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Predator/Varmint control

Hunting fox again. I just got a red fox with the 835 and now there's another one getting close and curious. I saw it stalking the cats yesterday. I believe it's one of this years kits from the pair we were watching in the spring.

They had been using a downed tree to cross the creek and this one used the frozen creek yesterday to cross. I haven't been able to tell that it's used the trees yet.

I missed getting a shot at it yesterday because I took a break to pee.
 
I usually take an empty Gatorade bottle with me, for just that occasion. Plus, with the lid, keeps the scent down too.
 
On the topic of attractants, is anyone using any sort of lures like gland oils/musk or slinky type baits? What about something like fox urine?

I'm still working on taking care of the fox, I also need to get a beaver. A literal beaver. No inuendo.

It looks like these things are most commonly used for trapping which isn't an option, and the urines used for a cover scent or to make an area seem ok, to take the edge off a weary predator.

The beaver dam isn't on my property, but the beaver is destroying my property and flooding my low lands. I have few options but I know where it comes out of the creek. I can see slides and tracks and I know what trees he's working on.

Oh, I got an ecig. Its not called vape-scrape though. :)
 
Finally beginning to feel better. Arthritis has been kicking my butt lately. I set out a decoy this evening and called using an app on my phone with a Bluetooth speaker. The only thing that came in was a ferral cat. I think it may actually be one from a previous litter from our barn cat.

Anyway, I've got a couple pics.

This is the skull of my fox from early last season;

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And I hung it with another on the wall over the mantel. I wasn't supposed to but my wife was asleep so I took advantage of the opportunity. She said they couldn't stay, but so far she isn't enforcing that ruling.

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I just finally got a predator light, a 350 lumen red LED that boasts a range of 250 yards. My longest shot here is about 100 yards or so.

The light has a center dense spot with a halo like flood and it's not adjustable which is fine. Typically, it seems that adjustable lights have a dark spot in the center while on flood and no peripheral while on spot. This has no dark areas or gaps and does both at the same time.

I was able to use it last night and I'll include a couple photos in a moment. The light came with a mount that attaches to a scope, but I'm using a light clamp that works with a picatinny mount so I can switch easily from my shotgun to rifle and back. I still have the picatinny mount on my rifle that came with the bipod so I used that last night. It isn't ideal because of the location on the forend. The forend tapers somewhat from the action forward as most stocks do so the spot part of the beam is higher than what I'm viewing through the scope. Even so, using the peripheral flood portion or the "halo", I was still able to see clearly and well enough 100+ yards down range. However, I think I'll try a thin piece of cardboard or card stock as a shim in the front of the mount only because I'm loosing some valuable real estate of the light, it's not being used efficiently.

So, my youngest and I set up after dusk last night. I had been hearing coyotes all around earlier in the evening. We didn't set up until it was already too dark for just a scope without any other light source. I didn't use any bait or decoy. I turned the light on and with just a Bluetooth speaker and an app on my phone, I used a locator call and several minutes later, followed up with a cottontail in distress call. Almost immediately after the distress call, I saw red eyeshine. But only for a second. It started up the hill but didn't come back in to view, it disappeared along the hill where the light couldn't touch it. But it had come straight at us. My daughter and I are not the quietest hunters together. I'm almost positive we spooked it. So it can wait for another night.

Now some photos of how it's set up. On the 835, it's mounted to the CDM Gear MTR clamp using the provided 3 slot rail on the side opposite of the sling point. On the 835, the spot beam seems to match up closely with the sights. I'm going to test this soon at 40 yards, maybe this evening. I'll do a short video on a target and see how it turns out.

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And then on the rifle it's on the other side of the firearm. I'm doing it like this to keep things simple with the picatinny light clamp.

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Got my IR video camera working!!! It's not awesome, but I'll have a chance to try it out this weekend and hopefully with the red light it will be decently clear. Though it records in 480p so it might be grainy.
 
Can you use it to help in night vision, or is the range too limited?
 
The camera has a 40 power optical zoom and Carl Zeiss glass and the digital zoom is something more than that. That said, the IR light doesn't reach that far. I'm hoping the combination of the gun mounted light with the night vision on the camera will help aid in spotting and ID-ing. Like last weekend, we saw red eye shine. But I don't know that it was a coyote. It could have been fox and it's not fox season.

I'll definitely go out there tomorrow and set it up on the tripod. I guess the better way to say it is that I hope to use it as a night vision spotting scope.
 
Well, I've got a short video but it's on a memory card and I have zero way to transfer it and post it. The camera works with the light decently though.

The light works swimmingly and I had cause last night to use it. 100 yards in the dark with the light being my only illumination and 1 60gr VMax. DRT. Good shot placement through the shoulder and large gnarly exit wound. There will be no salvaging of pelts of any sort. We had a dead chicken and I set it out as bait. I had used a call a couple times and while I had seen some eye shine, nothing really came in. I was about to go in for the night. I tried just calling making a squeaking noise with my mouth and something came in. It died on top of the chicken.
 
I've been hunting at night every weekend since I got the light. At 350 lumens and an LED instead of a filter, my target stand is clearly visible at just over 100 yards. And that's using the halo or peripheral part of the beam, only because I haven't been able to get the light aligned quite right with the scope. Still working on that.

If I had to complain about the light, it would be that the batteries, while rechargeable, don't last very long. I don't know if that is something inherent in the type of battery or what. One of the batteries dies pretty quickly.

So, I didn't see any coyotes last night, I did see a fox but it isn't fox season. No shooting last night but I did see all kinds of stuff including small rodents. There was something that crossed the path and then just hung out on the edge of the tree line across from my decoy. I never did figure out what it was. It was there, and then after some time it left. Then it came back. Each time it was there for 20 minutes or longer it seemed. It looked at me, it blinked, it moved around some, it watched the decoy... not downwind of the decoy but across. I'm thinking maybe a feral cat? Not a possum, those don't care if I'm there or not. In fact one came out of the trees not 15 feet from me and was hanging out until I made some noises at it and then it casually walked back in to the trees.

I have another question though;
My scope was fogging up last night. Not internally. It was kinda cool, air was not quite still and was a little humid. It was condensation on the outside of the lenses. I use Zeiss lens wipes to clean it as needed and then I have a couple of the soft, optics specific, dry cloths I use as needed. Is there something safe that prevents the condensation from forming? Last night was the first time it's happened.
 
Are those lithium ion batteries?

I've had some problems myself and I started a thread in the off-topic area.
 
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Could be a fisher cat....mean lil basterds....
 
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