GTA
General Discussion To Gateway To Airguns => Hunting Gate => : shadow September 30, 2008, 03:14:55 PM
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What a night I must say and as you all know how I start my night hunts, setting up just before dusk and waiting for the night to bring out the critters. Tonight was no different as I silently waited in the woods for something to appear out into the open. I did a quick glance down to check the time when suddenly I heard the sound of twig's snapping very close to me, to close. I quickly got to my feet and peered into the darkness looking for anything and here it came and I could make out a white body and knew it was a possum.I dropped the barrel of the CFX , lit the lamp's and there he was about ten feet from me and looking at me then behind him then back at me. Then it came to me, something else scared him first and then he ran into me, he was stuck in the middle and what on the other end??. I put the lamps up a hair to maybe get a glimpse of what was out there and found no eyes looking back at me and that's when he made his dash for the deep woods and out of sight. Now my hearing is electric and eyes searching every shadow that my lamps created and that's when it appeared from behind a tree trunk right at the wood line and over twenty yards down from me. He froze there with just his head sticking out from behind the tree and still pumped from my close encounter I raised up the CFX with the lamps still blazing and placed the crosshairs on his head which gave me a perfect shot at his eye. Laser set and Predator away shortly followed by the sound of a rock solid impact. His head vanished from sight but I could hear thrashing from the darkness and after several minutes silence. I reloaded quickly and made my way to his last location, made my way around the tree to find him on his belly and expired. I must have been alittle excited from my possum encounter, the Predator hit a hair high hehehe but hit him hard. I left him lay and counted out some yards from his tree to mine, about twenty six and I did stop often in the process to lamp around me for any other critter, I got my rush for the evening lol. I gathered him up and grabbed some pics for you all and I'm thinking of sending some live ones Jeff's way lol hehehe. Ed
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Big Ed, sure looks like one of Timmys frozen coons...LOL! Nice shooting my friend,ya gotta luv it!
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Lol buddy mine are always fresh as a daisy er well a expired night critter hehehe. Ed
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Wow you have a racoon factory over there Ed! Nice shot, pics & story! That's a good looking healthy coon. Your CFX is more capable that I thought.. Good thing it wasn't a skunk walking towards you and only a possom :) Skunks sneak up on me all the time. They seem to be a little blind and their hearing is not so great either. I usually have to tap my feet to the ground hard, or make loud noises so the skunk will stop coming towards me.
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Thanks Harry and the woods in this area are dense and runs into state hunting land so the critters are essentially coming into town for dinner hehehe. Skunks, I sniff for em every time I'm out there cause there's nothing worse then running into "PEPPY La Pue" .:( Ed
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Great pics, great shot!
Man, I'm so envious. I've got a good sized hunk of property here, but since there's some roaming feral cats in the area, it's almost completely devoid of critters. The ones I do see are enough of a novelty that I have no desire to shoot at 'em.
Maybe if I constructed a grand fence all around the place, and imported pests to make my own little wildlife preserve/hunting area... well, that's just silly. Heh.
Good luck to ya,
Parks
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Great shooting Ed!!! and great hunting story.. nice racoon and shot placement, to the fuzebox :)
I never see raccoons around here. My yard has a 6 foot stockade fence around it, and my dogs don't help much either. I had a woodchuck in the yard a few years back, but the dogs got a hold of him and he expired pretty quickly...lol
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Ed, what can I say except OUTSTANDING !!! You and that CFX are certainly certain death to any raccoon in a fifty mile radius :)
I'm still workin on my raccoon problem,,,, I even installed motion detector lighting that covers every approach into my yard from the woods in the back. If he steps one foot into my yard it'll become daytime in an instant. Anyway,,,,, excellent shooting there buddy. You're gonna have a freezer full of raccoon meat in no time flat..... :)
Jeff
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Thanks fellow hunters, the night activity is steady with winter coming on and after a day and a half of rain I knew that they would be moving around. I also installed a custom cheek rest on the CFX the night before, much better and I think you can get a glimpse of it in the pics. Ed
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Dang Ed I was expecting a bobcat or something.. The story had me on my toe's.. Great shootin and story...
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That's some fine shooting indeed Ed. Then again...I havn't seen a bad shot from you yet. I'm curious, What kind of scope mount do you have on that rifle...it seems to be supporting a lot of weight, that, combined with recoil, I would think would make that thing move. Obviously it's rock solid.
Thanks
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The scope looks like a Tasco Golden Antler 3-9x32. I have a couple of them but I could be wrong since I can't see the back too well. They are only 3/4lb but very solid scopes.
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You are nailing at least one critter a night...congrats again.
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Thanks a bunch GTA hunters and the scope is a Golden Antler as Harry pointed out and the mounts are Accushot two piece with lamp mount in the back and a laser mount in front. The Golden Antler has held up GREAT! and all is rock solid. Bobcat, I would have had my hands full then hehehe. I do know that there are foxes around here, came across some tracks after the rain the other day and I'm sure they'll make a appearance sooner or later. Ed
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You ARE sending that pelt to me, aren't you?
Parks, the same air gun that takes care of your other pest problems will also take care of the feral cats. Remember, cats are extremely destructive to wildlife.
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You put a thumping on him. Nice job. How is Michigan?
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Thanks David the varmints have been good to me here in Michigan hehehe. We've been getting this hit and miss rain lately but its that time of year and the snow will be coming soon, love winter hunts.:) Ed
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what a hunt ed great coon he looks pretty big to me, love your setup and all i can say is wow to the critters you've been getting recently great job best of luck it would be nice to get a fox for sure.
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Thanks John and its been real active at night around this area lately and being that I love to night hunt it works out just fine.:) I always have two of my babies setup for night hunts and check em daily for loose screws, batteries and sighting em in, don't want to be in the dark wood's and watch my harvest get a way because of a bad shot or dieing lamps. I had that happen to me only one time, weak batteries and lamps going dim right in the middle of a midnight hunt.:( Ed
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Great catch and great shot buddy. Those woods are not safe for any critters with you around..:) Ed you are one great hunter my friend and I am envious as heck.. hehe You definetly took after your dad..:) Sometimes I think the hunting forum is the best out of all the different forum's..:) You, Jeff, Harry and everyone else who post in here your accounts of hunting are just fantastic and I sure hope it never stops.
Gene
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Thanks my friend I try to stay in that hunting groove and I do enjoy reading about my fellow hunters post almost as much as hunting itself. Ed