So,last night,I decided to fling a local vineyard owner if I could go hunting at his block this morning ( incidentally I helped plant the block over 20 years ago ) as my fiancé was heading up to town to pick her kids up for the weekend and I was free for the morning 
Well,I never received an answer till after I waved goodbye to her this morning at 7am,at which point I checked my phone and lo and behold I'd been sent a
. Lol.
So I got my stuff together,grabbed the Seneca,and trundled out to the block. It had been raining overnight but the early morning had been clear so temperatures had dropped,then cloud cover came over with the sunrise so it was quite chilly.
Arriving at the block,I went through the routine of running a cleaning patch down the bore,then capping off. I loaded a .350 prb with beeswax/olive oil lube over 60gn of 2f ( I KNOW! Way too much! But its what the gun likes!
) and set off,unfortunately with the wind at my back as there's only one way to enter the block 
.
Had a bit of a whistle on the edge of a really nice gully system that I used to hunt before the vineyard sold it off,to no avail. So I meandered along the edge of the vineyard looking down the rows,hoping to see something interesting but not expecting much. Lo and behold though,I spotted a "lump" in the row about 100m off,that just didn't look QUITE right. So I carefully stalked in towards it ( with the bloody wind at my back and canes cracking underfoot! ) until at around 40m it lifted its head and I determined that it was indeed a fox ! I lined it up,set the trigger,and touched the shot off,only to have a delayed ignition and a flinch and missed the fox completely! To rub salt in the wound,he jumped about 2m then stood there looking at me standing there with an empty rifle for a good minute before trotting off. Ah well.
Reloading the rifle from my fox face bullet block,I set off again,this time for a steep,wooded hillside that overlooks a lovely river flat where I often fish with my atlatl. Finding a nice big old gum tree with a broken branch to sit in front of,I started whistling. Only interest I had for a good 15 minutes were some crows coming in to see what the fuss was about. Then all the sudden I spot it,a nice big old dog fox,coming out of the tall grass along the river and trotting across the flat straight towards me,fully locked on to my position. My heart started pounding,even after shooting scores of foxes I still get excited. I stopped whistling as soon as he showed,but he still kept straight on. As he got within 30m I very slowly eased the Seneca to my cheek,squinted down the sights,drew an bead on his nose,and BOOM,the shot went off almost unexpectedly and he collapses like he was hit with the hammer of Thor ! Not a twitch. After a minute or so of sitting there composing myself,I wandered down for a look. The ball had missed slightly left,skun down his cheek and entered his chest. Instant lights out.
Then came the chore of skinning him out with a knife completely unsuited to the task,and the walk back to the ute. What an awesome fox and an awesome morning !
Well,I never received an answer till after I waved goodbye to her this morning at 7am,at which point I checked my phone and lo and behold I'd been sent a
. Lol.So I got my stuff together,grabbed the Seneca,and trundled out to the block. It had been raining overnight but the early morning had been clear so temperatures had dropped,then cloud cover came over with the sunrise so it was quite chilly.
Arriving at the block,I went through the routine of running a cleaning patch down the bore,then capping off. I loaded a .350 prb with beeswax/olive oil lube over 60gn of 2f ( I KNOW! Way too much! But its what the gun likes!
) and set off,unfortunately with the wind at my back as there's only one way to enter the block .Had a bit of a whistle on the edge of a really nice gully system that I used to hunt before the vineyard sold it off,to no avail. So I meandered along the edge of the vineyard looking down the rows,hoping to see something interesting but not expecting much. Lo and behold though,I spotted a "lump" in the row about 100m off,that just didn't look QUITE right. So I carefully stalked in towards it ( with the bloody wind at my back and canes cracking underfoot! ) until at around 40m it lifted its head and I determined that it was indeed a fox ! I lined it up,set the trigger,and touched the shot off,only to have a delayed ignition and a flinch and missed the fox completely! To rub salt in the wound,he jumped about 2m then stood there looking at me standing there with an empty rifle for a good minute before trotting off. Ah well
.Reloading the rifle from my fox face bullet block,I set off again,this time for a steep,wooded hillside that overlooks a lovely river flat where I often fish with my atlatl. Finding a nice big old gum tree with a broken branch to sit in front of,I started whistling. Only interest I had for a good 15 minutes were some crows coming in to see what the fuss was about. Then all the sudden I spot it,a nice big old dog fox,coming out of the tall grass along the river and trotting across the flat straight towards me,fully locked on to my position. My heart started pounding,even after shooting scores of foxes I still get excited. I stopped whistling as soon as he showed,but he still kept straight on. As he got within 30m I very slowly eased the Seneca to my cheek,squinted down the sights,drew an bead on his nose,and BOOM,the shot went off almost unexpectedly and he collapses like he was hit with the hammer of Thor ! Not a twitch. After a minute or so of sitting there composing myself,I wandered down for a look. The ball had missed slightly left,skun down his cheek and entered his chest. Instant lights out.
Then came the chore of skinning him out with a knife completely unsuited to the task,and the walk back to the ute. What an awesome fox and an awesome morning !
