Fox's 0, Trueflite .223 1

Tackleberrywho

I was a busy boy today, I had limited time to shoot so I spent it wisely.
I had rebarreled my .223 Remington from a 1 in 12 .223 to a 1 in 8 twist .223.
I also had shortened the barrel 2".

Over the christmas and recent past I had used my P7 exlusively on my .308 as I had tried the P7 on the .308 and it had worked well.

The Former VSSF II 26" barrel was "I thought" too long and awkward at lamping.

So I purchased a Trueflite 1 in 8 Twist barrel of www.irelandcustomrifle.com recently.
I had shot some nice groups with it; However I had seen very little bunnies in the past 2 weeks.


Around 7pm this evening I called to my Neighbour Peter's farm.
It was just dark when I arrived and I spied Peter dowm the yard.
I said Howya P!
So we stopped and talked about sheep,Cattle,Neighbours the price of Diesel :eek: etc.

I was glad of this chat for several reasons, my primary reason was Farmer/Hunter PR and the light to fade further.

~7:30 I headd off down P's yard.
It was pitch black and overcast at this stage.
I dare not switch on my P4 hand torch to shine my road down the farm yard.
I relied on my natural night vision.
I reached the end of teh yard and was hopping across teh electric fence and I was hit with a rab of MAINS Fence in the crown jewels and again and again.
In my haste to get free of this Green Mile Moment I jumped/slimped/and in an effrt to save my rifle and scope landed n my ars* in ~5" of farmyard slurry/Silagepit run off.

I said to myself, "Great start to an evening's lamping"
I walked up a small hill to a viewing spot out onto 15 acres of pasture.
I took out the Acme caller (Never been useful to date, But I'd try it one more time)

I'm blowing like Chasey Lane and then I give the field a flash; Nothing.
I give it a few mins. I blow for 1-2 mins again.
I give a flash and spy a pair of eyes ~200yards

The eyes disappear before I could assertain what exactly I was loking at.
I noticed that the wind had changed and now was on my back so I headed off in another direction.

I reach a sheep fence and say to myself "I'll give another flash"
Bingo a pair of eyes parralel with a land drain ~170yards away.

The eyes move and disappear,reappear disappear and finally reappear 153 paces from my position.

I rest the rifle on the broadest Fence post avaolable.
I use the eyes as my reference and I aim a shade low of teh eye so not to pierce ears

I squeeze of a round and hear
WhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaThuuuuump.
I scan again.
Did I hit it?

I walk as best as I can to the spot I think where it is.
I find nothing.
I was just about to turn and go back to base when I cop behind a clump of rushes a leg jutting out.
And low and behold
Madra Rua Marábh

In the ear, the head rattles when shakes.

Job done.
I head back fox in the lámh and criss cross the field and farm yard.
I lose my boot in muck and end up dropping foot into the crud to save dropping Fox, and Rifle AGAIN I find muck.

But I culd not give a hoot.
Best Shot @ night on a fox in years.
I'm a happy Camper!


The P7 works well on the .223

johngalway

Electrocution or slurry quick muck, don't know who's in more danger, yourself or the fox

Well done on the red fella, first for the new barrel?

mayfly36

Good shooting, looks like you shat ureself. LOL. What ammo u using now with the 1:8

Tackleberrywho

@John Galway
First Fox on New Barrel, I is Chuffed. I saved the rifle so I had to land on my ass & elbow deep in god awful smelly crud.

@Mayfly, Shot with a 55grain Moly Hornady as I had zero'd for that. I have 27 rounds of Moly left and I hope to use them up before Sunday and then re-zero for 75grain Tap for a few months

I was so glad I got him.
A month ago I missed a fox in the same field with the farmer watching.
I had serious confidence issues after that.

After firing 70 .223 rounds in the past 10 days had sharpened me up.

Remmie 223

Well done Tack, worth the wet a*se I'd say:)

Tackleberrywho

Remmie 223 wrote: »

Well done Tack, worth the wet a*se I'd say:)

It was in deed, A smelly Wet ars* :D

Feckin mains fence scalded the balls off me.

I had taken Landkeepers idea and used the P7 without the pressure switch, as a result easier to make a precision shot without considering grip.

Fox was shot on 8x as that was the Lowest mag on the Nightforce 8-32x56NXS

Mod was an ASE Ultra S5
Ammo Hornady 55grain Vmax Moly

crackcrack30

Nice solo run,
Did the p7 not give u an outline of the fox @ 150y?
Was it a dog or bitch?
Have this whole 'give em a break' thing rolling around in my head so i'm waiting for the first silage cut (ceasefire) before i hit them again...
no sheep round here......

cc30

Cass

Tackleberrywho wrote: »

Feckin mains fence scalded the balls off me.

Dan Aykroyd in Caddyshack 2 springs to mind. Youtube it.:D

Tackleberrywho

crackcrack30 wrote: »

Nice solo run,
Did the p7 not give u an outline of the fox @ 150y?
Was it a dog or bitch?
Have this whole 'give em a break' thing rolling around in my head so i'm waiting for the first silage cut (ceasefire) before i hit them again...
no sheep round here......

cc30

I only had a view of the head, Heavy rushes.
Field drops off to a soggy bottoms.

Did the foxes give the new born lambs a break ?
P has 35 little lamb'íns in the same field.

The Sheep are on the same land as deer, I shoot for the farmer.

dev110

I'm raging I didn't go for that shot with ya now :mad:

But I'm pretty sure the fox would have heard me trying to cough up a lung and blowing my nose every 2 mins.

Great shooting and lovely looking vixen.

Tackleberrywho

dev110 wrote: »

I'm raging I didn't go for that shot with ya now :mad:

But I'm pretty sure the fox would have heard me trying to cough up a lung and blowing my nose every 2 mins.

Great shooting and lovely looking vixen.

I've the tail off, I opened it up and poured salt in.

Considering making a Davy Crockett hat !

dev110

Tackleberrywho wrote: »

I've the tail off, I opened it up and poured salt in.

Considering making a Davy Crockett hat !

Would you not have tried the way poulo showed us?

Tackleberrywho

dev110 wrote: »

Would you not have tried the way poulo showed us?

I did, beats regular skinning by a mile, I'll still need 2 more tails to make a Hat.

Not sure will the pelt be furry enough

dev110

Tackleberrywho wrote: »

I did, beats regular skinning by a mile, I'll still need 2 more tails to make a Hat.

Not sure will the pelt be furry enough

That will just give you more incentive to get out and get two more foxes

Can't imagine the smell of that hat when its made, well I can but I just don't want to think about it :eek:

landkeeper

if you want a quick way of skinning them and there is only one hole in the skin use an airline /compressor works great
pour a bit of white spirit down the tail will cure it either if you just want the tail
salt dries it out
oh tack you have a synthetic stock use that on the elecy fence next time it's better than test ing it with your ickles

Tackleberrywho

landkeeper wrote: »

if you want a quick way of skinning them and there is only one hole in the skin use an airline /compressor works great
pour a bit of white spirit down the tail will cure it either if you just want the tail
salt dries it out
oh tack you have a synthetic stock use that on the elecy fence next time it's better than test ing it with your ickles

I'll use the white spirit later maybe.
We use paulo's stick trick.

Break off a stick and use it as a clamp around the root of the tail that you have scraped the skin back with a knife.

Then whilst holding the stick place foot on leg an d one quick pull and skin off.

I knew the fence was on, I forgot how stiff I am since not running or training in over a year.:o
I need to lose Stone and a half and get more limber.

I did use your technique of abandoning the pressure switch and I believe that is the reason I got a better shot off than I normally would at night.

landkeeper

a clothers peg is the easiest way of peeling the tail ;)skin round the root of the tail clip on the clothes peg grip in the hand foot on olred and pull leaving old red looking like elrat

Tackleberrywho

landkeeper wrote: »

a clothers peg is the easiest way of peeling the tail ;)skin round the root of the tail clip on the clothes peg grip in the hand foot on olred and pull leaving old red looking like elrat

Clothes Peg sounds just the job.
Can sometimes be hard to find a twig in a boggy place.

Might try for another tonight, on a roll now

pugw

Nice1 Tack decent looking fox, Id agree re the pressure switch its better to have one less thing to worry about when concentrating on a shot! I wonder would it be possible to rip the pressure switch off and fit some kind of on/off switch onto the wire so that you could keep the control near the trigger? Id dread having to take a shot in front of a farmer because i could nearly guarantee i'd miss! :cool:

Tackleberrywho

pugw wrote: »

Nice1 Tack decent looking fox, Id agree re the pressure switch its better to have one less thing to worry about when concentrating on a shot! I wonder would it be possible to rip the pressure switch off and fit some kind of on/off switch onto the wire so that you could keep the control near the trigger? Id dread having to take a shot in front of a farmer because i could nearly guarantee i'd miss! :cool:

No reason why a toggle switch could not be fitted

http://ie.farnell.com/arcolectric-switches/c3900baaaa/toggle-switch/dp/7674244

Just as handy to leave light switch on lamp though.
I shot a bunny in the head @250 in front of a farmer before and he told the whole Parish that I was a crack shot, and as a result got me several permissions.

Missing could ruin one's reputation.

deeksofdoom

Nice write up Tack and am glad you are having a bit of success with the foxes.

Hope your balls will be okay.:D

Tackleberrywho

deeksofdoom wrote: »

Nice write up Tack and am glad you are having a bit of success with the foxes.

Hope your balls will be okay.:D

Balls are fine

I could not make a story up like that:eek:
Wish I had more time, sun out all day and I doing college research on my day off from work

Oh roll on the Summer and long evenings!

I hope to push the .223 round to the limits with these 75grain stuff.

I'm glad I did not give up on the Acme caller, I think I needed to blow it more like a harmonica than a whistle to get the desired sound.

deeksofdoom

Tackleberrywho wrote: »

I'm glad I did not give up on the Acme caller, I think I needed to blow it more like a harmonica than a whistle to get the desired sound.

Yeah you have to blow accross the top of it and cup it in your hands to muffle the sound.

virminhunter

tell the truth tack, when you slipped you shat yourself thinkin you were going to smash the NXS:p:D ah no fair play nice write up.

Tackleberrywho

virminhunter wrote: »

tell the truth tack, when you slipped you shat yourself thinkin you were going to smash the NXS:p:D ah no fair play nice write up.

If I shat myself I'd be keeping that to myself

I walked the same permission tonight, not a stir

I'd like to get another before it gets too late into the breeding season