Waiting For Prey 2: The Hunt

Waiting For Prey 2: The Hunt
by: Ken Leamy

Its early morning, the sun is just rising. Standing here with a cup of coffee in my hand, I receive a text. Target Acquired is all it said. I know Doug is on his way over. Doug is my spotter, but more than that he is my friend. I know he will have the intel, so I have a cup ready for him when he arrives.
Sure enough, there’s the knock on the door. “Coffee” I say, “sure, here’s the target” as he hands me a picture and grabs his cup. I look at it and put it in my dope book asking “you have the location”. He says yes and gives me the coordinates. As I look everything over I say “I’ll grab the MAC30BR” I haven’t shot the MAC on a hunt before so I am thinking its about time I test her out. The MAC30BR is made by Inovairtech and at .30 has a good accuracy rating. “what do you have for backup?” I ask “I brought my Bobcat” says Doug. “It looks like we have a 2 hour drive and the woods are dark, I’ll grab the dark green ghillie and we can get going. You have yours?” I ask. He looks at me and laughs. “What do you think?” saying as he walks out the door.

Two hours later were at the base of the trail, we grab our stuff, through my Drag Bag on and get ready to head out. According to the intel we have a two mile hike through the woods and another mile upstream. The sky is clear, no clouds, slight breeze, as we are walking through the woods the sound and smell of the forest is enchanting. You can hear the finches, and sparrows chirping in the background, there are small animal trails cutting across our trail. The smell of the pine trees, and once in a while a musky smell wefts by making you wonder if your being watched, the color of the Fall leaves are very enticing. The trail looks well used, we are slowly climbing and I here something up ahead, not sure but it sounds like water, off to our right there is a stream, so we start following it up.

After a short distance upstream Doug holds his hand up, we squat down, he says were getting close, gives me a little more intel on where the target might be. I look around and notice its getting steeper on each side of the stream so we stay on the high side. I figure if our target is up stream, I want to be above it. A little farther along the sound of water is getting louder and the sides are steeper. Up ahead through the brush and trees I can just see it, a waterfall. We are steadily moving higher, I am going to feel this workout for a few days. You can feel it in the air now, the mist from the waterfall. as we come around the next clump of brush it is there in all its glory. The sound, the spray, the beauty of it all around us.

We’ve been moving slowly and crouching for so long that I feel some relief when Doug whispers he believes we are here. I look at him, then at the chasm of space in front of us. As I kneel there the waterfall to my left, about a 200′ drop to the pool below and 90 to 150 yards across to the other side. So now I need to find a perch of some sort so that I can stay under cover and still see all around me. I am up against some bushes slowly looking around and I see it. Up there closer to the falls, a flat area with overhanging brush, If I can get in there I can have a good view of the other side, the bottom and some of this side. I signal Doug and we make our way up. As we are moving I have not seen any sign of our target. There is not very many places to hide, this may be tough.

We made it to the outcropping, there is just enough room for the both of us. I pull off my Drag Bag, throgh out my pad, pull my MAC30BR out and set the bipod to low. For a scope I have a Sun Optics 4-14x44FFP, very clear for here. the light is very dim because of all the trees, ferns and brush. The waterfall puts out a lot of mist so it has dense growth all around us. So I start scanning, looking in every nook and cranny. Doug says the target is here somewhere, he feels it, so the search is on.

Searching the other side scanning for anything that looks out of place, I spot a squirrel, his lucky day, he’s not the target. There, a little higher up, a movement, something, no, just a Fox. Keep scanning, its there, it has to be, but where is it hiding. As we lie there a slight breeze swirls the mist in the air, a feeling of dampness, still scanning, the target is being very elusive. There seems to be many small ledges and outcroppings with brush on them. The target could be anywhere.

Wait… there, on the other side, why didn’t I see it sooner it looks like a small ledge. There in the brush, I think, maybe. I’m looking hard through the scope there is a branch with leaves on it slightly swaying back and forth, something behind it. I point it out to Doug and ask for a range check. he just smiles and says its not working. and he didn’t see anything. Yeah, Right, well, I am sure I saw something, so I keep watching. I know what I saw, it just didn’t look right, it had to be our target. So I am focused on the last spot where I thought I saw it, and then the branch wiggled, no, it was over a little. Yes there, I see it again, I know I’m on it. Darn whats the yardage Doug’s rangefinder is whacked. Got to guess, nothing to size with, guessing 90-95 yards. Still aiming at that spot, I know its there, My eye is getting a little fuzzy, come on blink stay on it, MOVE BRANCH MOVE…. come on, its there. my finger on the trigger, cartridge in the chamber, the darn branch just needs to move so I can see it. I’m ready, I’m focused, staying calm, I think I have the range, just give me a slight breeze, just enough to move that leaf. I’m sure its behind that one darn leaf. MOVE darn you, OK, come on, stay calm….and there, MOVED……. YES……..take a breath, let it out, hold, squeeze the trigger gently……. GO MAN GO……. the leaf went flying, wheres the target? I heard the thump, I heard the hiss of its last breath. I’m still looking through the scope, my heart is thumping, I saw the leaf fly, the target was right behind it. I saw it for just a fraction of a second, I know it was there. What? Did I miss, no I cant believe it, OK stay calm, maybe it moved at the last moment, no, I don’t believe it. It was there, it was, I think… I think it stuck its tongue out at me.

Well the only way to know is go over there and find out. So we backed out of our spot, packed up and made our way to the top side to cross the stream. We worked our way down to where I saw the ledge begin and made our way to the little out cropping where the target was hiding. it turns out that the ledge was a bit wider than I figured. as we come around the last clump of bushes, there it was lying there, three feet back from where it was standing, a .30 JSB hole straight through its belly, its life force still flowing out the wound, the shot was through and through, feeling bad, this wasn’t good, I was aiming for its head, I wanted it to be quick. That 20oz Mountain Dew will never give someone a sugar rush again.

I look at Doug, “Lets get out of here, its a long way back”, in my mind thinking, I don’t like to miss. Doug says “Hey, dude, dead is dead”, I say ” yeah but his family will know he suffered”

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