Well maybe not that old-fashioned but fun none the less.
The advantage of living in the country is you never know what you will see when you look out the window, and I almost didn't believe it when I saw it.
As it was a work day I was making a quick cup of coffee before disappearing back into the doldrums of my office. The Keurig was brewing away when I thought I saw a quick glimpse of red go running by the window. I took a closer look but couldn't see anything so I went back to minding my coffee when I definitely saw a flash of red this time.
I was quick enough this time to see that it was a fox running outside the window and I went downstairs to pull out the trusty Mossberg MVP Varmint. I still haven't had a chance to take it out on a true predator hunt so I figured this was as good a time as ever.
Now the bad part about today was it was -28C without the windchill and, if you were walking into the wind, it felt like -40C easily.
Regardless out the door I went and I saw two foxes about 150 yards out playing in the field. I started to walk out towards them as stealthy as I could but when I was about 100 yards away one of them saw me and they froze in their tracks. I brought the rifle up to take aim when they decided that enough was enough and they started to run.
I took aim as best as I could and took two quick shots with no results. I had been shooting low. I had picked up a box of Hornady Varmint Express .223Rem shells the day before at Cabela's but I hadn't had a chance to sight the rife in with the new ammo. It was shooting close to where I had it but not close enough. I saw they had disappeared over the ridge so I jumped in the truck to see if they were going to stick around for a couple more shots. And as I crested the hill I saw they had.
Out of the truck I jumped and fired two more shots. They were approximately 200 yards out and again I had the same results as before except this time I was shooting high.
I figured they had enough and would have disappeared into the brush. I jumped back in the truck to head home and just before I pulled in the driveway I spotted them again. They were a little bit closer now but it would still have been a strong 150 yards away. I adjusted my sight pattern again and took two more shots.
Yep same result except I hadn't been leading them enough and shot behind them. Off they ran but this time for good. I felt shame about my shooting performance but it was still fun just the same. A disappointing fox hunt is still a fox hunt!
One of these days I'm going to be able to try to tan a coyote or fox pelt but today wasn't that day.
