My son made it home on leave from Marine Officer TBS in Quantico for Christmas. He and my nephew wanted to do some predator hunting so we headed out last Thursday night on the promise of a full moon for some calling.

On the first stand we got eyes after about 10 minutes of calling and had them work real hard to use terrain to get down wind on us. I switched from a red light to a green EWT 250 light and could clearly see the coyotes head as it hugged a shallow draw about 200 yards out. I shot and missed and it took off for the next county but it was a small victory to have called one in on our first stand.

The next stand was a timber set and we only had about 40 yards of clearing in any direction. We had set tight for about five minutes and then I started calling. I immediately picked up eyes through the timber heading for the clearing. I told the pups to get ready we had a hard charger. My son was on the shot gun and nephew had an AR with a red dot. As the eyes cleared the edge of the trees and entered the clearing we lit it up with the white light and saw as much to our surprise as his, a big gray fox. I had not seen a gray around here in over a decade. My gunners were so surprised they did not even pull a trigger! The gray flipped tail and left as fast as he came into the clearing. Again no fur on the ground but a gray sighting was a treat.

While driving to the next stand we see a critter digging in the ditch. My son says “That is a badger! We hit the brakes and grabbed the spotlight. Sure enough it was a little square badger. First one of those I had ever seen around here. He squinted back up out of the ditch then turned and waddled out into the corn stubble.

The last two stands were dry, no fur in the ground but a good night in the field with the Pups.

Its nice to have family back from service.
And better yet if you could go out and hunt together.

Kills are not important, it is the time taken to hunt I guess is the best of the experience.

Sounds like in more ways than one that night was just destined to be special. It isnt always about the shooting. Having seen the fox and the badger will mark that night in everyones mind for years to come and you will always remeber sharing it with your boys. Doubt it gets much better.

Sounds like in more ways than one that night was just destined to be special. It isnt always about the shooting. Having seen the fox and the badger will mark that night in everyones mind for years to come and you will always remeber sharing it with your boys. Doubt it gets much better.

Dawgdad wrote:

I shot and missed

Dawgdad, I don't expect that happens very often? Glad you had a good night out with the pups.