Dave.....
I emailed you on the calls and mentioned my episode from yesterday.
We decided to hunt over near Retsof, just west of Geneseo. It's always been nice for fox & coyote. Got over to an old hunting buddy's house to shoot the breeze for a minute, and then his cousin, (also old hunting chrony) stopped in and said that the area we were going to hunt was run through by the gang with dogs not more than a half hour before.
Frustrated as hell, (cause that's the luck we've been having.....swear were cursed) at the request of my old partner Johnny, we decided to hunt out behind his place. Nice gullies, and layout.
I got setup in one spot, then saw where the field offered a better view, so I headed out before starting to call, so I could get repositioned. As I was almost to the spot, I look up and 600yds, up on the crest of the field, here comes a nice red heading parallel across the crest (which was 90 degrees to me)
I immediately dropped down prone, just outside of the small hedge I was planning on calling from. Even at that range, I didn't dare move any more. Being right next to the hedge, I probably should've tried ducking in, but...oh well.
Anyhoo....As the fox was walking the ridge from my left to right, I broke out the Fawn in Distress call and wailed on it. The response was immediate and it came hauling down the crest in my direction. As it reached the bottom of the crest, it disappeared briefly, then it reappeared, only to stop dead behind some higher alfalfa and HANG UP!
The damn thing sat there for ten minutes.....through some pretty good calls, I might add.
Then it dawned on me......the field was tan in color (dead alfalfa stems) and I'm a big fat dark brown thing....DUH!
Where I dropped, I thought I'd blend in with the hedge....nope, tan too. If I was in it, I'd have been fine, but out on the edge...no wonder he stopped.
Said to hell with it all, I've done the long range thing many times before, so I ranged him at roughly 375 or so. With a 3.2" drop at 300, and figuring maybe 5-6 inches at that range, I layed the hairs on his head and with a nice hold, I let her rip. The fox spiralled to his left, and disappeared behing the grass. I thought....nice, GOT HIM.
Next thing I know, he's shooting to his left back across the ridge to the edge where he came from. Thinking that maybe it was another at first......naw....same one, I'm not that lucky.
I lined up figuring what I did was underestimate the range, did approx. a 1ft. hold over....bang....blew the fox's left front leg off right at the elbow. About 1 or 2 inches below the kill zone....man was I PO'ed". He did a twisting move as though he was hit.....I knew I had nailed him, but I saw something flopping as he bolted over the ridge behind him.
I thought it was maybe guts or something. Wasn't sure at that point.
I literally trotted to the spot, and As I crested the ridge, there he sat about 50yds. from me. As I lined up to smack him again, he bolted and made it to some brush, and down a culvert pipe.
Pacing it back off, the first shot was more like 475yds., not 375.....and the second shot was a solid 500yd. pace back to exactly where I lay prone.
I absolutely hate wounding stuff, and I try to do my part.....but the luck just ain't on our side this year...like I said in the eamil...getting old...gotta buy a rangefinder I guess.
I used to be pretty good at that range stuff too....oh well, those days are over.
Well, gotta get out for a second day (6:30AM) ....hopefully, I'm a little sharper today.
Take care,
Bob
