Cliff Dwellers

Arizona Bushman

New member
Lately, foxes are not very high on my list of predators. Usually I let them pass and wait for a bobcat or hope for a big cat. When I do take a fox it is very unlikely that I will spend the time to post the details of my hunt.......that is unless something notable occurred. My latest fox adventure qualifies as note-worthy.

SnowmanMo and I had been unsuccessful for most of the morning. The day was dragging on and the temperature had risen to "sweaty" plus the wind was unpredictable at best. We pulled into town and took a quick break where Mo proceeds to tell me that he has to be home early and hunting till dark was not an option today.

I dug into my book of un-orthodox and came up with a plan that involved calling into deep canyons that were hopefully holding fur-bearers looking for some refuge from the Arizona Sun.

The plan worked like a charm......almost.

Keep in mind that what comes up.......must go down.

Seriously, ten seconds into calling a little grey fox exits from under a tree that is directly under me. The fox makes a beeline straight up the cliff and stops underneath Mo. The problem is; due to the extreme angle, Mo cannot see the fox that is less than ten feet from him!

The fox can go no further due to the edge that he is under and plots a new path. His new path exposes him to the wonder of high speed BB's and is now directed on the path of least resistance.........DOWN..........WAY DOWN!!!

I am not so sure that the shot killed him, but I am positive that the sudden stop at the end did.


Good thing I spent a few summers at Camp Korangal and know a thing or two about weapon mounted cliff navigation. Going down??


Gangnam Style?? I prefer Mountain Goat Style.


A hop......skip......and jump finished the decent.


Fur DOWN........no pun intended.


......and yes the climb back up sucked. Thankfully I didn't have any Afghan flashbacks.



 
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Good job, AB! I always say it's the retrieval of our bobcats that is many times the challenge. They are usually around our rimrocks. Looks like your grey fit that scenario.
 
Nope didn't see him until Bushman mountain goat's down there. I wasn't that long into the stand when I see Bushman raise his shotgun. I had enough time to swing my head and BOOM!!! I see dust and rock chips fly off the cliff into space. I see Bushman tracking something with his shotgun so I was on alert to see if the fox was running down in the canyon. Needless to say that when I did look out over the edge it was clear that the fall had finished the fox off.

Keep in mind that the canyon has to be 150 feet down, and that the fox had come almost all the way up when Bushman pops him. I would also like to point out that there were rappelling anchors in the rocks where we were and since we were lacking the proper ropes that Bushman decided to go "wireless." Just watching him do that was a pucker factor 412.

It is always an adventure going with the Bushman. Never know what you are going to see or what will happen. Good times.
 
Quote:since we were lacking the proper ropes that Bushman decided to go "wireless."..That desert heat can make people do some really strange and 'off the wall' things....
crazy.gif
 
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