Sorry to everyone for the tardiness of this post. This hunt took place on Sunday evening but being busy with the holiday and work I havent had a chance to post about it.
I met John1951 at around 9:00 PM sunday evening to hunt a few stands and see what I could learn from him about calling. It was looking to be a great night with all the conditions in our favor. It was very clear with a calm steady wind and low tempuratures, besides a little excess brightness from the moon we had almost everything one could ask for.
We made our way to the first stand and called with the the Fox Pro for about 15 minutes but no eyes were seen. We moved quietly about 100 yds into the neighboring feild. We sat quietly for a few minutes to let the comotion cool down. We began calling again with the FoxPro. About 10 minutes in we had eyes to the far right. John Immediately signaled for me to mute the caller and I did just that. John began lip squeaking to bring a nice shy red into about the 50 yard mark. With my gun facing the worng direction, I very carefully made the move to get my gun light on and the fox in my scope. I then waited for johns command to "take em". I am ashamed to say that I shot and missed and even more ashamed to say that I shot 5 rounds through my .17hmr earlier that day and made a more than satisfying group at 50 yds. But John was understanding that it happens and decided we would talk to some coyotes instead, he howeled and immediately had a response from nearby. That was very exciting especially when howels started comming from all directions. We waited for a few more minutes then snuck out quietly.
We moved to another farm and had some action there as well but nothing ended up in the truck. We moved again to another farm for one more stand I believe it was about 11:30 by now. We snuck into an nice open grassy feild and setup in the shadows along the woods edge. We called again using the Fox Pro Spitfire. Sat for about 10 mins calling moderate volume and switched calls and sat for a little longer. No eyes yet but John was confident in this spot so we sat quiet for a few minutes. We were now about 20+ minutes into the stand and John was connenting on how he was surprised nothing showed up yet as all the factors were in our favor and he was sure there were fox in the area. As a finishing touch Johm let out a few enthusiastic rabbit squeals from a neat handmade mouth call he had showed me earlier in the night. We sat silent for about another 3 minutes. Just as we were both saying the typical "oh well" and the "maybe next time" we were literally about to stand up and leave, in fact we may have even been standing at this point im not sure. Then! we had eyes at about 150 yds. We quickly composed ourselves and prepared for the kill. John started lip squeaking as I positioned myself for a clear shot. This nice looking red made its way across oppisite edge of the feild began moving quickly straight across the feild toward our downwind. At about 50 yds she presented a nice shot so I let her have it. I was releaved to have not dissapointed John again with my marksmanship on this stand. We retreved a very nice looking smaller female red and weighed her in at 8.9 lbs. After this we called it a night.
I had a very exciting night hunting with John and learned a lot from tagging along with an experienced preditor hunter. Every stand I learned something valueable that I would not have learned if I didn't experience it first hand like I did the other night. We had eyes at 3 out of four stands and brought home some fur. Great night!
Thanks again John for taking the time to hunt with me and thank you HPA for providing us with the means to get in touch with others who share similar intrests.
And here is the success picture because whats a hunting tale without proof to go along with it?
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The follownig morning John called and said his jeep still smelled like fox urine. I said well isn't that the idea...? HAHAH
Thanks for reading everyone. John, please chime in if I missed anything.
-Matt
I met John1951 at around 9:00 PM sunday evening to hunt a few stands and see what I could learn from him about calling. It was looking to be a great night with all the conditions in our favor. It was very clear with a calm steady wind and low tempuratures, besides a little excess brightness from the moon we had almost everything one could ask for.
We made our way to the first stand and called with the the Fox Pro for about 15 minutes but no eyes were seen. We moved quietly about 100 yds into the neighboring feild. We sat quietly for a few minutes to let the comotion cool down. We began calling again with the FoxPro. About 10 minutes in we had eyes to the far right. John Immediately signaled for me to mute the caller and I did just that. John began lip squeaking to bring a nice shy red into about the 50 yard mark. With my gun facing the worng direction, I very carefully made the move to get my gun light on and the fox in my scope. I then waited for johns command to "take em". I am ashamed to say that I shot and missed and even more ashamed to say that I shot 5 rounds through my .17hmr earlier that day and made a more than satisfying group at 50 yds. But John was understanding that it happens and decided we would talk to some coyotes instead, he howeled and immediately had a response from nearby. That was very exciting especially when howels started comming from all directions. We waited for a few more minutes then snuck out quietly.
We moved to another farm and had some action there as well but nothing ended up in the truck. We moved again to another farm for one more stand I believe it was about 11:30 by now. We snuck into an nice open grassy feild and setup in the shadows along the woods edge. We called again using the Fox Pro Spitfire. Sat for about 10 mins calling moderate volume and switched calls and sat for a little longer. No eyes yet but John was confident in this spot so we sat quiet for a few minutes. We were now about 20+ minutes into the stand and John was connenting on how he was surprised nothing showed up yet as all the factors were in our favor and he was sure there were fox in the area. As a finishing touch Johm let out a few enthusiastic rabbit squeals from a neat handmade mouth call he had showed me earlier in the night. We sat silent for about another 3 minutes. Just as we were both saying the typical "oh well" and the "maybe next time" we were literally about to stand up and leave, in fact we may have even been standing at this point im not sure. Then! we had eyes at about 150 yds. We quickly composed ourselves and prepared for the kill. John started lip squeaking as I positioned myself for a clear shot. This nice looking red made its way across oppisite edge of the feild began moving quickly straight across the feild toward our downwind. At about 50 yds she presented a nice shot so I let her have it. I was releaved to have not dissapointed John again with my marksmanship on this stand. We retreved a very nice looking smaller female red and weighed her in at 8.9 lbs. After this we called it a night.
I had a very exciting night hunting with John and learned a lot from tagging along with an experienced preditor hunter. Every stand I learned something valueable that I would not have learned if I didn't experience it first hand like I did the other night. We had eyes at 3 out of four stands and brought home some fur. Great night!
Thanks again John for taking the time to hunt with me and thank you HPA for providing us with the means to get in touch with others who share similar intrests.
And here is the success picture because whats a hunting tale without proof to go along with it?
The follownig morning John called and said his jeep still smelled like fox urine. I said well isn't that the idea...? HAHAH
Thanks for reading everyone. John, please chime in if I missed anything.
-Matt
