Mexican Standoff

darrohn801

LSB Member
Killed my first fox last night with the Zeus 640 42mm at about 100 yards. Well, technically wounded it and had to finish him off myself which is why I call this the Mexican standoff. I called two fox in last night from my fox and stopped them at 100 yards. I shot the closest one and hit him and he ran about 25 yards and stopped so I shot him again. Not 100% sure if the second short hit him, but I thought it did. I figured 2 shots with the .223 and he's done. I park my car and grab my thermal and hike up the hill where I can scan and see the fox. My first mistake was I didn't bring my rifle or any gun with me. I get to the top of the hill where I can now see the fox and he has moved about 100 yards but is just sitting there. Then he starts moving about 10 yards at a time dragging his back legs. I figure crap what do I do? He's getting awfully close to a big cluster of trees and I don't want to lose him if he makes it there. I thought by the time I went back to get my gun and got back over the ridge that he might be gone. I decide to just hike down to where the fox is now hoping he will pile over soon.

I get down to the fox and sure as **** I just caught his spinal cord and he is paralyzed from the hips down. He is still very much alive and using his 2 front legs to get around. Now I have a dilemma as the fox isn't going to die anytime soon and if I leave now to go back to the truck he will certainly be gone. So this is where the Mexican Standoff begins. If I leave the fox gets away, only way is to find a way to finish him off man vs man. Being in the middle of the field I couldn't find much of anything like a big rock or anything to try and get it done so sat around in the middle of the night for about an hour hoping he would finally succumb but to no avail. Finally I go to a tree not too far away and rip the biggest branch off I could find and go back to the fox and finish him off. I honestly felt terrible, not the way the animal deserves to go. I always try for a clean quick ethical shot and hate that it ended up like this, but sometimes life just happens and you try and make the best of it. I can look back now and laugh a little bit about how stupid I was to get in this situation and only hope to learn from it to make it better next time.
 

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Ratdog68

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Yeah, it never leaves a good feeling to know an animal is suffering. Glad you were able to figure it out and dispatch it. Good lookin' pelt on him.
 

OneK

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Hey, I just run up to em and grab em and pull their little heads off! Surely you could have done that??
 

scrmblr1982cj8

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Don't feel bad. I once had to suffocate a hog under the front passenger tire on my Cherokee after running out of bullets.
 

RattlesnakeDan

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Don't feel bad. I once had to suffocate a hog under the front passenger tire on my Cherokee after running out of bullets.
I hate when that happens.
 

FrankT

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SIDEARM, I am always packing! You could step on his neck and crush/suffocate him or stab him/slit throat with your knife, surely you had one of those?
 

darrohn801

LSB Member
SIDEARM, I am always packing! You could step on his neck and crush/suffocate him or stab him/slit throat with your knife, surely you had one of those?

I usually am always packing as well but the sidearm was locked in the safe in the truck and just didn't take the extra minute to grab it out. The fox was very much alive and aggressive. Not sure I had the balls to try and go at him with a knife even if I had one.
 

FrankT

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Come on Darrohn think of it as your viral moment on YouTube, you would have been famous especially if it had gone horribly wrong while knifing a wounded animal!
 
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