As most of you know I'm a hardened aircooled VW fan so the opportunity to go spotlighting in my good friend Carlyle's Bug was too appealing to turn down. Carlyle is a top guy but his current job has just about killed all oppotunities to hunt so it was the first time in years that he'd actually hunted. Here we are fueling up and getting a coffee before going out last night.
We arrived at my friend's 1000 acre property around 9pm and began by seeking rabbits around the stockyards and machine sheds with a handlight. Because of the long grass they were well hidden but due to some good shooting from my Anschutz using Rem Subsonics and Carlyle's Lithgow Mod 12 with Win Power Points we took a bunny each, a pleasing start.
Preparing the Bug for spotlight:
We then headed out to look for other game. This property usually has copious amounts of hares but we next spied a fox in a smaller paddock. He was reticent and ran away from us despite our whistling. Finally he was still over 200yds out and we could only see his eyes popping up and down on a log. I had my Sportco Martini Hornet with the usual load of 10gr of AR2205 behind a Nosler 40gr BT so, knowing the sighting was primarily for 100yds I sat the cross hairs above his head and squeezed. Both Carlyle and I heard that sweet sound, the "thunk!" that tells you the game is hit. Problem was I could still see it's eyes and it was a long way for the Hornet. So we went to check it out. Only 30yds away a shape was seen lying across the log like below....
This is exactly how the fox was found....barely a mark on him. As you can see I was very happy. Overjoyed would be closer!
Here's a pic of the rifle responsible, the Sportco Martini Hornet....
To give you an idea of how big the fox actually was here I am holding by the scruff of it's neck. It was NOT light!
We kept looking from there in the hope of finding Carlyle a fox to bag with his Swedish Mauser 96 sporter. Here he is spotting from the Beetle:
Over the dash with sheep in the distance:
We looked around and found another fox but it was not going to stay put and after an extensive search finally found a hare. It was not going to stop however so Carlyle gave it a 105gr Nosler BT injection in the behind at 70yds. It never had a chance.
By then it was really late so we began to head back. I managed to nail a bunny back around the sheds using the Hornet. I love this rifle.
So while we only came away with 3 bunnies, a hare and a fox it was immensely satisfying to get out there. With all the recent rain the long grass made it very easy for game to hide so a month or so down the track when the stock have eaten the grass down and things have dried out it will be much easier to nail stuff. Carlyle went home tired but happy. Let's hope the 2hrs of sleep he got got him through work today!
