doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Quick winter morning hunt with Beretta SXS 410E

Woke the three kids up at dawn, the boy (8) wanted to stay in bed, the girls (6 and 10) were keen to go for a morning dawn walk.

I let the 10 year old take my .22 (I got it when I was 11 so I figured it was a good time to start her) I told her she could take sitting shots at rabbits and I would back her up with the shotty. Its the same Beretta 12g 410E sxs I posted pics of a few days ago. I had some number 4's (36gm) to take.

We were 5 minutes into the walk when a hare bolted from a boxthorn clump at full noise running away from us. It was not a .22 shot due to the speed, so I hit it with a first barrel at about 30m (once I realised it wasn't stopping for my daughter) and then it crossed to the left and I hit it again. we walked about 10 paces towards where the hare had gone down, I had time to drop two more shells into my gun and a fox, no doubt making a getaway after the noise came over a contour bank toward us. He was only at a trot about 25m away so made an easy broadside target. He must have misjudged the direction of the noise and clearly had not seen us. He dropped instantly. After this we saw two more foxes within the next few minutes, but they were outside shotgun range and I couldnt get my hands on the .22 fast enough. We tried to whistle them up, but I think due to the noise and the wind picking up they were becoming very skittish. So the whole walk only lasted about an hour.
I took some pics to share the short morning hunt with you all.



I also found these pig rootings, I will take some SG's next time.



Some pics of the country this block offers.



Check out the white foot on this fox - I have not seen one like this before.

VERY, VERY NICE Roy...........thanks for sharing the photo's...good job well done.....!.... I'll bet your daughters were excited.......

I think more morning walks are in order mate.........

Cheers....

It's great that your young ones wanted to go. My son when he was 5 years old use to tag along with me. When he got a little older I let him shoot at the pen raised pheasants that flew in the trees upon being flushed. Had to hold the barrel up for him. After a while he didn't want to shoot them out of the trees, wanted to try them flying, but that was later when he was older.

Are the red foxes the only ones, or do you have any gray ones there? Any upland birds, quail or pheasant around?

Great pictures and post some more when you go again.

My 5yo is bored with ducks after this season...
We have stubble quail, but no pheasants (unless going to King Is. or one of a bare handful of shoot and release places). There isn't quite the wingshooting tradition in Aust that is in US/EU/UK - but some world class wingshooting can be had if you're in the know.
Looks like a good piece of countryside able to offer a good mixed bag. I love a walk through that sort of stuff.
RG

Enyoyed the photos!

The hare looks to be about as big as the fox!

Best

I didn't know foxes were good to eat!

Thanks for the pictures Roy and thank you for sharing your experiences!!
Beautiful Beretta you have there and you certainly know how to use it!!

Roy, pardon me but them don't look like no marsupials I ever seen! Sure you're on the right continent, mate?

Just kidding; I guess you have "invasive species" like we do in CA. We had Eastern red foxes too, brought in by the horse and hounds set and very damaging to some ground nesting native birds. But the resurgent coyotes ate them! Now we just see the native gray or "tree" foxes.

Neat "rough shoot," just what I like to do, too. Here we get to pack a handgun along with the shotgun, which helps when you need to reach out a little more.

That hare looks more like one of our American jackrabbits ( also hares) than the European hares I've seen. Do you know where they originated?

Roy,thanks for sharing the hunt and pictures with us. Bobby

That's great taking the kids out. I have a 20 year old coming out this evening to shoot .22. The kid comes from a family that never was interested in guns. I'm propping up some clays in my lawn grass to make it more fun. I think we are planting seeds for the future.