Out last night on a mates ground...........

re'M'ington · September 30, 2009

I went over to a friends land by invitation this evening,hoping for the chance of seeing a Buck around early,and,then on to have a shine about.We arrived at a farm that my mate had seen a Buck on this afternoon,it actually crossed the road as he was driving through the lanes,and,went onto some of his extensive permission,which was enough to hatch a plan.Unfortunately the Buck obviously had other ideas,and as such was nowhere to be seen,we did see a Doe that just emerged from a hedge,and,stood to see what we were all about(bet they don't do that later in the year)and then loped off to leave us all alone in the field,and,I mean all alone,not even Charlie put in an appearance.

We went back to the truck and my mate rang another farmer and we were off again to find a Charlie as by now it was dark,it is getting dark a lot earlier now isn't it.We got to the next farm and we walked a good way before we actually got a flashback from a pair of bright eyes,it was a long way off,and,it was behind a lot of rushes,and,although he/she did start to come in it felt a lot safer just staying there looking back at us.As we were starting to try to get into a better position to get a shot my mate flicked the lamp around and another charlie was coming in from the right,so,I swung the sticks round a bit and put the Nightforce illuminated reticle in front of it's chest and let him walk into the shot I sent a 40grn Hornady .204cal on it's way,and,back came that dull thud as it made contact,and,charlies eyes blinked no more.It was a good size fox,and was probably one of last years,and,most of all we had one in the bag...........

It was shot at about 90yds,and,the .204cal is a devastaing round in 40grn,and although it looks ok in the first pic,you can see how it opened it right up...........

We went into another part of this permission that has a lot of Hawthorn/Blackthorn and bramble scattered about,a real haven for all things nocturnal,and,we got a shine back as soon as we got into the first field,he started to come in like a train,and,was almost upon us,and,we had to back up a bit to be able to actually get a shot,but,Charlie most likely heard us and shot off to the right and away,but,a couple of squeeks brought him back,and crossing to the left,a quick bark stopped him and another 40grainer stopped him for good at all of about 50yds.This chap was a young one from this year,and,rather a pretty one at that.............

We were taking a couple of pics(as you do)when out of the darkness came this chap to see what we were upto..........

We then went to a small industrial estate that is surrounded by fields that are usually heaving with rabbits,I say usually because we only saw one in total,but,as we got to an area with a steep drop off to a hedge at the bottom we stopped for a squeek,it took only a few squeeks to bring charlie running in at a good pace only to get a whiff of us and tear off at an even quicker rate not to be seen again.We continued around and we did get another charlie to come in only for me to #### it up.For some reason as I placed the Reticle on his chest(while he just stood looking at me)I squeezed the trigger and nothing,I thought the safety must be on,but,when I tried push it off,it was already off,but,it must have needed just a little bit more to release it,and then the trigger that is set quite sensitive let the shot go.I was still aiming at the fox by the way,but,missed him completely,so there never was any danger,anyway that completed our night out,and,thanks to Foxdropper for lamping for me,and,as always it's my turn to take you out down here next mate......cheers.....Martin.