Got surprised by a fox this morning.

[Sourdough]

Got up at 4:30 this morning and went for a walk.  Full moon lite up the area real bright with the snow.  Had a split reed call and stuck it in my mouth to keep it from freezing.  The path I was walking on led across the flood plan the turned along a wooded area, before going into the woods.  I was headed for the river that runs farther back behind the woods.  Thinking about other things and not really paying attention to what I was doing.  I started squeeking the call each time my left foot hit the ground, but did not really realise what I was doing, just not thinking about that.  Did not expect anything to come in anyway.  Suddenly a Red Fox came out of the wood and ran straight at me.  Gosh, I almost yelled, I was so surprised.  I did gasp, and that stopped the fox, 10 yards from me.  I was so flustered that I did not make sure which barrel the Savage over and under was set for.  For some reason I was thinking .22LR, was I surprised when the 20ga went off.  The rest of the day just went down hill from there.

[Glanceblamm]

Sourdough
Ya did very well considering this suprise. You probably had that gun in line with the hammer back without even thinking about it as I know a Fox can dissapear just as quickly as this one did appear.
Alot of us probably would not have got the shot off.
Course it pays to pay attention where you are at...I greatly enjoyed your story on the Moose hunt in the other forum.

[oso45-70]

Sourdough

I laughed so hard i almost wet my pants at that one, I do know the feeling of being surprised at some little thing like that, The first thing that comes to mind is { look around to see if anyone was watching } Have a good day sir......Joe........

[lucky guy]

I had one of those encounters a couple of weeks ago.

I was walking into the sagebrush around a reservoir to hunt quail.  I'd just crossed the fence and was walking toward the water to let a couple of fishermen know I was there.  Something caught my eye and to my left about 10 feet away tucked under a big sage brush mound was a bobcat, good sized and with a full winter coat!  It stayed put while we checked each other out for a good 2-3 minutes.  I finally took a step toward it to move it along.  I only had my 12ga with me, there would not have been much of a pelt left at that range so it got a free pass this time.  I will never again leave the sidearm in the car!

 

[bigjeepman]

Sourdough ...
That was a good post ... I was laughing out loud imagining what it would have been like to witness you blowing on your reed call with every "left" step. And then a fox goes into the "attack mode" on you. I agree that you did very well getting a shot off. If that had been me, I would have ended up in the emergency room to have a reed call removed from my throat.

The only thing I can think of that surprised me in the woods was ... I was walking through the bottoms one day and suddenly an albino whitetail fawn stood up about 25 yards in front of me. Having never seen an albino deer before, the first thought that struck me was that I had been "walking toward the light" and I wasn't aware that I was dead yet. It was kind of an eerie feeling.