbish they usually turn out.

Have a great Xmas and am looking forward to next months installment.

Cheers

Dave

[JohnGalway]

John thanks for taking the time to do a fantastic write up.

You should send some of your posts into the mags for publishing, they're far better than the rubbish they usually turn out.

Have a great Xmas and am looking forward to next months installment.

Cheers

Dave

 

Hi Dave,

 

I've been told to do that a few times before actually I'm gonna play hard to get though, they can come to me Happy Christmas to you and yours