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augnmike
12-22-2006, 12:03 PM
Well I met Soreloser at about 1:00 pm for a few day stands in the desert yesterday. We did a little scouting and then made a coyote stand with no luck although Soreloser did check his zero on a jack at about two hundred yards, right on. wink.gif

Nest stand we set up in an unbelievable wash that gave us a view out to 500 yards. There was dog sign everywhere and this was not "cat country" so we were expecting to get a good coyote response to the wailing FX3. Eleven minutes into Lightening Jack I see movement, its another jack rabbit (saw five while SL was setting the decoy and the call) but behind it was a bobcat coming in at a trot. I made a low clicking sound and SL knew something was coming but couldn't see due the angle. I followed the cat from about 180 yards to 140 yards, he stopped twice along the way to check out the sounds and decoy. On his second stop at 140 I put one in the boiler room. He ran about twenty yards and piled up. Man what a surprise that was! First daytime bobcat for me.

We went to get a celebratory steak sandwich, gassed up, put on warmer clothes and headed out for some night work. Things got off to a real bad start for sure, we were calling in eyes but angles were bad and communication as always is a challenge. I shot at a fox at 194 lasered yards, we had a good meat report so we spent a half hour looking nothing found. SL had a dubious shot at the fox and no luck as well. We had a brief disussion about getting our sh!t together and then got down to business. Next stand we lit up a cat that hung up at about 300 yards. SL decided to take the Maglite/shotgun combo and go on foot with me on the 6-volt behind him. He got close to it but at the end it took off with a load of fours following it away. I went back to the furbucket still carrying the running FX3 which was on Coaxer shut it off and waited while lip squeaking. At the truck I swept the area and found eyes, after finally getting the light, my sticks and the rifle in concert I dropped the first gray fox and the stink was off. SL came back the truck and couldn't believe I had scored on my own working the call, sticks, light and gun.

Next stand SL doubles on gray's thirty seconds apart. We then proceed to score on the next five stands as well. We had six consecutive stands with animals in the bag. Talk about on fire!

We got so accustomed to seeing eyes and hearing meat reports. On our last stand, SL on the light, we got eyes within five minutes again. It was coming really fast, like all the foxes do. I could not see eyes in the scope after the intial sighting but caught movement a couple times as it came in. It hit the trail in front of us and I saw it briefly again but lost it behind a bush. Eventually I thought I saw it on the road with my naked eye and it was sitting down next to the trail. I quickly put my scope on the chest and fired, big meat report, bang flop. We headed down in the vehicle to get the last fox of the night but guess what, not a fox, my second bobcat of the day/night. We were beside ourselves at that point. http://www.jesseshunting.com/forums/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/banana-man-yeah.gif

Took quick pics and then headed home. Epic night in California, I understand they have some ok predator hunting in Texas as well. http://www.jesseshunting.com/forums/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smiley_rotflmao.gif



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Rimrock
12-22-2006, 01:03 PM
Boy! That&#39;s a pile of fur. Good going.

SFHOGWILD
12-22-2006, 01:41 PM
Just proving my theory that Natural Gear camo was made with Californias different regions in mind, looks like good clean fun...

younghunter
12-22-2006, 03:14 PM
awesome pics! can&#39;t stop lookin&#39; at them, congrats!

augnmike
12-22-2006, 06:59 PM
Of course on the night work camo didn&#39;t matter but your point is right on. On our first day stand I went and set up in the rocks while my partner put out the call. When he turned around he literally couldn&#39;t find me. I have completely switched to all Nat Gear this season.

DEERSLAM
12-22-2006, 07:08 PM
Awesome http://www.jesseshunting.com/forums/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smiley_10sign.gif
Heck of a hunt.

My only thing is that I have been looking into getting a FX3, actually ordered it yesterday, and checked out the CA G&F regs and it is illegal to hunt grey fox with an electronic caller. http://www.jesseshunting.com/forums/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smiley-peepwall.gif

augnmike
12-23-2006, 07:54 AM
You are right about the fox you must use hand calls in those areas you expect to call fox. The good news is they call in real easy. Most of those we got were on lip squeaking only since we were picking up eyes in the first two mintutes of hand calling. From there they lip squeaked right to the truck.

brushstomper
12-24-2006, 10:25 AM
Those are some great pictures!!! I just started calling last year and it has been a blast, never tried doing it at night though. Did you use a red light or just a standard spotlight? Thanks again for trhe pics and story got me all fired up.

augnmike
12-24-2006, 12:43 PM
Brushstomper, we use a spot with a red lens that comes off when its time to burn &#39;em. Works good, especially on the coyotes and bobcats. The fox&#39;s we shoot mostly with the red lens still on since we lip squeak them in very close, sometimes too close.

brushstomper
12-26-2006, 07:18 AM
Thanks for the info. Is the red light used to help not scare the animals off? Is it used to spot and then right before the shot light them up with regular light for better shot placement? Thanks again for the help! What do you plan on doing with those good looking cats?

SFHOGWILD
12-26-2006, 11:55 AM
Depends on how much light your scope gathers.