Lots of Predators in View

Gents:

 

Last Friday, partly as a scouting trip for the weekend, I took a drive near home during the last hour of daylight.  I saw at least a half-dozen animals with matching numbers of coyotes and foxes.  I was able to get one very long shot (for me) at a fox; about 600 yards.  I think I hit it twice but it eventually walked into a cattail slough so I wasn’t able to confirm as my snowshoes were out-of-order (I’ll be out in the next few days to check–my new snowshoes arrived today and I can also take my rangefinder along).

 

Late that evening a friend (also named Ken) arrived for a weekend hunt.  THe next morning we got an early start and within the hour had seen at least another half-dozen animals.  I managed to bag a fox with my heavy-barrelled .308 although I at first thought I’d missed as I’d seen the snow blow up on the other side as the fox ran off.  It stopped another hundred or so yards out and just as I was settling the crosshairs again, it rolled over, dead.  During the rest of the day we saw many more animals but all too far.  And, they had no interest in responding to a call.  Towards evening we returned to the area close to home where we spotted a fox in a field.  When we turned down a farm road, it disappeared into a den in the ground.  Ken decided to get out an see if he could outwait the fox while I drove most of a kilometre away where I could watch from slightly higher ground.  The fox never showed itself but as I watched with the binoculars I spotted two other, separate, foxes that were on the other side of Ken.  Unfortunately, he was lower than they were and could not see them.  I was wishing we’d taken our FRS radios because they may have been in range if he’d known they were there and had been able to sneak to another rise in the ground.

 

On Sunday Bill joined us.  Again we saw numerous animals including two pairs and a loner out in one field.  But they could see us from much too far away and were safe from our predations.  Ken had to leave about noon to pick up his wife and drive home but Bill and I continued to hunt.  Within ten minutes we caught a coyote that had just crossed a farm road and I managed to make the shot.  During the rest of the day we called a number of times but never had good responses.  We did see two foxes that laid up about 600 yards away from one callling location and another fox that ran towards us (and into a bush) at another location but nothing, for all those days, responded to within range of our rifles.

 

We quit the day about two hours before darkness because the fog rolled in and we both had 50 minute drives to get home.

 

We probably saw at least 30 animals during those hunts but only managed a fox and a coyote.  Still, better than working or getting skunked, eh!

 

Ken

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