This weekends adventure

[bigben]

Since I spent most of my time looking for a bobcat throughout December and January and haven't hit any of my spots for fox since thanksgiving I figured it was about time.  My uncle, cousin and myself loaded up and went out calling most of the first half of the night on friday.  We made about 5 stands and ended up seeing a set of eyes.  Looked like houscat.  so we ignored em.  We continued for a few more stands and nothing.  we pulled into an area that I have allways done good at.  started calling and ended up getting a fox barking at me from across a rather large creek.  enough a fox won't cross.  we Continued on and called a slate bank.  I found a lot of grey fox sign in this area in the last few weeks and since it was my cousins first time hunting preds at night I wanted him to see atleast a fox.  I turned on a bird distress and left it play for a little bit and then went to the old stedfast johnny stewert grey fox pup.  as I was scanning I caught eyes on the upper level of the slate bank.  Hmm I thought to myself.  that can't be a fox it is up in a tree.  I kept scannin and basically blew off the set of eyes that were up there.  After a few cycles of different grey fox pup we walked to te upper level.  sure nuff the eyes were still there.  by the way they were peaking above the Y in the branch I knew it was coon.  my cousin took aim while me and my uncle held our lights on him.  He squeezed off a shot and the eyes dissapeared but we didn't here the thump.  So we started walking closer.  there are the eyes pearing out around the side of the tree.  again my cousin drew a bead on him.  he shot and this time we heard the tell tale thud of a critter falling out of a tree.  pretty easy to hear in the stillness of the night.  We walked up to retrieve the masked bandit and there he was lookin at us.  one more shot finished him.  I didn't get any pics that turned out because my camera didn't like the lights for some reason.

Saturday I helped my cousin make some deer sticks and then did some running around for my father.  An old time hunting partner was supposed to come up and hunt with me that night.  when he showed up he asked if we had greys around here.  I said sure do.  He lives down towards philly but is going to school in the area.  So that was the targeted animal that night.  I grabbed my preymaster just to change things up.  We drove to the first spot and started calling.  Well them new batterys I thought I put in must not be so new.  so I finished the stand out with a mouth call.  We continued on to a new farm I hadn't called yet that looked good for greys.  when I target greys I look for water thick brush and over grown fields.  this place looked like the hot ticket.  Two stands there produced nothing.  So we turned towards the mountain ground our family owns.  

I grabbed the my foxpro as we stopped on an old logging road.  I explained to him that 99% of the time we will see em coming down the road at us.  he nodded his head in agreement.  he was armed with a shotty loaded down with #4 buck.  We started walking up the old mountian logging trail and came to a thick over grown clearing.  There was also a road that shot off to the left.  I figured our best chance was to watch both the road and the clearing.  that stand produced nothing but the neighbors doggin barking at us from down below.  We loaded back up in the truck and went to another location.  again we were calling a logging road that boarded an old clearcut  it is almost impenetrable now that the jaggers have over took where the poplar once stood 8 years ago.  I started calling and about 8 minutes into the stand there they are.  a set of coal red eyes looking down the mountain at us off the side of the road.  but instead of running down the road at us it kept crossing right into the deep gutter that we push out to make the water run off the road.  I knew that gutter ran over to a trail and would come out on our lefts.  we were looking up the mountain at the time.  about a minute later there they are again.  a set of eyes again looking at us not more then 20 yds away.  as soon as I had my buddy spun around to get a shot on him he had disappeared back into the brush.  We continued to call but got no more responses.

We traveled the rest of the way up the mountain to our cabin.  We parked the truck out front and walked to the rifle range.  we setup about 30 yds away from the backstop.  I figured if we would see one he would come down the road that continued past the back stop and stop probably right at the backstop.  I turned the call on to some bird distress and then switched to some grey fox pup.  about 10 minutes in another fox had found his way down the mountain to us.  He walked up the pile of dirt right at the back stop and sat.  I whispered to my buddy take him.  but I got the word take out and I heard the boom.  I watched the grey collapse in his tracks.  we finished out the stand hoping for a double.  It had been about two minutes since the shot I turned off the call.  That was when we heard the crying of a grey fox.  oh boy he didn't drop in his tracks.  we both ran to where he had been and looked down the steep slope.  by the time we both got there the crying had slowed to nothing and there was no more rustling of the leaves.  hmm well he must have died.  it sounded as if he was only 20 yds down the slope.  we started down looking for the grey.  We continued to look for an hour and a half and did not find no hide nor hair of the crying grey.  

We called it a night and my buddy being disgusted in loosing him he decided that was all for tonight.  I knew he had to be laying up there somewhere and was hoping that looking in daylight would prove better results.  I went to my grandparents for lunch and then headed to the mountain ground which is only a stones throw away from my grandparents.  I looked all over that hill side in the brush and found nothing.  I looked at all likely scenarios and figured if he did run further it would have been back down the driveway of the cabin and up one of two roads that intersected the cabin driveway.  I figured it was worth a shot and walked about 200 yds down one road.  no fox.  I turned around and walked the other way and I seen an ear sticking out of the mud.  I said to myself what do we have here.  I walked closer and there was the crying grey.  he had ended up dieing in a mud puddle and we had walked past him a few times that night before looking for him.  I picked him up and thought he was small but my buddies first grey was worth it.  I called him up and told him.  He said I am on my way.  

I took him home and washed him up and at first glance he looks extremely small.  allmost pup sized.  While washing him I noticed his body size was pretty big.  I looked at his teeth and his canines were wore down so far.  a look at his ears and he had a bunch of tears from years of fights.  he looked like an old man.  even his chin hair looked really thin compared to normal.  he wasn't extremely huge but he was an average grey fox in size wise and with as worn as his teeth where I would imagine he was an old male.  I did get pictures of him.  he was totally black from laying in the mud.  if it wouldn't have been for seeing the white inside of his ear I would have probably walked past him again in the daylight.  

picture of my buddy brad with his first grey.  he has killed reds before but where he lives reds are the most common.  

[CCP]

 Good story Ben and nice gray Brad.   I am sure when he was fluffed up he looked like a normal size Fox the wet fur makes the fox look smaller than he actually is.I would say for a wet fox he looks normal.

[Frogman]

WTG guys!!

Jim

[bigben]

thats what I figured too rich.  I am gonna call him and tell him not to throw the skull away.  if it is still good I would like to get it cleaned.