2nd grey of the season, crazy night

[Chris B]

What a night we had last night.....

Stand 1: Got permission to hunt at my aunt's house, just behind her barn. Her property butts up to about 20 acres of brush lots. We get setup just after sunset and were just waiting for it to get dark enough to start running the light. We were about 5 minutes from starting to call when all of a sudden my partner flips the light on quick and there's the biggest grey fox I think I have ever seen!! I scrambled to get the gun on him as we smooched him. He stopped once but then quickly disappeared into the brush. My partner swings the light back and there's another one, coming right towards our lip squeaking. I throttled her right there with my buddy's 17 WSM. We called for a few minutes and then decided it probably wasn't a good idea to educate so we cut the call and moved on.

Stand 2: Set up in a field across the road from the house where we park and I put the call close to an island of thick brush and we sat across the field with our backs to the edge of the hardwoods with a creek behind us. 5 minutes of nutty nuthatch and we hear the infamous "tsh tsh tsh tsh" of something coming in, right behind us! A grey fox slipped up the creek and was going to come out right where we were sitting....it got about 5 yards from us and then hooked a U-turn and left at the same speed it came in. we continued our set to no avail, but did hear a pack of coyotes light up across the road.

Stand 3: Went to the laydown yard just outside of town that my boss owns (I work for a construction company) and got setup. Played nutty nuthatch for about 3 minutes and the wind and snow picked up like crazy. 2 minutes later my call dies.....unbelievable. So we sit there a few minutes in silence ad the snow stops. My partner decides to use his mouth call. About 10 minutes later we catch eyes across the railroad tracks and disappear as quick as they were found. We called on and off for another 20 minutes and decided to pack it up. Got halfway across the laydown yard and my partner thinks he forgot his bag so goes back to get it. I shine the light around and see nothing, I'm about 30 yards from the truck so I'm just looking down, daydreaming. All of a sudden I hear "hey hey hey hey hey hey hey" and I look up, my partner is 10 yards to one side and a grey fox is 10 yards on the other!! We shined him and tried to stop him but he took off outta there. we were speechless...... I walk over to the truck and start putting stuff away while my partner walks over and grabs the chair he dropped when we tried to get the fox. I look up and 65 yards down the haul road I see the fox start to cross. Are you kidding me?! I lip squeak and light him up. he stops for a half a second and disappears.


What a night..... saw a grey fox at every stand and only managed to get one. And that one wasn't even called to!

[BizCT]

Awesome night!

 

I don't have a ton of experience, but from what I have been told and witnessed the greys are much more aggressive and will come to a call sooner than a red or yote or bobcat.

 

I never called anything in (that I saw) in NY in the few times I tried, then when I was in Arizona I did everything exactly the same and called in and killed 2 greys in 3 sets. Also called in a big bobcat (saw the tracks in the sand), but never saw it.

 

I've actually been thinking about going to AZ for like a week and just do predator calling on state land.

[Chris B]

I definitely have a lot more luck pulling the fox in rather than the coyotes. In the past, I've seen the greys charge harder, where the reds will sit and observe, and then creep but this year, the reds have been equally as bold for us.

 

The coyotes are still a huge PITA for our calling efforts. Only got one of them this year but we have had some awesome encounters and close calls though.

[F-150]

Congrats on your hunt, and good luck in the future!    

[PREDATE]

Nice un'

I used to get a lot of grays down in Broome co. I'm seeing more reds up here.

The grays will also tolerate loud & frantic calls more than reds and yotes

[Pygmy]

Cool account, Chris...Back in the late 70s/early 80s we used to call in a lot of greys here in Steuben...Our best night we killed 8...They were bringing $50 then, and reds were bringing $75, but we killed very few reds...They seemed a lot tougher to bring to the call and tended to hang out of range of our shotguns and #4 shot..Coyotes were not even heard of in this area at that time.

[stoneam2006]

Man you gotta love grays....awsome job

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

[grampy]

Nice story of a cool hunt! Keep em coming and best of luck out there!

[Chris B]

Thanks guys.

 

We went back out last night and took a newbie with us and put him behind the gun. First stand was dry but on our second stand we called a grey in from behind us, we think he came from across the road. I ran some bird sounds on this stand and then switched to grey fox distress and shortly after I hear something over my right shoulder and he popped out 12 yards to our right. he kinda busted us but was confused and ran out to 60 yards and began circling the call. Our new partner was having trouble keeping up with the fast pace but was able to squeeze a shot off after the fox stopped 4 or 5 times lol. Unfortunately he missed....bad news for him is that he's hooked now lol  

[Steuben Jerry]

What a great night, and great report!