Hunted Tuesday afternoon for a sika deer with a crossbow. Our early duck season kicks in Saturday and runs through next Saturday and the sika will be scarce for awhile because of the gunfire, so I was out for a sika of about any description (except an up and coming stag.) Managed to connect on a hind (doe) three minutes before legal time was up. I was hunting in the woods and saw her coming with an IR Patrol. After blood tracking an amazing distance given pretty good shot placement, found her with the Patrol too.
A bud, Aaron, who is new to hunting and just got his hunter safety certificate, was hunting as my guest at my club as well, but got busted as he lined up on another hind.
After finding and hanging the sika, we met up with another bud, Jeremy, and went predator hunting. My thermal and night vision, but those guys were going to be doing the shooting.
We started at a friend's farm and had a pair respond within a minute or two, with the female charging the call. Our open space was only maybe 50yds square and the male held back and didn't present a decent shot. Aaron waited as long as he could hoping the male would give Jeremy a shot, but when she pulled up short at the call, about 20yds away he put a 6.8 round into the base of here neck. She dropped DRT.
We moved several hundred yards to another semi open area with about 100yd square area of lower crop height and had another pair charge in, with one going right and one going left around the perimeter. The one going left was going to wind us, so Jeremy, who had forgotten a tripod, tried an offhand shot at 75yds or so, with no joy. No joy on a couple of follow up shots as well. Funny thing since Jeremy was a scout sniper in the Army and is still in the Reserves. Lesson: Don't forget the sticks! There was some miscommunication and Aaron didn't take a simultaneous shot on the stationary fox to the right and then missed a running shot.
We went back to my club and tried a stand, but the wind was swirling and we were busted by two, coming from opposite directions. Then we moved to check on the gut pile, but it was long gone by then. We had a pair responding from a couple of hundred yards, but they went behind some taller crops and never showed. We suspect the swirling wind gave us away.
Aaron was really excited that his first hunt provided as much excitement as it did. Here are Aaron and Jeremy with Aaron's first fox:
Good news that the bulk of the hunting season is right around the corner.
JPK
A bud, Aaron, who is new to hunting and just got his hunter safety certificate, was hunting as my guest at my club as well, but got busted as he lined up on another hind.
After finding and hanging the sika, we met up with another bud, Jeremy, and went predator hunting. My thermal and night vision, but those guys were going to be doing the shooting.
We started at a friend's farm and had a pair respond within a minute or two, with the female charging the call. Our open space was only maybe 50yds square and the male held back and didn't present a decent shot. Aaron waited as long as he could hoping the male would give Jeremy a shot, but when she pulled up short at the call, about 20yds away he put a 6.8 round into the base of here neck. She dropped DRT.
We moved several hundred yards to another semi open area with about 100yd square area of lower crop height and had another pair charge in, with one going right and one going left around the perimeter. The one going left was going to wind us, so Jeremy, who had forgotten a tripod, tried an offhand shot at 75yds or so, with no joy. No joy on a couple of follow up shots as well. Funny thing since Jeremy was a scout sniper in the Army and is still in the Reserves. Lesson: Don't forget the sticks! There was some miscommunication and Aaron didn't take a simultaneous shot on the stationary fox to the right and then missed a running shot.
We went back to my club and tried a stand, but the wind was swirling and we were busted by two, coming from opposite directions. Then we moved to check on the gut pile, but it was long gone by then. We had a pair responding from a couple of hundred yards, but they went behind some taller crops and never showed. We suspect the swirling wind gave us away.
Aaron was really excited that his first hunt provided as much excitement as it did. Here are Aaron and Jeremy with Aaron's first fox:
Good news that the bulk of the hunting season is right around the corner.
JPK
