Dusting off the Boom Sticks

DMW22

What happens when life takes over? I think as we all know our hobbies get kicked down the road.

This is what happened me and shooting, work and personal life took over which left my guns sitting in the safe gathering dust. After moving into our new house I've been slowly trying to build up permissions close by. One of them offers a nice mix of land with places to push out the distance of the rifles and some tillage.
My .22 was the first to get dusted off and zeroed so I could get to know the lay of the land. Unfortunately after a few outings I had nothing to show for it. As the barley ripened the shotgun made an appearance. After a few misses my eye began to come back in and managed to start knocking a few birds. I began to start getting the hunting itch again.

I was looking at my .223 and 6.5 sitting in the safe and thought they deserved to see the light. The .223 was the first to emerge and after picking up some ammo and confirming zero it was time to head to a spot that I knew held a few foxes for the past few years. I was hoping for 2nd cut to be done but unfortunately it wasn't so had long grass to contend with. After moving through the first field and into the second constantly scanning the ditches I moved halfway into the field where there is a bit of a ditch splitting the field. I got to a gap and held tight for a few minutes. After a few minutes I noticed a fox walking up the tire marks made by some tractors heading to the bog. I stuck the rifle onto the sticks and watched as the fox kept walking towards me. Once she got to 50 yards I squeezed the trigger and watched the fox drop to the ground. A nice vixen was the result.



I kept moving to the far side of the permission where you can get a good view all around from a hill. Got there and glassed as far as I could see. Nothing was moving and the light was going quickly. I decided to call it a day and head for home. Just as I came to the bottom of the hill I noticed something next to the cattle around 250 yards away. Binos confirmed that it was a fox. Back to the top of the hill and got set up. Ranged him at 230 yards. Aimed where I thought was good but unfortunately shot straight over his back. If it was mating season I might have got lucky Couldn't see the fox run so hung tight and after a few minutes here he comes trotting across the field. He was holding the distance and then began to get closer. He was finding it hard to stop but when he did I squeezed off a round but this time I hit underneath him :mad: Again he kept coming and finally stopped at 120 yards. Third time lucky, .223 did the job and knocked a nice dog fox. I couldn't believe how rusty I had gotten with 2 missed shots in very reasonable ranges.



.223 back up and running I was looking at RFD's that had 6.5 Creedmoor ammo. After finding a local dealer with a decent selection I headed in and picked up a box of 95gr VMax and 143 ELDX. Tested both and happy with the results I stuck with the Vmax. I headed back to the same spot as with the .223. Got to the second field as mentioned above and got set up. After 15 minutes nothing was moving so decided to do some calling. After a few minutes a fox popped out of the ditch at 30 yards from me. Got myself adjusted as I was hoping something would show itself 100+ yards away along the bog. Once adjusted I placed the crosshairs on the boiler house and squeezed off a round. Fox down. Another vixen resulted. Was happy to have 3 foxes out of the area and to have both rifles back up and running

Cass

Jaysus, rumors of your death were greatly exaggerated.

You'll find times when shooting doesn't enter your head for one reason or another (usually like in your case when real life takes priority) and other times when you cannot get out enough (not enough hours in the day).

Still you're back in the saddle and even an outing or two a month will slowly break you back into things.

Good write up and read. :cool:

clivej

A good read, and good that your back with a hobby that gets you out.

2 years, 7 months since your last post. Did you sell that Bushnell Banner.........
:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: