Teamwork

Four minutes of fox distress from the Griz-N-Gray and BAM! right in front of me stood a gray fox, hackles up and ready to fight. The shot was 25 yards and in a rush I centered my crosshairs on his shoulder, but as the shot broke I knew that I had made a mistake. 25 yards is too close for me to hold the shot right on, and just like I knew it would the shot was low and hit the fox either low in the chest or in the leg. Either way it didn't keep him from finding solace in the brush and rocks before I could get another shot, and as my calling partner Kelly watched the fox disappear, I figured he was gone for good. A few more minutes of calling produced no more animals, so I called off the stand and we started the hunt for blood. It wasn't hard to find, but after about 15 minutes of trailing, the blood became infrequent drips and then disappeared altogether as the fox made his way into the decomposed granite. I hate to leave a wounded animal behind, but we couldn't find anymore sign, and so we decided to press on to another stand.

I really enjoy hunting alone - it's my time for thinking and self-reflection. And plus if something gets screwed up, there's no one to blame but me! That being said, I also really like to spend time hunting with friends and family. Sharing the experience and the thrill of the hunt with others has its own fulfillment value, and my good friend Kelly is especially fun to hunt with. We always seem to find cool things when we hunt together, and today was no different.

With the bad shot behind me, we headed off for our next stand. On the way we found some very interesting mine sites and trash dumps. We decided to get a better look on the way back, and here's some pics I took of the trash dumps. Lots of old metal cans and mining equipment!



We got to our next stand and I setup overlooking a large canyon while Kelly setup across from me at the top of a small draw where he could watch behind me. We had been really hoping to pull a bobcat out of this area, but with my luck at calling everything in with the Griz-N-Gray I started out with more fox distress. 10 minutes passed with no response and no shots from Kelly, so I switched to a cottontail distress. Just a few seconds later I heared Kelly's rifle bark and the familiar sound of a meat report. I knew we had one animal down but wasn't sure what it was. Another 5 minutes of calling and nothing else showed up, so I called the stand off. I whistled to Kelly but got no response. I whistled again to make sure he heard me. When I still heard nothing back I snuck around the bush I was sitting in and whistled one more time. This time I heard Kelly respond with a short blast from a hand call, and I looked around to find him with his rifle raised and his head to the stock, obviously keeping a bead on something. He gave me a hand signal that we use which means "keep calling" and I got back on the cottontail distress. That's when a seemingly simple stand suddenly became a sort of "tactical" operation.

I had no idea what was happening at the time, but Kelly had watched as three foxes came into my calling. They were on approach when I switched from the fox distress to cottontail, and they did not like that one bit! They turned to leave and presented Kelly with a good shot on one of them. Kelly made a 180 yard shot with his .243 to the neck of the largest fox, which turned out to be one big hog-of-a-fox, and the other two split. Or so he thought. As I continued to call, one of the foxes came back and began to run around the dead one, but Kelly could never get a shot on it. Once I stopped calling and started whistling the fox really lost its mind and started doing strafing runs on the dead fox. Then I started calling and moving towards the area where Kelly was pointing his rifle, trying to see if I could get a better angle on whatever it was he was aiming at. He continued to watch the fox as I slowly crept towards the area. I gave him a hand signal that means "you call" and as he started calling the fox stopped, looked in the direction of the new sound, and finally presented Kelly with a good target. Another 180 yard shot and that fox was down, as well. I still had no idea what exactly had happened, but when Kelly guided me to the spot where the foxes were down, I was happy to see such a big fox laying there!





With foxes in hand we headed back to the truck. We both had to get back to work (dang it!) and it was getting a bit warmer than we preferred. But on our trip back we wanted to check out the mines, and wow! We found some very interesting sites. Lots of long dark tunnels and big cuts out of the land, but the most interesting was one where there were still good timbers and even a door. This tunnel went way back, farther back than I could see. Underneath it about 20 feet down the hill was another tunnel which was filled with deep water and also went farther back than I could see.



And up on the hillside we found the throne room of the former miners - clearly a couple, though it's hard to guess the date of when they were last in the area.



That was it for our calling adventure today, but we plan on heading back for the cats - and maybe more foxes - and we'll bring a bright flashlight to see just how deep some of those holes go into the earth. Days like today remind me that even though I enjoy my solo hunting trips, it's also exciting and beneficial to share the hunt with a good friend! If I had made that last stand alone, and played it the same way, then I would have never know about the foxes that almost got away.