Hunting story: My first fox - part 2

Returning from the ducks, we headed back to Graeme’s house to get the shotguns cleaned and to get the foxing gear together. We had been invited to Mark’s for some food and then a night shooting on a local estate. We arrived and met the estate’s gamekeeper and indulged in some home baked/made game pizzas, which were truly excellent. He had his own pizza oven in his garden! I can’t tell you how tired I was at this point and I was feeling really rough but I was excited to get out there.

CATCH PHRASE!

We piled into the truck with Mark at the helm, Tony was on the rifle and Graeme and myself would be using the spotters. The mission was simple, to get Tony a fox! We navigated along the network of tracks linking all the fields together; they just seemed endless, as there was so much land! The same process took place as before, we would find a heat source and then try and identify it. There were tons of hares about, which made this task quite challenging and this is when Graeme’s catch phrase was born. “110% sure that’s a fox, oh wait, no it’s a hare”

The amount of ground we covered in such a short time was staggering. The variety of wildlife/different heat sources we saw was great. We had deer, standing up and lying down, and pheasants in trees, rats, hares, sheep and a few unknowns. It got to the point that whenever I closed my eyes I was convinced I had thermal vision. The images from the hours of spotting burned into my retina! This was repeated when I went to bed that night, my dreams were all in thermal!

TARGET!

After a few good hours we spotted a fox, and it was in range at around 100m. Tony struggled to get the rifle steady on the rest, due to the angle, so decided to go out and use the bonnet, which was a risk as the fox could easily scarper but it remained still. Taking his time (which seemed like an eternity while watching through the spotter!) the familiar report of rifle filtered through the cab; a miss! The advantages of using thermal and sound moderators remained. Although running, the fox still was not sure what had just happened, so Graeme and Mark were confident we would get a second chance.

We followed the track in the direction the fox had run, scanning for its heat source. It was not long before we found it again. Unfortunately it was out of range and not accessible to the truck, so Tony and Mark decided to stalk into it, which seemed to be staying put at the top of field.

This particular fox was not going to make things easy and with one of the XD38S spotters out of batteries and the other low, they took the Apex with them. Graeme and I watched the fox from the track below. I was getting some good use of the Pulsar Recon, as it still had full batteries. If you are in the market for an affordable night vision monocular I highly recommend looking at one of these. We checked Tony and Mark’s progress with the spotter and they looked as if they were in position, I decided to turn the 400 IR illuminator off on the Recon and see if I could pick up the IR from Tony’s Xsearcher.

Sure enough, there was a long beam arcing across the field, with a bright spot in the middle that would be the fox then. It was clear after quite some time, that even though they had the fox in their sights, they were not happy with the shot. I decided the best course of action was to have a nap in the truck. At least 2 hours after the stalk began I was woken up by the sound of a rifle shot, so I went back to sleep and waited for Mark and Tony to return. A tap on the window and a fox in hand; the .243 round had found its target. Tony had got his fox!

IT ONLY GETS BETTER!

Up at 6am and it was my last day in Scotland, Paul was taking me deer stalking, my first ever! I was excited, not that you could tell at this point! My cold and cough had a firm grip on me by now, the last thing I wanted was to have a coughing fit and scare all the wildlife within a 5 mile radius away!

We arrived at our destination and Paul talked me through the plan and the land that we were on.

Using Paul’s thermal spotter, we scanned the side of a hill and the open ground in front of it while waiting for the sun to rise. The plan was to spot a deer and then dismount and move into position while the sun was coming up; there was no sign of any deer. Paul explained that with the very mild weather our intended quarry may have fed at night instead.

Paul also devised a plan B, taking the wind into consideration. We would park up and stalk through the woods, sweeping round so we would come out of the forest into the ground behind the hill, as the deer regularly move from one side of the hill to the other.

SORTED

We sorted the kit out and I was happy! Following Paul, we made our way into the forest over some wet ground, scanning with the thermal as we went. We manoeuvred ourselves, trying to catch a roe doe as they moved across the gaps between the trees where they feed. I can’t describe how hard it was moving across tough ground, carrying kit, while trying to keep my breathing steady so that I didn’t cough.

As we moved along, Paul was pointing out signs of the resident deer, we found tracks, flat grass where they had been laying down and fresh droppings. It was all looking very positive! Paul eventually spotted a roe but unfortunately it had just finished crossing the gap we were in, moving silently out of sight into the woods. The second sighting was a buck, which had obviously detected us first and was already off when I got eyes on. Gracefully and silently shifting it in the other direction!

300 M

We arrived at the edge of the wood and the ground behind the hill, maybe we would find something here. It was then that Paul spotted a ginger flash through his bino’s! A fox about 300m away having a good sniff about. We decided to stalk towards it, moving to some high ground. I did have to stifle a coughing fit first though! As the Roe were not playing ball I was very happy to have a go at a fox in daylight, especially now we were in the open and I could see the fantastic landscape. Most of the scenery I had seen so far this trip was through night vision or thermal!

We had closed the gap on the fox and were in a perfect position on high ground aiming down on him, which was by this point moving along the side of the hill. I crawled into position and tried to set up but it was not quite right, my training at Orion firearms kicked in, never force an uncomfortable position! Just a few corrections and I was 100% happy, so I adjusted the scope to get a clear picture and got a bead on him. It was trotting along at a good pace so I asked Paul if he could give it a quick squeak. It stopped, I fired and it fell, 131 meters, a nice clean shot right where I aimed, with a perfect backstop. I could not have been happier, safe and clean. I swear I shoot better when I am tired, as I was so relaxed behind that rifle, what a day and what a great finish to my trip to Scotland.

FINAL THOUGHTS

A truly fantastic experience all round and the hospitality I received during this trip was second to none. I was made to feel very welcome by everyone involved. As a novice shooter I gained a lot of valuable experience especially with all the Pulsar equipment that Tony brought along! I can conclude from my experiences that if you shoot on a regular basis and have plenty of land to cover like Mark, Graeme and Paul, then you will love the XD38S, I guarantee you. A great weekend, with great people in a great country; maybe I can go back for a Roe!