Shot a fox

Nobody told the fox that the hour had changed, so he was following his usual routine and appeared about 6.50 GMT. The plan was to call him in across the field to my front, and I was all set up to take a good steady shot. I called a couple of times, and saw nothing - then suddenly there he was, almost at my feet, looking up as if to say "what's a dying rabbit doing up there?" I adjusted my position as quietly as possible, and took the shot as he stared up at me, trying to work it all out. At such close range the .17HMR knocked him flat with no trouble. He was a biggish adult dog, not one of this year's cubs, and in excellent condition.

One less fox in the wood

This is one of the cubs raised in the wood next to the release pen. With the birds arriving in about a week, their time is up.

This one wandered out as the light faded tonight, and made an easy shot for the .17HMR. I was using the slightly heavier CCI Gamepoint 20grain ammo, designed to mushroom rather than fragment.

I don't think it would have made any difference on this shot, but I'm finding it a good, solid hitting round.

So, one down, not sure how many to go, but I've seen the vixen, a very dark coloured animal. She'll be harder to get.

Zeroing the .17HMR

I spent some time at the weekend checking the zero of my .17HMR. It's a heavy-barrelled CZ, and a superbly accurate rifle, although the trigger lets it down somewhat. I managed to get a fairly tight group and move it onto the spot at 100 yards (it started off about an inch low and 1/2 inch to the right).


My dad was always labelling things with his Dymo labeller, and I seem to have caught the bug - although I use a more modern version that prints black letters onto strips of sticky plastic. I've printed out the trajectory of the bullet and stuck it onto the stock, for easy reference in the field. I'm sure there's a better way, but it's always right there when I need it!