After days of rain the sun finally showed itself again yesterday. I did get a chance to get up to my private hunting grounds yesterday morning and hold up in a hide in hopes of tagging a G-hog but after three hours of not even a head popping up I called it a morning and headed home to do some camo and tunes. I did spot some nutters while I was up there but gave them the wave by since I really wanted to bag a G-hog. The evening was looking good weather wise so a night patrol pest control was scheduled and I got the gun and gear ready to go before sunset. The shooter for last night's hunt was the proven Extreme.22 since the NP loves the FTS and I'm waiting on my order from PA. By 9:30pm I was on location and checking out my hide situation which wasn't good all the rain had left my hide sitting in about 3inches of water, flooded. :0 I made my way around the flood plains hehe and headed for another hide further back into the wood's and next to the creek. This hide sits on some high ground and by a game trail that connects to the main trail. All looked good so I strapped up my lamp's along the trail and the usual 25yrd and with light fading fast I switched them on and adjusted the beam and brightness then silently made my way back to the hide and settled in. It was a cool night not chilly but just right for taking in the fresh air and with my night eyes adjusted and ears on high alert sat motionless and waited for a customer to arrive. About three hours had passed with noting but several field mice appearing under the lamps on the game trail, where's Randall when you need him hehe but I stayed sharp. I hadn't checked the time but I knew that it was after 1:00am but I just knew that those critters would be getting out after all the rain so I poured myself a cup of java and watched the moth's dance around my lamps down on the trail. With my cup of java finished up I was re-adjusting myself to keep the leg's from falling asleep when I spotted him no wait two of them.
Not one but two Bandit's emerged from the darkness and right under my first mounted lamp and both were in the sniff mode looking for food. The 1250 was already in position so I just settled in behind the glass and rested the cross hairs on the bigger of the two Bandit's. The smaller of two actually stood on his back leg's and with his front one's on the base of tree tree that my lamp was strapped to started sniffing it, thought he was going to climb it and take out my lamp hehe. With the bigger one directly in front of the other and giving me a beauty of a front head shot I planted the cross hairs just above the peepers and sent him a Predator. It sounded like a whip snapping when the Predator hit him and he dropped right to his belly stalled out for a moment and then went into the death dance. I quickly reloaded and hoped to get another shot off at the other Bandit but the minute he heard the shot and then witnessed his buddy going down he was gone. :0 The death dance was over in minutes and I watched as the Bandit did one final leg stretch then expire. I was extra cautious when I slipped out from the hide and made my way down the game trail, locked and loaded and ready for the other to show back up at anytime. With one eye on the downed one and one keeping a lookout I gave him several pokes and satisfied that he was down gloved up and hauled him back to the hide. I decided to hold up until sunrise in hopes that the other would show back up and I didn't want to go moving through the wood's in the dark with another Bandit possibly in the area. :0 It looked like another beautiful day as the sun rose and I knew the other guy was long gone and back into his den so I grabbed the harvest up and shot some pic's for the hunt brothers here then hauled the game and gear back out of the wood's and to the rig. I was just getting ready to exit the resident's drive when he popped out of his house and asked me how I did last night. I waved him over to the rig and told him to take a look in the bed. He got a big smile on his face and hinted that he hadn't had any Bandit steaks since last year when I was hunting here. He's all your I replied so I hauled him over to the resident's shop and was setting up to dress it out for him. I got it he said it's been awhile since I done one but really want to do it and you look kinda bushed hehe. I gave him some quick pointers on dressing it out and sipped a cup of java while he dressed it out. It didn't take him long and I could tell that he's done this many time's in his years of hunting. He's an older Gentleman in his early 70's but was just like a kid as he went to cleaning the Bandit. His wife had stepped out onto the porch rolled her eyes and mentioned something about making room in the icebox hehe. I finished my cup of java and and thanked the resident for the use of his land as I always do and headed for my rig to head home. As I drove out he gave me a wave with a blood covered glove lol then hollered at his wife to bring out some freezer bag's, life is good.
The Bandit was taken at 23yrds and just a wee of center on the front but the Predator got the job done. I'm going to catch a couple winks then get to work in the shop on camo and tunes. Ed
