I can give you a hunt report from a few months back that I did on my quad bike 1 night. Hopefully if I go out tonight I may be able to supply a bit more updated yarn.
Wednesday morning I was talking to the bloke who works on a place we shoot on a fair bit relocating foxes and under permit those long legged rabbits(Kangaroos). He mentioned that on another block not far out of town he has been seeing a few more foxes getting around PLUS he had seen a big red looking deer and a young 1 with it...................... ..
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I get on the mobile and get onto 1 of the mates I do a bit of spotlighting with and my son to try and tee them up for a quick trip around the paddocks that night but the mate said he had an early start the next morning as he's a butcher and the son bailed out when he found out it was only then going to be the 2 of us.
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"BUGGER THIS!" I thought and then decided to take the quaddie out spotlighting to see what I really needed to bring this up to spec for more use in the future. So about 6pm I started to get things ready.
Loaded the quaddie onto the trailer after fuelling it up, grabbed the spotlight and a milk crate, bag I throw ammo and other odds and ends in which I cable tied to the back rack for the spotlight to sit in, 22/250AI, mounted the torch on the scope and made sure the batteries were charged up, ammo and something to drink and headed off.
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It was still broad daylight when I got out there but the Sun wasn't that far from sinking into the West so I unloaded the quad, put the Ruger on to the Eagleye gun rest loaded, set up the spotlight had a quick drink and set off hoping to possibly see if the deer were in the paddock that old mate had seen them in earlier that morning.
Deer weren't there so I just idled around through the Canola and wheat stubble paddocks looking for fox pups that have been getting around on the other blocks we shoot on and had been seen on here in increasing numbers oh this block.
After driving around for a while it became dark enough to use the spotlight so juggling between holding the spottie in the left hand and steering and using my thumb to regulate the speed I started spotlighting. Didn't have to wait long till a set of Orange eyes lit up looking at me in a grassy paddock wondering what this strange sound and bright light was.
I turned the light off put it in the milk crate(this was repeated a lot during the night) and brought the 22/250AI up and flicked the torch on top of the scope on. Fox was still there looking at me through the Zeiss scope so I applied a bit of pressure to the Timney trigger and 60gns of Hornady Varmint SP went across the 100yds or so of ground and connected.
Scratch 1 furry faced bugger. I couldn't get through the fence so I had to take note of roughly where the fox was and then had to drive down the fence line to a gate and then come back up into the paddock to where I thought the fox was..................... ......couldn't find it in the long grass where I "thought" it was even after a circular search with the torch I had in the bag.
Headed off back down towards the stubble paddock where the deer were supposed to be and after about 10 minutes driving around in this paddock 2 sets of eyes lit up but both about 90 degrees to each other in 2 separate paddocks across the fence I was next to.
Pulled up and started on the button whistle watching both foxes who were just sitting there looking at me but probably out around 300-400yards out. It was about this time the full Moon started to rise along with a wind............
' This is going to bugger things up big time!" I thought to myself. The 2 foxes just sat there and both eventually moved off not even slightly interested at investigating the noise.
Moving on it was probably 10 minutes or more before another pair of eyes lit up in a old Lucerne paddock next to the stubble paddock I was in. this 1 sat there as I put the quad into a suitable position for the shot. I put the spottie in the milk crate and pulled the Ruger up and flicked the EDI-T torch on. I hit the button whistle and the fox came in a bit closer around 100yards out and sat there watching where the noise was coming from and probably wondering what the bright light was..........."BOOOM..........WHACK!" as the 60gn Hornady connected.
This fox was easier to get though and it was a young pup that became a crash test dummy for the 60gn pill.
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I was about to move off and threw the spotlight around the paddock for a final look when another set of eyes was moving towards where the dead fox pup was. This has to be another pup as an adult wouldn't generally be that dumb I reckoned. I hit the whistle and the fox kept coming in and then sat behind a clump of grass about 150yds out. I put the spottie away and brought the Ruger up and flicked the torch on. The cunning little bugger was sitting behind a thick clump of grass and although I can see it's eyes I can't get a clear shot at it so I put the rifle back down and started the quaddie up and moved about 50yds up the paddock hoping to change the angle on the fox.
This worked as the fox hadn't moved and I had a clearer shot at the fox. I brought the rifle back up flicked the torch on and lined up the fox and fired................... .......missed the fox and it took off but stopped probably another 50 yards out and stopped and looked at me again. I lined up and fired again and saw dust kick up just above it's head. It took off again and stopped near a clump of saplings and trees and stopped and looked AGAIN! I couldn't believe it as generally after the 1st shot they will hit the light speed button but this one must have been confused or the 2nd shot must have really rattled it's brain as it passed just over it's head.
Lined up again and fired and heard a sound like a hit and there was no sign of the fox running off and I couldn't get across the gully to see if it was a hit or a miss so put it down as a possible.
After a quick flick around before moving off I started up the quad and bugger me if another fox was coming in. This 1 was on the crest of a hill in the Lucerne paddock and working it's way towards me as I drove up the paddock towards it.
I got to the crest of the hill and put the spottie into the Lucerne paddock but the fox had disappeared even though I could see most of the Lucerne paddock easily it just did a "Beam me up Scottie" and disappeared.
By now it was around 11.30pm and the full Moon and wind were starting to make things real difficult feral wise as it was now like daylight and I could basically get around with any lights at all.
I moved on and came up to where I had spotted the 2 foxes earlier in the 2 separate paddocks and there they were again and still not interested in coming in to the whistle but just sitting there and looking. I closed the range up to the closest of the 2 and stopped and hit the whistle. The fox was just walking and sniffing but not in the slightest bit interested in coming in and eventually kept walking away and disappeared up into some thick scrub.
It was getting later now and I had 1 more stubble paddock to look at before packing up so I headed off and opened the gate into this last paddock and started spotlighting. Hadn't gone far in when about a million sets of eyes lit up.................bloody stupid sheep just what I didn't need especially as you can almost guarantee that if you spot a fox they will almost always run across your line of fire and scare the fox or just run to the fox and scare it off.
Sure enough as I went probably 200 yards into the paddock a pair of Orange eyes lit up and the sheep were off to the left a fair way..................... ........."Beauty!" I thought "A easy shot at a fox that was just sitting looking at me!" This 1 was around 150 yards out just asking for a frontal lobotomy so I put the spottie away brought up the rifle flicked the torch on and with the whistle in my mouth gave it a short squeak to get the fox to look at me. As the fox looked at me I lined it's head in the crosshairs and was just about to take up pressure when.................... ........................ ...... the dopey sheep decided now was a good time to run across my line of fire and scared the fox off.
I'll kill that bloody Murphy 1 day I should've known this would happen.
That was that as the wind was now fairly blowing so I headed back to the Landcruiser and packed up got home about 2am.