A MORNING MOOCH

[nemasis243]

Well last nite had a call and had to come back from the girlfriends to sort something out today, I awoke early about 5 and decided to go for a walk with the rifle ,so I grabbed my 243Win out of the cabinet , more to get some fresh than to go hunting,but took the rifle just incase.

I parked the car and set off crossed a few fields and watched rabbits and a badger as I walked along my way.

I put the bino's to my eyes and had a scan and off in the distance was a fox on the edge of a field.

I put one of my fox calls in my mouth and began to blow but the fox was not interested ,so I thought it would be good to see if I could stalk into him as he wasnt in a good place to try and shoot from where I was.

I worked out the route I was gonna take in accordance with the wind direction and set off. I had to get through 2 thick hedges and once on the bottom of a small valley had to cross a small river which was about 2ft deep ,so I got the socks wet ,lol.

As I got out of the river and climbed up onto a small bank I just looked up and looking straight at me was a fox about 40yrds away.

He was motionless,it was like he was frozen to the spot,

In very very slow movements I opened my cross sticks and placed them infront of me, the fox just looked at me and didnt flinch.

I then eased the rifle of my shoulder ,a practice which I done many times before whilst deer stalking and it slid away without a sound , I then rested the legs of the bipod between the V of the sticks and brought the but into my shoulder, still Charlie is looking at me,

I had my camo on and face and hands covered so it must have looked real odd to the fox, the wind was in my favour and I was in stealth mode,lol.

If ever I am out on my own I always have a round up the spout , but if I ever go lamping with someone the rifle is never carried loaded,just one of those safety things I like to follow.

I have been out with guys who like to have the gun loaded at all times and they forget that even safty catches can be flicked off by accident or even not put on at all.

Anyhow my left hand slowely came back down the rifle to the front of the scope where my finger and thumb popped open the Butler creek scope cover ,my right thumb pushed the safety forward and I set the cross hair on the foxes head and eased a little pressure on the trigger , BOOM , one dead fox,

What seamed like minutes just took about 30seconds and I was well chuffed as the fox I had shot was a big old dog, with one of his canines missing, he had loads of scars on his snout and looked as if he had seen a few battles with a terrier in his time.he was stinking ,you know the smell if you dog has ever been out and rolled in crap, it aint nice and it honks.

So back to my stalk, I passed some gorse and scanned the field again, the fox was 3/4 of the way up the field but was skylined , so I had to get round him and shoot back towards the position I was in,

I rechecked the wind ,but the it was comming now from the side I had to go to ,

I decided to go back and pick up the fox and take it with me ,using his stinky smell to try and mask my scent.

It seemed to work well as I got to my vantage point and the other fox had only raised its head twice to have a sniff of the air,

I tucked myself back onto a tree and got set up on the cross sticks , The fox was infront of a big old Ash tree so my back stop was fine as the hedge behind him was a little thin , this was good for me though as I could glass and see there was nothing behind in the next field ,only a huge bank about 300yrds away, which I had first thought of going to to shoot from ,but then thought better of it.

So once again I flicked off the safety and settled in for the shot, the fox was 212yrds away and it was crosshairs on the head and I had a cracking shot ,seeing the end result clear as day.

I scanned about but couldnt see any other signs of any others and went over to inspect the dead fox.

Here again was another dog alot smaller than the first but not this years cub.

So I had had a good walk and made my way back to the car and home,

Just sitting down here now trying to sort my new 243 AI out , need to get that up and running for a day on the long stuff,

cheers Andy

[6mmBR]

Sounds like an interesting morning.

Go and get that ackley fettled in so we can have a bit of fun next week.

Cheers

Dave

[sedwise]

Every time i stumble accross a fox at good range i always seem to armed with my air rifle . And sods law whenever i take the big bang stick out charlie never wants to play.

[ravenius_rhino]

Every time i stumble accross a fox at good range i always seem to armed with my air rifle . And sods law whenever i take the big bang stick out charlie never wants to play.

Same here,