Another night patrol in the book's

[shadow]

Yesterday evening looked to be a promising one with the weather forecast looking good into the evening so with the NP and gear ready to go I headed out around 9:30pm. Arrived on location and quickly made my way across the grassy field and then hit the trail into the wood's. My lamp's were still strapped to the tree's from the night before so I just switched them on and did a slight adjustment to light the game trail. I silently moved back to my hide and settled in then double checked the NP,locked  and loaded with a FTS. It took about a half an hour to get my night eyes adjusted and to let my hearing tune into the sounds of the night and with my Hunt Zen ready I just sat back and watched the trail. It was going on midnight and a slight breeze was filtering through the tree's and I took in the fresh smell of the night air, great stuff. I was just settling in behind the glass to do a trail check which I like to do now and then to look for anything that my eyes are missing at 25yrd's when a masked face appeared just inside the light of the first lamp. It was perfect timing since I was already behind the glass so I released the safety and watched as he took several step's and giving me that nice frontal shot. I didn't waste anytime since he can move on and I would loose the shot, cross hairs between the glowing eyes and FTS away. Another solid hit nails a Bandit as he drop's right to his belly roll's onto his side and does a short shake then expires. I reload and give him another look through the glass but he wasn't moving a inch so I climbed out of the hide and did the slow cautious walk down the trail. When a arrived I noticed that the front of his head was already swelling up and fusebox matter was pushing out of the wound. I give him several pokes anyway then glove up to grab him for some pic's. The NP dropped him at 23yrds with another third eye shot and FTS pellet and it was going to be a early night or morning so to speak as I stowed the game, gun and gear and headed out. I had the critter dressed and gun and gear put away by 3:00am and then hit the hay to dream about a future hunt hehe. Ed

[shadow]

Jeff did your night raider ever return?. I know that he was hitting your place randomly awhile back. Ed

[atchman2]

Nice shooting.  He looks like a fat one!  I'm jealous of the "private land hunting" in your state. It just seems silly that you can't hunt the smaller game anyway anytime you want on your own land or your families.  

What is crazy though is when I was in KS I found out that they could only take a SINGLE turkey in the spring!  This is a state overran by the silly things, those AND deer!  Heck in TN you can have four turkeys in the spring, but shoot just one per day (that is silly too, but not THAT silly).  You could easily take a dozen deer in TN if you could hit all the WMAs.  They have their own draws for tags and any animal taken there doesn't count against your yearly total.  Now what you would do with that many is silly, but if you really wanted to do it you could.  

On the good side I think you can take 2 coons per night.  I don't think I'm in danger of ever hitting that limit. I get too cold before I can ever get that second one.  

(On a bad note, my deep freeze expired taking my coon hides with it!  They stank so bad from the spoiled beef in there I just threw them out).  

[only1harry]

Great job again Ed!  Very nice shot placement on that bandit.  

You and the Trail NP are inseperable now!  You make a good combo, hehehe.

[ShadowShot]

Nice shot Rambo. Third eyes the charm.

[gamo2hammerli]

If only that racoon had a third eye before you gave him one, he would`ve sensed you and scurried away.  Great night hunt and photos.

[shadow]

Thanks brothers and Randy it is nice to have some private enclosed land to hunt on and there's private lands that I've hunted on but haven't been back in over a year, time to go visit some old hunting grounds. I think tonight I will give the NP and take the big bad Extreme out.   Ed

[longislandhunter]

Another fine night hunt buddy,,,, excellent  !!!:)

As for my night bandit...... he's never showed his face again.  Seems like every time I gear up to hunt him he stops coming around.  It's fine with me though, as long as he eats out of someone else's   garbage cans me and him won't have any problems  

Great hunt buddy and some good eats as well....

Jeff

[dk1677]

Great shooting and commentary again Ed! Congrats!

[Tpatner412]

Awesome shooting Ed. You seem to have a knack for getting those bandits right between the eyes .

Tyler

[shadow]

Thanks brothers and Jeff he'll probably show back up when you least expect him hehe. Tyler When I zero my shooters in or check the zero before a hunt I Sharpie out an outline of the critter that I will be hunting and make it smaller then actual size, makes me really focus on hitting the kill zone.   Ed

[Tpatner412]

That's a really good idea. I've been using my gamo squirrel knock down target with the ring reducer things to sight
mine in. It's been working very well for me so far

[shadow]

It's quick and easy for me since I don't target shoot just hunt. Ed

[Perry50]

In that case Ed, a tin of pellets will last you a very long time. One pellet per night. Awesome shot and great narrative.

[shadow]

Hehehe thank you sir. Ed