Friday, September 26, 2014

5 Gray Fox in 5 Minutes

It's been awhile since I posted any predator pics, so here's a fun story from earlier this week.

I hiked back about a mile from the end of a dirt road in the middle of nowhere and into a canyon that looked like a good spot for some critters to be living in. It was a nice clear day, mid-80's, 1-3mph wind, around 1pm. I took my rifle instead of the shotgun because I was anticipating some longer shots, but when I got back there it was pretty thick. I setup my FoxPro and Quiver Critter decoy about 30m away in some tall grass where animals would be forced to expose themselves if they wanted to get closer, and started with some bird distress sounds.

About 3 mins in, fox #1 shows up and heads straight for the decoy - I shoot him about 3 feet from the decoy (red is fox, yellow is decoy and caller):



Less than a minute later, fox #2 shows up from the same location and runs to the decoy and attacks it - I shoot it off of the decoy (no bullet hole in the Quiver Critter - hooray!). Another minute and fox #3 creeps up behind me - I catch him from the corner of my eye and try to swing on him but he sees my head move and heads for the brush at 100mph. I got him in the scope but not lined up:



I switch to fox distress to try and bring back fox #3 (it's worked well in the past). Another minute and fox #4 (or #3?) suddenly pops up in front of the decoy - shot to the neck and he's down. Fast forward another minute, and here comes fox #5:



I got it all on GoPro (first time I've used it for hunting) so that video will get edited at some point. 5 foxes showed in 5 minutes, and 4 went down with 5 shots (shot fox #2 twice - turned out to not be needed but I didn't want him running off). I didn't have to move much for the shots - they were all killed within a 10ft radius, as evidence by my ejection pattern:



All in all, it was a helluva stand, and a great opportunity to test out my new SJK Carbine 2500 pack, which I had been hiking with that morning. It carries the carbine easily, as well as all of my other gear, which was nice considering that I had to carry 4 foxes a mile back to the truck, which was out of the canyon, through several washes, and brush busting through some nasty stuff.


The foxes with one of my favorite decoys, and survivor of a straight-up fox attack, the Quiver Critter from Lucky Duck.



Taking a break about halfway back to the truck - I only had one pelt packer, so all four foxes' feet are jammed in the carrier loops.




Happy Hunting!