I am a Post Secondary Instructor for heavy truck repair. Our school has a strict policy against fraternization between students and staff. However, once graduated, the policy ends, so I keep an open invite to ALL of my technicians.
This weekend AzBushman and I had the opportunity to take out a recent grad, Tom. Tom, as you can see, is prior military(army) and was one of my favorite technicians. He has a work ethic that is amazing, coming early, staying late, doing extra work, everything that I could ask. So when he graduated Friday, we jumped at the chance.
Sunday's hunt report was not spectacular, so I decided to take Bushman and Tom up North of Phoenix into an area that I felt had a lot of promise. It is rocky and brushy and I took a bobcat out of the area a few weeks back, and saw a LOT of sign. Our first couple of frigid stand(32 deg), saw no takers to the calls. Our third and fourth resulted in some random hikers showing up. The winds were coming up a little, and we had more and more people sightings in our first area, so we decided to drop back and punt, and run to a new area a little further in.
Stand 6 held a lot of promise, but again no takers. We did however notice that the tracks on the road and trails showed a lot of movement in the direction that the wind was coming in from, so Bushman and I decided to go with that, and headed toward these rocks in the distance:
We found a cattle watering hole, and dropped the truck behind the brush, and moved along the water hole fence line toward our rocks.
On approaching the rocks, we saw that the brush was VERY thick, so we decided to set up with the wind across our left shoulders, and called toward a small ravine in front of us. AzBushman(ABM) set up watching the backdoor, with Tom and I slightly left of the call facing the ravine. 30 seconds into jackrabbit distress, I see a fox pop it's head out next to a fence post. No sooner do I see it's face, and the wind shifts, right from behind us. The fox dives back into the ravine. I whisper to Tom that we had been busted, but to continue watching the ravine. I switched first to canine pups, then into coyote pup distress 3, to try and get the fox to look back up. Instead, I see the fox jump right up onto a rock in front of us, and turn to look at the caller. Knowing that we had a split second, I take what I thought was a well aimed shot with my shotgun. To my amazement the fox continues to stand there, although it seemed to be shivering. Showing his military background and training, Tom swung his shotgun onto the fox, and just a split second before I popped my second shot, Tom takes the fox down off the rock. My second shot sailed into the great beyond. Tom had his first fur down. Turned out that the fox had taken quite a few hits from my shotgun, but was still in the game when Tom put it down for the count.
The look on his face says it all, I think he might have been a little embarrassed by the big deal that Bushman and I were making of his first fox, on only his SECOND hunt ever.
We continued down the wash to our next stand. We decided to let Bushman take Tom out, and I would stay back at the truck to skin out the fox. I hear Bushman begin playing jackrabbit distress sounds in the distance as I begin skinning. I hear some scuffling in the brush across the wash behind me, but I looked and saw nothing. Then I hear rustling directly behind me, and I turn to see a fox standing about 10 feet from me, watching me skin. As I pondered the statistical likelihood that I could get to my shotgun before the fox bolted, the fox solved my problem by bolting right past me. I swear I could have kicked him. Instead, I drew my pistol, and proceeded to bark, getting the fox to pull up about 50 yards up the hill, behind a bush. Momma didn't raise no quitter so I took careful aim, and let fly with my Glock 19. Sadly, my desire for a clean, one shot kill, over rode the little voice inside my head, telling me to light up the hillside, and the single shot that I chose to send, failed to hit it's mark, and the fox lives to fight another day. As Tom and Bushman returned to the truck they reported hearing my shot, and I explained the situation. Bushman tracked the fox up into the rocks, and tried a few calls, to no avail. Agreeing that we at an AWESOME highpoint, we decided to call it a day, and have already begun plans for our next trip. So the fox is in the pickle right now, and as you can see in the pics, it should come out quite nicely.
Man I love taking out guys that can have these kind of experiences. Take my advice, mentor someone on a hunt. It is a great reward.
This weekend AzBushman and I had the opportunity to take out a recent grad, Tom. Tom, as you can see, is prior military(army) and was one of my favorite technicians. He has a work ethic that is amazing, coming early, staying late, doing extra work, everything that I could ask. So when he graduated Friday, we jumped at the chance.
Sunday's hunt report was not spectacular, so I decided to take Bushman and Tom up North of Phoenix into an area that I felt had a lot of promise. It is rocky and brushy and I took a bobcat out of the area a few weeks back, and saw a LOT of sign. Our first couple of frigid stand(32 deg), saw no takers to the calls. Our third and fourth resulted in some random hikers showing up. The winds were coming up a little, and we had more and more people sightings in our first area, so we decided to drop back and punt, and run to a new area a little further in.
Stand 6 held a lot of promise, but again no takers. We did however notice that the tracks on the road and trails showed a lot of movement in the direction that the wind was coming in from, so Bushman and I decided to go with that, and headed toward these rocks in the distance:
We found a cattle watering hole, and dropped the truck behind the brush, and moved along the water hole fence line toward our rocks.
On approaching the rocks, we saw that the brush was VERY thick, so we decided to set up with the wind across our left shoulders, and called toward a small ravine in front of us. AzBushman(ABM) set up watching the backdoor, with Tom and I slightly left of the call facing the ravine. 30 seconds into jackrabbit distress, I see a fox pop it's head out next to a fence post. No sooner do I see it's face, and the wind shifts, right from behind us. The fox dives back into the ravine. I whisper to Tom that we had been busted, but to continue watching the ravine. I switched first to canine pups, then into coyote pup distress 3, to try and get the fox to look back up. Instead, I see the fox jump right up onto a rock in front of us, and turn to look at the caller. Knowing that we had a split second, I take what I thought was a well aimed shot with my shotgun. To my amazement the fox continues to stand there, although it seemed to be shivering. Showing his military background and training, Tom swung his shotgun onto the fox, and just a split second before I popped my second shot, Tom takes the fox down off the rock. My second shot sailed into the great beyond. Tom had his first fur down. Turned out that the fox had taken quite a few hits from my shotgun, but was still in the game when Tom put it down for the count.
The look on his face says it all, I think he might have been a little embarrassed by the big deal that Bushman and I were making of his first fox, on only his SECOND hunt ever.
We continued down the wash to our next stand. We decided to let Bushman take Tom out, and I would stay back at the truck to skin out the fox. I hear Bushman begin playing jackrabbit distress sounds in the distance as I begin skinning. I hear some scuffling in the brush across the wash behind me, but I looked and saw nothing. Then I hear rustling directly behind me, and I turn to see a fox standing about 10 feet from me, watching me skin. As I pondered the statistical likelihood that I could get to my shotgun before the fox bolted, the fox solved my problem by bolting right past me. I swear I could have kicked him. Instead, I drew my pistol, and proceeded to bark, getting the fox to pull up about 50 yards up the hill, behind a bush. Momma didn't raise no quitter so I took careful aim, and let fly with my Glock 19. Sadly, my desire for a clean, one shot kill, over rode the little voice inside my head, telling me to light up the hillside, and the single shot that I chose to send, failed to hit it's mark, and the fox lives to fight another day. As Tom and Bushman returned to the truck they reported hearing my shot, and I explained the situation. Bushman tracked the fox up into the rocks, and tried a few calls, to no avail. Agreeing that we at an AWESOME highpoint, we decided to call it a day, and have already begun plans for our next trip. So the fox is in the pickle right now, and as you can see in the pics, it should come out quite nicely.
Man I love taking out guys that can have these kind of experiences. Take my advice, mentor someone on a hunt. It is a great reward.
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