Out last night.

Well I got bugger all except watch a fox come to one of three farms and disappear into the round bales for a warm rest! Biggn too.
Walked a fair bit last night and after walking the dog before dark. Bloody knackered.

The other night my dippy beddiwhippet that is the softest mouthed terrier hound mix I've ever known and dumb enough to get bitten every time she catches a rodent caught a rat.
Can you guess what happened, yep got bitten.
So there I am rushing home, gets her in the bath, shower, coal tar soap rubbed in, dried off and tea tree oil slavered all over the bites.
Turns out the rat got three bites in before she did what she should do first!
Thick mutt...
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That might speed her up a bit, I know when my Russell bitch had to have her upper eyelid sewn back on she killed everything and anything right at the get go .... will your hound need follow up?

P.S. Blanked last night.:thumb:
 
That might speed her up a bit, I know when my Russell bitch had to have her upper eyelid sewn back on she killed everything and anything right at the get go .... will your hound need follow up?

P.S. Blanked last night.:thumb:
She is fine and no I doubt it will speed her up, every squirrel for the past 10 years has bitten her 🙄.
I didn't have her from a puppy. For her first two years she was kept in a cage with two other dogs that mauled her....
 
Very frustrating evening today, went up to my shoot, had 2 foxes out on the field, clearly a dog and vixen. The vixen disappeared into the oak wood and the dog did a loop around the caller, now I would of probably taken the shot but I let my mate on the rifle and he wasn’t comfortable with it so let it go, looks like I’ll be back on my own soon to see if I can gather them up
 
Was out tonight, starting with some rats. We managed 20 odd between 2 of us

Then out again on the rabbits. Weird 1 with not many out and especially where they normally congregate. Still managed to bag 3 myself even then they were very skittish tonight. Mate managed 1

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His & hers last night! Dog top vixen below.
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Dog first. Came in nicely, in a roundabout way, to big rabbit distress. Caller was about 80yd out from me. Charlie sat down 50 odd yds from caller looking at it. Last thing he did, dropped at 137yds.

It'd been drizzling all night, but really began about 2330 so I made a walk back to yard. Still scanning, and see heat in next door field as I come down our hill. NV confirm fox but can see much with way land slipped and hedge obscured her. A lip squeak got her attention but wouldn't come through hedge. But I was happy could see enough so took her at 178yds head shot. She had a fat little belly so would have been underground soon I reckon. Good night.

Very happy too as I used quad stick again. Ive struggled to get on with them. Had decided last night was last chance before they became a freebie on here but somehow it all worked last night.

Due to bit of a rifle/scope juggling act, I've the pard 008S back on my 204. Not ideal condition last night but I took VCSEL and LED torch to compare. Hands down pref the SRX.

Cheers 🤟
 
His & hers last night! Dog top vixen below.
View attachment 355120

Dog first. Came in nicely, in a roundabout way, to big rabbit distress. Caller was about 80yd out from me. Charlie sat down 50 odd yds from caller looking at it. Last thing he did, dropped at 137yds.

It'd been drizzling all night, but really began about 2330 so I made a walk back to yard. Still scanning, and see heat in next door field as I come down our hill. NV confirm fox but can see much with way land slipped and hedge obscured her. A lip squeak got her attention but wouldn't come through hedge. But I was happy could see enough so took her at 178yds head shot. She had a fat little belly so would have been underground soon I reckon. Good night.

Very happy too as I used quad stick again. Ive struggled to get on with them. Had decided last night was last chance before they became a freebie on here but somehow it all worked last night.

Due to bit of a rifle/scope juggling act, I've the pard 008S back on my 204. Not ideal condition last night but I took VCSEL and LED torch to compare. Hands down pref the SRX.

Cheers 🤟
I don't leave the house without my bushwear quad sticks for foxing or stalking, once you get to stage of chucking rifle up with out thinking they are great, am confident shooting out to 250 off them.
Well done on the double, might get a an hour or two this evening 😀
 
One last night, at our farm off the field used for the young lambs (once they get out), a dog fox into the caller at about 90yds.
Exited barn, from where I was laying up on a platform of small bales, watching over the fields that rise up a bank behind the farm, and start squelching to collect the caller - bloody fox was walking towards me, about 30 yards away and moving quick. Got rifle up to see the fox taking off, a shot at 200 fluffed, and a further missed follow up whilst it was on the run. Both rushed shots.
Bugger.
No idea where that one had come from, and as quickly as it appeared, it disappeared again like a fart in the wind. Very P’d off that I didn’t have a further scan when I stepped out the barn, or had given it another 5 mins.
Won’t do that again…. well I will…. Just maybe not for the next few weeks (then I’ll forget)
 
Unintentional long night last night.
Lady FB is in London for a few days so I went to the brand new hill ground which I had toured that early evening with the adjacent sheep farmer - long walk up the lane which we had driven earlier, pausing, calling and scanning at intervals, eventually the lane faded out and it was in and out of open fields for maybe twenty minutes of walk and call but only seeing rabbits.
Right at the top in a strong wind I was busted by a fox which came out of the very gorse I had said earlier to the farmer was a certain spot for foxes but my only approach was always going to be wrong for the wind so I wasn’t really surprised..
The really interesting bit came when heading back to the yard where I had left the sainted Jimny - long story short I was totally lost! This hill is pitch black with no obvious or familiar markers (it was my first outing) and every sodding field had an opened gate (no beasts out). All I could do was head downhill in the hope of striking the narrow road (wherever it was) or a lane at some point - the thermal was actually put to good use spotting gates rather than having to climb suddenly encountered dry stone walls topped with barbed wire. I had one very near miss which could have easily been a disaster - a sudden drop of three or four feet in a corner of a field where I had literally stopped to scan for the next gate - put the B&Q sticks out to step forward and touched nothing - scared the bejasus out of me - baby steps ensued….
Funny how the mind works (in full overtime) after losing your way for half an hour in pitch black and on unfamiliar ground. Panic? Moi?
Then inspiration - mobile phone, Google maps! Out it came and there was I, taking all the right steps but not necessarily in the right direction. This app really was a godsend - I could have been wandering around the same few hills until dawn or until my remains were found (probably in the Summer) still clutching the blessed sticks with one hand and the sainted triple deuce with the other. With Google’s help I finally struck the lane and gravity did the rest - I really don’t think I have ever been so pleased to see the Jimny!
Sooo, after some reflection and not wishing to over-dramatise - it was not like the Scott Antarctic expedition and I was not Titus Oates it but it was lonely unfamiliar ground and a real learning point for old FB. Herself was in London which being a Londoner she is quite often, no-one else (especially me) knew my whereabouts, no-one would have noticed that I was not at home. I routinely go out on solo trips, this time if I had stepped off that unseen drop or simply tripped over my feet and fallen badly I am certain I would have had a very real problem - particularly if I had forgotten my phone. From now on I will ensure that someone knows where I am - the downside of course is that in my circumstances and the odd hours that we fox shooters keep it may have been quite some time before I was missed. A very sobering thought after wandering about on a windy night, high on a lonely unfamiliar hill in near freezing temperatures!
Make sure that you do the same chaps - I know I will not make the same mistakes again!
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Then inspiration - mobile phone, Google maps! Out it came and there was I, taking all the right steps but not necessarily in the right direction. This app really was a godsend
🦊🦊
With Google Maps you can share your location (Assuming you have data and location turned on) either permanently or for a fixed number of hours.

So you could either share your location with Lady FB, or someone else, if you think it better that Lady FB doesn't know the hunting to housework ratio you are keeping in her absence 😉
 
Whenever I pick up a new bit of land I confirm the boundaries with the farmer and trace them out on Google Earth, then sync it to my phone. Not only does it help me find my way until I get to know the place but it also ensures I don’t inadvertently cross a boundary with a firearm onto land where I shouldn’t be.
 
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