The Maize has been cut

kip270 · October 12, 2010

I received a txt message from Jason to say the maize had been cut around the farm, bloody typical as I had volunteered to work nights this week!!

A family emergency occurred so I had to cancel work for wed/thur night and in the daytime do my granddad duties and look after our granddaughter, but the evenings were free, so a phone call to Jason and a lamping session was on.

We had some rain during the daytime but it was clearing up for the night, so I arrived at Jason’s at 8.20pm a quick cup of coffee and a bit of plan was discussed, I wanted to try out my lamp with the IR filter attached and my NV monocular. We were driving round the farm tracks as the ground is really wet, and the last thing we needed was to get stuck and call out the farmer to get us out.

The tracks make access so easy now, and we can cover around 75% without the need to go on foot, so a drive to some high ground spots to sit and wait have a scan with the NV to see if anything was around. The first spot and we always see a fox, but tonight there was nothing, a few calls and still nothing.

We spent two hours driving around and having a calling session without a sign of anything, we couldn’t believe it the weather was good, dry with a slight breeze, but not a glint of an eye.

So it was time to head off back down the track and off to the other side of the farm, but we had to double back on the track we had driven along. We came to a spot where we could scan a large area, so stopped and had a scan, and then Jason spotted an eye shine in a small copse in front of us, next to a house. It was heading off to our right, but then disappeared. I kept scanning around hoping to spot it, but nothing so out with fox calls, a few minutes on one and no result, so another, (sounds like a hare distress) and there it was, making off to our left, I switched to the NV and watching it still make off and then it turned and headed away from us.

I got out the FoxPro and went through he full range of calls on there apart from the crow and goose calls, and not one turned the fox, it was now down near a iron fence and around 500 yards away, and by now I had ditched the NV and swung the filter round and was using the lamp as normal.

Every now and then we could the eyes of the fox, but it wasn’t interested in any calls, so Jason started to lip squeak, well it was like a flick of a switch, the foxes head was up and moving up towards us. I was keeping the fox in the edge of the beam, and slowly but surely it was committed to seeing what was making the noise Jason was stood on the frame on the back of the truck and was settled with the bi-pod deployed. He kept calling and then was running out of breath, so I took over, a gentle lip squeak and with the help of my hand a few variations.

The fox was still committed and then when it was just over 100 yards I shouted and stopped it, it was just broadside and Jason dropped it with a 90grain Sako, a very fat bellied Vixen, this took us over 45 minutes to get.

Well after 3 hours we managed to get one, this was certainly the toughest night I had ever experienced, but so far a very enjoyable night.

I asked Jason if he fancied taking a look back over where we had come from, as we were not in nay rush to get home, so we turned the vehicle round and headed back to the valley. As I drove down towards the small pond Jason spotted a fox on the bank, but there was only sky behind it, so we decided to go on foot, I grabbed the backpack and lamp, Jason was still the rifleman. The first fox we spotted had gone, then when we got to a better vantage point we could see two sets of eyes in the distance, one on the left and one on the right, about 60 yards apart from each other. Trying to get in position for a shot wasn’t easy then the one on the left decided it wasn’t happy and was off without us seeing it again. The one on the right however was happy sniffing around, so we slowly made ground, but we were a bit worried about the wind direction, but as we got to the top of the bank the wind was blowing our scent away from the fox. We had to get to a vantage point over a small brow for any chance of a shot, and we could just about see the fox, and it wasn’t bothered by the lamp, so things were in our favour.

We got to our firing point and Jason got prone on the bi-pod, and now to stop the fox for a shot, I shouted “Oi” the fox stopped and looked at us Jason was on target and squeezed off his shot, “Thump” the fox dropped on the spot. I said to Jason that I had a good idea it was a dog fox by the way it was sniffing around and when we approached it I was right, a nice sized dog fox, at just over 120 yards.

Well after a lot of searching and hard work we had managed to account for two foxes from an area where we needed to get results.

Driving back down the track we headed over to the other side of the farm, parked the truck and headed on foot for another valley where we have been lucky when foxing, on our approach we scanned around but nothing, Jason was lamping and now I was the rifleman with my .270.

We got to the brow and scanned about, and then a few calls with the wooden call, not a glimpse so after 20 minutes we headed back to the truck, then up to our left there was a fox sat in the field 5 yards from a big hedgerow, looking at us wondering what all the noise was about, I settled on my tripod sticks and settled my cross-hairs on its chest. As I squeezed off my shot the fox collapsed on the spot, at around 140 yards I was happy with my shot, a vixen.

On our way back to the truck we had to go through a gateway with a large puddle on the other side, as I made my way through I slipped and fell to my knees and got well and truly drenched, maybe others were having the last laugh.