Visited my folks farm over Christmas break. Went for a dawn walk in search of foxes. While checking out a nearby water trough I disturbed a feral cat. He took off into the bush at lightning pace. Had a closer look around the trough for other prints, to see who's who in the zoo. Noticed a few broken wing leftovers from the cat's previous meals. Also noticed a distinct lack of bird activity in the area and not much else.
Walked on to the top of a nearby dam bank (dry) to see if anything comes to the trough for a morning drink before the 42C+ heat sets in. While standing there quietly I noticed a suspiciously wobbly stick at the bottom of the dry dam, about 15m away. Sure enough it moved after a few minutes. A moderately large eastern brown snake, approx 5.5ft long. He stretch himself out North-South and then fold back in half, and stayed this way for a few minutes. He'd then do the same in the opposite direction (South-North) to sun the other side of his body. I watched him do this for maybe 10 minutes - one of my more enjoyable encounters with a brown snake. All others have been uncomfortably closer.
Went home and had a chat to the folks about the cat - apparently it had been hanging around for a few months and they would be happy to see it disappear. Thinking it may be a creature of habit, I returned just before sunset and sure enough it was comfortably planted next to the water trough again, laying down waiting for dinner to arrive. I'd left my bipod back at the house (doh!), so I manoeuvred through the typical farm equipment/objects to a spot where I could both rest the rifle on the roof of an old car and also have a clean angle/backdrop where I wouldn't damage the trough/poly-pipe. Approx 65m according to Google.
I watched him through the scope for a while in the fading light, while trying to let my heart-rate settle. Played the scenario through my head several times:
Centre of mass placement, breath control, bang, zoom out, cycle bolt for followup if required While thinking it through he half stood up for a bit of a stretch and did one of those lazy "king of the jungle" yawns. Carpe Diem, or more precisely Occupandi Temporis.
The intended chest shot hit his shoulder. I was using .223 52gr Speer HP which fragmented too much. Lesson learned - I'll use a heavier round in the future. I saw a red 2 inch wound on its shoulder while it was spending all its adrenaline bolting straight past me to temporary cover. Despite immediately zooming out I couldn't get a stable second sight picture, and the "from the hip" attempt @ 2m missed its mark. I was unable to locate it before complete loss of light (no photo), but was confident that it's bird-crunching days were over. I had to depart the following day but my family located it deceased during the following days.
In other news I've since had another brief day-trip visit to the farm and drove past the water trough early in the day. I'm happy to report that it is teaming with native birdlife once more.
Someone Else.