TrevorT’s Fox Hunting Weekend.
Trevor T. from www.ausvarmint.com/forum tells us about his latest hunting tale.
Well the big Kev moment came, hung there in the air for a while…..and then the arse dropped out of it. Haven’t shot a pig for at least 16 years so when the farmer who used to be a client and is now a mate said he knew a bloke in Hillston…well I was keen, very, very, very keen.
The ‘bloke’managed a citrus orchard. We’d go there and he would get us access to some properties 30klms away known to hold pigs and goats.
BUT when push came to shove old mate on the game ranch didn’t return calls.
A few years ago the less mature me would have sooked considerably, and let everyone else know about it but I’m older now, its nice to be away, look on the bright side! First thought was “wonder if there are any pretty female Asian fruit pickers here, but apparently those four terms don’t all go together in one sentence.
The bright side was a citrus orchard with a 10km boundary track with scrub outside it, a 3 bedroom house to “camp” in all to ourselves and some relatively co operative (not shot at very often) pests.
Day one was the obligatory tour of the packing plant and Orchard so we knew where buildings were before we went spotlighting.
Our first night spotlighting had me with the 6/250. My mate who doesn’t shoot that often and my stepson seem to defer to me when a fox comes in sight. We take those little bar stewards very seriously. I’d like to think it’s because they think I’m the best shot but maybe it’s because my rifle is cocked and I’m kicking them out of the way as soon as eyes are spotted. Anyway a couple of basils in the outside scrub got deflated early in the piece. At a corner of the orchard the paddock adjoining is under crop. The neighbour won’t mind us shooting over that apparently.
First scan, bingo. Reflectors. F off everyone Trev the fox killer is on the job. On the short green crop he’s very visible but far out and moving away, not the top speed bolt of one that’s done this all before but he isn’t happy and is putting distance between us. F it says I, there are no lambs to protect and an educated fox here isn’t the end of the world. So I track his movements and squeeze off the shot (well, it’s a Clancy rifle, so breathed on the trigger would be more accurate than ‘squeezed’). F@#* it, he’s still moving away. But hold on a moment, he’s pretty slow and then he sits down facing me with the crosshairs on the end of his snout. Rest is rock solid, you can’t jerk this trigger and though you lose your sight picture under recoil, I swear I heard the thwock.
So Jacob keeps the light on the spot and me and my farmer mate go for a walk with the sea lion. After 200 odd paces Lerrel gives up. “It wasn’t this far was it”. I’m not giving up, doubt is growing but I keep walking. When I pick up the heavy dog fox and drag him back counting out the 327 paces I’m puffing! But the rest of the crew were mightily impressed. Now I know paces aren’t meters but I had the hairs on his nose and the shot (a 70nbt at 3600fps) hit him in the chest so it’s dropped a bit. Yeah, I’m stoked with that shot under the light and further examination reveals the first shot smashed the back leg at the knee joint, hence the slow down.
Next morning, I’m the only one up for a pre dawn walk. It’s really cool being in the outdoors on your own. After that it’s still early so I go for a truck hunt round the perimeter. Well I didn’t find any trucks but out of the corner of my eye I see a little bit of reddish colour in the grey green scrub on the edge of the orchard. I stop to check it out, could it be a fox? It moves, it bloody well is! I get out with the gun and lean across the bonnet. It’s about 100m away in land that has been laid out with rows built up for trees that just never got planted and are now overgrown with weeds. I lose sight every time it dips into a row and see it again as it crests a bank. Heading towards the orchard. Not panicking and bolting, that trot/walk thing they do. I’m trying to line it up and hope to hell it pauses before it reaches the orchard. Dam it beats me and gets in. I’m crestfallen for a split second and then logic kicks in. It’s angling further away but if it keeps heading that direction it will cross the rows in the orchard. 105kgs of blubber shuffles down to look up the rows, on the third row…. a glimpse of fur. Next row, I get the gun up but it’s across before I can bead on it. Then the superior human intellect that you all knew lay dormant in me kicks in. I sprint (well it feels like sprinting when you’re my fitness level) down four row ends, flop down with the bipod up and wait in ambush. In a second fur appears and bang. 170 paces for that one. 6/250 is not a skin harvest calibre!!! Poor little Vixen.
Next evening the 17m4 comes on the pre dark perimeter run. It hasn’t taken a fox before. In the same area as the orchard ambush I spot a fox. This one is a bit more urgent in its escape run but I still have a ping. Think I missed and lose sight of it. Aha. A few seconds later. 40m from where I last spot it here we go, running in the opposite direction. This cunning fox is heading away from the cover of the orchard. Go figure! Jacob is developing game spotting eyesight to outdo me and later tells me the fox I missed did make the orchard but there were two and I lined up the ‘other’ one. Well she is disappearing between the banks that never quite got their planned tree crop before bobbing up. I am able to follow her in the scope and when she comes out on top of a bank about 140m away she pauses to see if she can dodge a 25gn VM. Oops, bad plan. No recoil. I see the strike. She did a full circle spin so I didn’t see her go down and wonder if she is wounded and will escape. No, 2 m from where I last saw her we find the carcass. Aha. I acknowledge Lerrel’s assertion that 17cals are best for fox skins, until I turn her over and see the exit wound!!
No pigs, no goats, one pub session, one hangover and lots of laughs. Awesome fun, not too much report so not only do you see the explosion, you hear the golf club into a cowpat noise full volume and we all laugh like kids.
We are invited back, but, “give me two weeks’ notice to arrange some pigs”
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- Is Fox Hunting Seeing A Re-emergence?
- Fox Calling in Winter
- Almost But Not Quite – Night Time Fox Calling
Category: Hunting Stories
Dont mind the fox shooting bit but dont think the exit holes are a good thing to show.