We don’t have much in the way of public land suitable for predator hunting, but this year I’ve been able to join a 7,000 acre deer lease in Jackson parish, about 35 miles from my home. I’ve been out and scouted a couple of times, but today was my first opportunity this Fall season to get out and hunt.
I found my first stand about ½ hour before sunrise, and set up on a 75 yard wide pipeline, looking down into a swale, with the sun coming up behind me. I put the Foxpro out about 35-40 yards, and started with a distressed cottontail call. About 5 minutes into it, I saw a gray fox walk out from the trees on the right, about 30 yards away, stop and look around. I slipped the safety off, and the fox turned and walked back into the woods.
After sitting there quietly for another five minutes, I see that the fox has come back out into the high grass and was working its way towards the call. She presented a side shot, but just as I began to pull the trigger she started turning to the left. The shot caught her in the upper chest and basically ripped her throat out. She was DRT….and I paced it off as 30 yards.
My rifle this morning was my Remington 700 LVSF in .204 Ruger shooting handloaded 39 SBKs over IMR8208. Needless to say, this would have been a good morning for the .20 Vartarg, K Hornet or even the 17AH.
I made three more stands, but that was the last action of the day.
Thanks for reading.
