Super Snowy

The electronic caller wailed loudly in the valley above the river, the rabbit distress call echoed around the hills. My new Howa .223 was ready with the bipod legs fully extended in the sitting position. On its second cycle I spotted a flash of red to my left, as I swivelled my body and rifle to face the incoming Reynard. It saw me, then turned and bolted - was it going to do a ‘look back’?

I was at my cabin on the banks of the Snowy River. As a family we are here once every 18 months as it is 2100km from home. The cabin has no neighbours, rainwater tanks and a generator for night-time lighting, plus a fuel stove to warm the cabin as we regularly suffer -6 degrees Centigrade overnight temperatures.

I tracked the fox in my Zeiss scope. He was about 140m out and heading for the thick bush that he came from. As I had hoped, he did prop for the ‘last look back’ with the cross-hairs centred on his chest just as I squeezed the trigger. The 55gr Hornady handload dropped him on the spot. I walked over to find the male fox, who was in prime condition and tipped the scales at 6.4kg. One less lamb and native wildlife killer to worry about.

My mission for this trip was to remove as many foxes and feral cats as possible, while also bagging some rabbits for