Potter Co. First Gray
My brother came up last night for the weekend, so we decided to hit a few sets Friday night, despite the storm the weatherman was warning of. We got out early to our first set and once we got settled in we smelled the familiar smell of a skunk. It was quite windy, so after deliberation, we thought we may have excited him on entry into the property and the wind blew it towards us.
Not 15 minutes later and who decides to show up? Mr. Skunk, about 15 yards from our position. After having already smelled his attitude once I quickly lit him with my red scan light hoping he would continue marching on. However, apparently skunks don't like red lights and he immediately glanced our direction and raised his tail stiff as a board. My brother hissed at him (like you would a cat) and luckily this made him scamper away. We were sure to watch him as he made his way out of our AO. We're 15 minutes into our cool-down and now comes a snow squall. It must have snowed for about 20 minutes pretty hard. I was about ready to call it but decided to wait about 10 minutes more and poof the clouds moved out and clear skies prevailed.
Time to start calling. We started the set with some rodent squeaks, next we tried cottontail distress. About 30 minutes into the set, I tried female howl. Scanning this whole time we saw nothing. I think to myself about another 15 minutes and we'll head to our next set. I do another scan and approximately 60 yards to our west, along the tree line we were standing in, a gray fox is standing there looking at my call. He scurries towards the call moving closer to our position and stops broadside about 30 yards from us. I squeeze the trigger and my Savage 340 .222. The 40 gr Hornady V-max does what it was designed to do and after a short run he drops dead about 20 yards from us. The rest of our sets produced nothing but a few coyote howls, another skunk and an owl, eyeing my call. Needless to say, it was a great night out with my brother.
Pic of the gray below:
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Not 15 minutes later and who decides to show up? Mr. Skunk, about 15 yards from our position. After having already smelled his attitude once I quickly lit him with my red scan light hoping he would continue marching on. However, apparently skunks don't like red lights and he immediately glanced our direction and raised his tail stiff as a board. My brother hissed at him (like you would a cat) and luckily this made him scamper away. We were sure to watch him as he made his way out of our AO. We're 15 minutes into our cool-down and now comes a snow squall. It must have snowed for about 20 minutes pretty hard. I was about ready to call it but decided to wait about 10 minutes more and poof the clouds moved out and clear skies prevailed.
Time to start calling. We started the set with some rodent squeaks, next we tried cottontail distress. About 30 minutes into the set, I tried female howl. Scanning this whole time we saw nothing. I think to myself about another 15 minutes and we'll head to our next set. I do another scan and approximately 60 yards to our west, along the tree line we were standing in, a gray fox is standing there looking at my call. He scurries towards the call moving closer to our position and stops broadside about 30 yards from us. I squeeze the trigger and my Savage 340 .222. The 40 gr Hornady V-max does what it was designed to do and after a short run he drops dead about 20 yards from us. The rest of our sets produced nothing but a few coyote howls, another skunk and an owl, eyeing my call. Needless to say, it was a great night out with my brother.
Pic of the gray below:
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