Following a good dose of persistence, a huge pinch of tenacity and a bucket full of bloody mindedness, I finally caught up with this old dog fox tonight… He’s been taking lambs on and off for about 10 days and I’ve been out day and night for the past 10 days and until last night, not even smelled him – let alone seen him…
Tried a different spot on the farm this evening and called for about an hour with no luck – so at around 9pm walked to the field where he’d last taken lambs. Scanning with a green LED I got a flash of eyes that disappeared too quick for a sheep… Having put about 40-50 hours into finding this little bugger, i don’t mind admitting that the adrenaline kicked in…
I made my way in his direction and caught a glimpse of him running off at around 100 yards – so stopped and played a territorial bark on the caller… that stopped him – but he wasn’t coming in. I had eye shine on a bank, behind trees so no positive ID – but I knew… tried calling more / less / louder / quieter but he wasn’t having it. Tried moving to get a clear line of sight and he spooked and moved – and sat sky-lined on the ridge… Now I know that there’s nothing behind that ridge and it was “technically” safe – but if you can’t see where your bullets going, it ain’t safe… right…?
At that point he disappeared over the brow – so off I went in pursuit. Reaching the brow, I spotted him around 140 yards out to the right – and with some more calling, he stayed in range, moving across my field of view – but behind a hedge!!!
Then nothing… No sign… until suddenly – there he was – on a bank about 40 yards out from where I’d last seen him… Tikka T3 Lite on quad sticks with an NM XSearcher – home loaded 53grn Vmax and whump… Slapped him in the bib and dropped him on the spot!
Was a long time coming that one – but if it was easy, we wouldn’t love it as much as we do!