Post by redsnow on Mar 7, 2013 10:16:25 GMT -6
I'll tell you about a little varmint hunt that took place on Thursday, February 28, 2013. The 28th, was the last day of West Virginia's regular hunting seasons.
It started out like this: Thursday is my day off of work, my hunting bud Moe, usually gets off work around 3:30pm or so. We'd already made up a plan, and had a backup plan, well, several backup plans. It was kinda windy, but since it was the last day of season and all, we were going to give em one last shot. Moe picked me up at 5:00pm, and we rode up to our first choice of locations.
We had a good bit of daylight to kill, so we stopped by the old farmhouse I've been remodeling, and showed him the recent progress. The sun was down, getting dark pretty fast, so we drove on out to the planned staging area and sat there in the truck bs'n till it got dark. The call was ready, lights had a full charge. When the time was right, we eased outta the truck real quiet, snapped the doors shut and got into position.
I'll try to describe this first setup, it's pretty tight quarters. Anything that would show up, would be in shotgun range. I would run the call and the light, Moe had the gun loaded with Federal 3", #2's. There's an old road that follows along the base of the mountain, it's in and out, up and down and goes on for 3 or 4 miles. Anyway, there's a little farm lane that cuts off 90 degrees to the left, Moe and I setup in the intersection.
I put the call where I wanted it, pointed to the ground where I wanted Moe to stand, neither of us said a word. We'd talked about all that stuff, while we were back at the truck. Moe and I were standing there almost shoulder-to-shoulder. When calling after dark I'll setup almost on top of the calls speaker. It was maybe 10 feet away.
Before I turned the call on, I scanned the area, 360 degrees, with the big light. Honestly about the only shooting lanes that we had were at 12:00, 9:00 and 6:00. There was brush to our right side, hit it with the light and it'd about half-way blind a feller. So, I concentrated on the roads, anything else that would pop outta the brush would be at 30 feet, or less.
When I'm running the light, I don't leave it on full time. Just depends on how much ground I have to cover. Out in the wide open, I use it a lot more. Anyway, I turned the call on, and I like to start out on low volume and then bump it up. I'd sweeped the area 3, maybe 5 times? I bumped up the volume a notch or two? Just scanning, 12, 9, and 6. Six, 9 and 12.
Basically, Moe was standing in the dark, he didn't know exactly when I'd turn on the light, and the man with the light will almost always see eyes first. I shined the light at 12:00, a fox just stopped and was standing there, maybe 35 yards out. I elbowed Moe, he was coming around with his gun, he'd seen it just a split second after me. Ka-whoom! The fox went down, made 2 or 3 feeble jumps, Ka-whoom! Moe hammered it.
(Moe is a very good wingshot, he has good reflexes, quick on target. What happened, the fox was behind some weeds/bush to Moe, it turned it's head, so I lipsqueaked once or twice. (A gray fox standing on bare ground, they don't show up very good in the beam of a red light. Unless you can see their eyes.) It took off, coming closer just as Moe shot.)
As soon as the fox hit the ground Moe let out an eardrum-splittin yell, "FOX DOWNNNNNNN"! I chimned in at the top-of-my-lungs, IT'S A BIG SON OF A. . . I danced a little jig around Moe twirling that Q-Beam spotlight over my head like an airport beacon, all the while yelling "YOU DA MAN! . . . YOU DA MAN!" The celebration was ON! lol. (just pickin on the boys from up north) lol.
Seriously, as soon as Moe shot the second time, I turned off the light, the call was still running. Moe elbowed me, and I elbowed him back, we kept right on calling. 12 Oclock, 9 oclock and 6 oclock. My opinion, once you call in an animal, doesn't matter if you kill it, miss it or whatever, I'll restart the clock. Give that area another few minutes. You're already setup, alert and on your toes. Varmint calling can get very intense. That's what makes it fun.
Once it was all over and done with, Moe went out to get his fox, and I told him: Well, lets go get another one! We called 2 more spots that night, but didn't see anything, and both of us had to work the next morning. But that's a pretty nice way to finish up a season.
It started out like this: Thursday is my day off of work, my hunting bud Moe, usually gets off work around 3:30pm or so. We'd already made up a plan, and had a backup plan, well, several backup plans. It was kinda windy, but since it was the last day of season and all, we were going to give em one last shot. Moe picked me up at 5:00pm, and we rode up to our first choice of locations.
We had a good bit of daylight to kill, so we stopped by the old farmhouse I've been remodeling, and showed him the recent progress. The sun was down, getting dark pretty fast, so we drove on out to the planned staging area and sat there in the truck bs'n till it got dark. The call was ready, lights had a full charge. When the time was right, we eased outta the truck real quiet, snapped the doors shut and got into position.
I'll try to describe this first setup, it's pretty tight quarters. Anything that would show up, would be in shotgun range. I would run the call and the light, Moe had the gun loaded with Federal 3", #2's. There's an old road that follows along the base of the mountain, it's in and out, up and down and goes on for 3 or 4 miles. Anyway, there's a little farm lane that cuts off 90 degrees to the left, Moe and I setup in the intersection.
I put the call where I wanted it, pointed to the ground where I wanted Moe to stand, neither of us said a word. We'd talked about all that stuff, while we were back at the truck. Moe and I were standing there almost shoulder-to-shoulder. When calling after dark I'll setup almost on top of the calls speaker. It was maybe 10 feet away.
Before I turned the call on, I scanned the area, 360 degrees, with the big light. Honestly about the only shooting lanes that we had were at 12:00, 9:00 and 6:00. There was brush to our right side, hit it with the light and it'd about half-way blind a feller. So, I concentrated on the roads, anything else that would pop outta the brush would be at 30 feet, or less.
When I'm running the light, I don't leave it on full time. Just depends on how much ground I have to cover. Out in the wide open, I use it a lot more. Anyway, I turned the call on, and I like to start out on low volume and then bump it up. I'd sweeped the area 3, maybe 5 times? I bumped up the volume a notch or two? Just scanning, 12, 9, and 6. Six, 9 and 12.
Basically, Moe was standing in the dark, he didn't know exactly when I'd turn on the light, and the man with the light will almost always see eyes first. I shined the light at 12:00, a fox just stopped and was standing there, maybe 35 yards out. I elbowed Moe, he was coming around with his gun, he'd seen it just a split second after me. Ka-whoom! The fox went down, made 2 or 3 feeble jumps, Ka-whoom! Moe hammered it.
(Moe is a very good wingshot, he has good reflexes, quick on target. What happened, the fox was behind some weeds/bush to Moe, it turned it's head, so I lipsqueaked once or twice. (A gray fox standing on bare ground, they don't show up very good in the beam of a red light. Unless you can see their eyes.) It took off, coming closer just as Moe shot.)
As soon as the fox hit the ground Moe let out an eardrum-splittin yell, "FOX DOWNNNNNNN"! I chimned in at the top-of-my-lungs, IT'S A BIG SON OF A. . . I danced a little jig around Moe twirling that Q-Beam spotlight over my head like an airport beacon, all the while yelling "YOU DA MAN! . . . YOU DA MAN!" The celebration was ON! lol. (just pickin on the boys from up north) lol.
Seriously, as soon as Moe shot the second time, I turned off the light, the call was still running. Moe elbowed me, and I elbowed him back, we kept right on calling. 12 Oclock, 9 oclock and 6 oclock. My opinion, once you call in an animal, doesn't matter if you kill it, miss it or whatever, I'll restart the clock. Give that area another few minutes. You're already setup, alert and on your toes. Varmint calling can get very intense. That's what makes it fun.
Once it was all over and done with, Moe went out to get his fox, and I told him: Well, lets go get another one! We called 2 more spots that night, but didn't see anything, and both of us had to work the next morning. But that's a pretty nice way to finish up a season.