shooting foxes

dicky82

lads, just curious as to what you do with the foxes after you shoot them?
is their culling based on keeping numbers down or do you sell their pelts or have them stuffed?

or be honest now lads do you hang them in the barn and let the chickens take turns doing a rocky style training session on them??:D:D

johngalway

My situation at the moment is that most foxes I shot are left at or near the site they fall. On one farm I leave them at the farmers door and she takes care of them after that. Once that site is far from foot traffic, and any decomposition issues such as smell won't be detected. Am lucky in that where I live is about as wild and open as it gets so not many people to bother.

I do intend on learning to preserve the pelt at some stage, there have been one or two foxes who I would have loved to preserve their pelt.

dicky82

a wise old friend of mine regails me tales of old when he started out his hunting carear, he told me that back then foxes went for as much as fiftheen pounds a fox depending on size quality etc. . . not sure who was parting with the cash though. . .

tell me this john, in any given year how many foxes do you get? does it take long for the population in a teratory to regroup? would they be as proliffic as rabbits?

johngalway

dicky82 wrote: »

tell me this john, in any given year how many foxes do you get? does it take long for the population in a teratory to regroup? would they be as proliffic as rabbits?

Around 40-45 foxes would be an average year for me in this area. It takes about a fortnight to three weeks for new foxes to move into a territory usually. No, you can't relate them to rabbits really.

J.R.

dicky82 wrote: »

a wise old friend of mine regails me tales of old when he started out his hunting carear, he told me that back then foxes went for as much as fiftheen pounds a fox depending on size quality etc. . . not sure who was parting with the cash thoughQUOTE]

Between 1978 and 1981 fox pelts were fetching between £18 - £25 each, depending on quality.

A pint of Guinness at the time was 32p!!!!!!!!!!!..........a fox was worth roughly the price of 60 pints of Guinness..........approx. €200 in value in today's money..........fox shooting then kept me in college for three years!

Private fur traders were buying them for the French market

dicky82

40 ~ 45? as many as that? would you be above the average though? there must be a fair old population of foxes if they repopulate within a fortinght. have you ever come accross the (correct me if im wrong) navey blue foxes? have seen pictures of them but never in the flesh. . .

dicky82

jr. . . . 25 quid per pelt, thats a fairly good return for a hobby, shame we dont still live in those times of plenty, a reward for getting off your backside. not like the cotton wool generation we have about today, no intrest in anything that doesnt have a joypad or touch screen attached to it.

fish slapped

Some of the older lads I shoot with told me thats how they surived the 70's - 80's. money was low and families needed feeding so foxes kept the few bob coming in.

Dusty87

dicky82 wrote: »

jr. . . . 25 quid per pelt, thats a fairly good return for a hobby, shame we dont still live in those times of plenty, a reward for getting off your backside. not like the cotton wool generation we have about today, no intrest in anything that doesnt have a joypad or touch screen attached to it.

Was good but when you think about it, if they did that nowadays you'd have everyone at it.

johngalway

dicky82 wrote: »

40 ~ 45? as many as that? would you be above the average though? there must be a fair old population of foxes if they repopulate within a fortinght. have you ever come accross the (correct me if im wrong) navey blue foxes? have seen pictures of them but never in the flesh. . .

Average is a very hard thing to work out. Any given area will have different terrain, different types of food supplies, some may or may not be consistent and rich supplies. More food usually means more foxes.

There is no shortage of foxes in this country. Neither hunting nor the control methods allowed at this point in time will ever be able to wipe them out. Besides, no one want's them wiped out.

I've seen foxes in my area go from skinny yokes often riddled with mange, to stout healthy animals where cases of mange are few and far between. Controlling their numbers can be beneficial to the foxes themselves.

No, I've never seen any out of the ordinary colour fox around here anyway.

dicky82

no wouldnt like to see them wiped out either. . i firmly beleive that everything has its place and if we remove one cog in the wheel it has a knock on effect on the rest of us.
i do however know numbers have to be controlled and from some of the threads and replys id say its quite a buzz to bag one.
but am i speaking out of turn when i say its a shame that there is nothing to do with the fox afterwards?? its great to eat a rabbit, phesant or partridge after the bang. although having said that id say theres one or two of the curry houses around here that have a use for a fox or two

mayoireland

Does an of ye snare foxes,was out tonight and saw nothing but hares and snipe and 4 woodcock.it funny come feb they will be out at 6 in the evening

johngalway

I snare one particular spot only, usually during lambing time as it is/used to be a popular fox run right into where my ewes lamb. Caught a few there and have dispatched them by shotgun.

J.R.

dicky82 wrote: »

jr. . . . 25 quid per pelt, thats a fairly good return for a hobby, shame we dont still live in those times of plenty, a reward for getting off your backside. not like the cotton wool generation we have about today, no intrest in anything that doesnt have a joypad or touch screen attached to it.

We usually got £18 - £20 per pelt....I remember a few pelts achieved the £25 but these were large dog foxes with fabulous, thick, healthy fur in prime condition.

As stated by others money was scarce and the income was welcome...plus it kept a lot of lads out of mischief!!

Ammo was very expensive and variety was poor....a box of Eley Grand Prix no. 6 was £3.....same price as nine pints!!!............Winchester even made a box of 10 cartridges....often all I could afford......cartridges weren't wasted and you made sure you hit what you fired at.......many fellows would only shoot something they could eat (besides foxes!) as every shot had to count.

Surprisingly, the number of foxes remained steady......you'd imagine that they would be wiped out with a bounty like that....but no they were never in any danger of extinction.

France & other European countries at the time had rabies so the only place to buy good furs was Ireland & U.K., both islands & not affected by rabies.

As far as I remember, Brigitte Bardot, campaigned against fur coats.....many people wearing a fur coat were attacked in the streets as a result.....market died in 1981 / 82.....fur was by now unfashionable.

Auldloon

Johngalway I'm surprised you have not seen different colourations. When I used hunt a lot of foxes years ago different colours were very common. Silver being the most usual with blackish common as well. Even remember a few piebald types ie black or white patches.

I can remember my older brother and more so my dad skinning foxes when the price was good. It,s said a few lads round my way made serious money at it, enough to build a house even.
An interesting side effect of the reduction of numbers of foxes was an explosion in other wildlife numbers especially pheasant.

No longer involved in farming or game shooting so wouldn't harm a fox now but there was a time when I would and a few times nearly did drive through a hedge to get one with the car:eek:

Auldloon

J.R. wrote: »

Surprisingly, the number of foxes remained steady......you'd imagine that they would be wiped out with a bounty like that....but no they were never in any danger of extinction.

Never in any danger of extinction for sure but they did get a serious hammering. My brother was a local contact for a guy from another region who used lamp from the roads all night. This guy would shoot/buy as much as he could up to 200 over a weekend if I remember rightly . As time went on they would drive for hours without seeing one.

fish slapped

It's said that more are killed on the roads than are shot each year. How exactly thats worked out I don't know.

johngalway

I drove pretty much from Clifden to Roscommon town one day to collect a gunsafe. Counted 30 foxes killed on the road, mind you I do think it was around September.

Glensman

My brother regularly nearly crashes the car to hit a fox! He HATES them, although he is an idiot!

4gun

johngalway wrote: »

I drove pretty much from Clifden to Roscommon town one day to collect a gunsafe. Counted 30 foxes killed on the road, mind you I do think it was around September.

Down here we don't let foxes drive:D

happyjack

I used to shoot 50/60 a year when I had time, I reckon the lamper must be really skilled, you need a strong lamp used well, and the red filter if used most always 100% of the time be removed before the shot is taken, this is very important as every eye looks like a foxes eyes with the filter fitted, theirs no bounty any more, wait I heard that they pay some sort of a bounty in Dingle area cause of the sheep, but I've never seen more than a foxes arse round there as they are excedingly lamp shy from being hit hard.

I hit a fox once with a wee CZ hornet, emptied the rifles breach, went in to get him at about 100 yards and when I got to within say 5 / 10 yards the bast%$d picked himself up and bolted, I'd missed him clean and he was only pretending to be shot, lads burst their holes laughing, the ole foxes are way cute whores.

I saw one shot one night with a rabbit in it's mouth, it just would not let go of the rabbit, the shooter got a fox and a rabbit with one bullet!

Once met a fox I'd been tracking all night on foot, heard him carrying a duck off and when I caught up with him he was sitting on a ditch staring back with the duck still quacking in its mouth, I lined up the cross hairs three times and just could'nt take the shot, the crafty scamp ran off with the duck and when I checked the field behind him it was crawling with cattle, so it pays to be careful.

Lampings highly addictive.

HJ:)

dicky82

thats very interesting about those varying colours in the fox. i remember from being a child watching a tv programme where they had a fox sanctuary in england and they had about 15 of those silvery blue foxes. i wonder has anyone come accross an albino fox?? (not the artic fox):rolleyes:

bunny shooter

dicky82 wrote: »

.........i wonder has anyone come accross an albino fox?? (not the artic fox):rolleyes:

Apparently there is one in my area. I haven't seen it but a few of the lads claim they have. There was an albino pheasant a few years a go and there was a lot of bad feeling when someone shot it :eek:

johngalway

There was rumour of a silver fox not far from me in an area I don't bother with, too many holiday homes (just asking for aggro). But, I don't believe what I was told, think it was just put out to see if I'd go for a look, I didn't. May well be that because the Atlantic is on one side and the Corrib on the other these differently coloured foxes haven't made their way here as yet.

dicky82

lads i could do with all the phesants being albino, might help me hit the ****ers. . hahaha:rolleyes:

did anyone hear of the south american phesant they were suppoesed to be introducing here, apparently a wider ranging bird. not sure if im talking out my arse here though.

Eddie B

dicky82 wrote: »

lads i could do with all the phesants being albino, might help me hit the ****ers. . hahaha:rolleyes:

did anyone hear of the south american phesant they were suppoesed to be introducing here, apparently a wider ranging bird. not sure if im talking out my arse here though.

They must be the birds that are bought in march! A that explains it! "a wider ranging bird" usually end up in the next county!!:D:D:p

ivanthehunter

I'm still snaring foxes, nowhere near as much i used to when I was younger but now i have rifle to finish'em off and it a much better outcome!!;)

I have seen only red and some very black(ish) foxes- Although I have only ever bagged red ones!!!

sikastag

Ah, not sure if I should start a new thread for this or not, might be getting off the point a bit. Just wondering if people have come across/shot foxes with other fauna in their mouths? I shot one with a cat in its gob before. Anyone else come across similar?

johngalway

sikastag wrote: »

Ah, not sure if I should start a new thread for this or not, might be getting off the point a bit. Just wondering if people have come across/shot foxes with other fauna in their mouths? I shot one with a cat in its gob before. Anyone else come across similar?

Not so much fauna I guess but I've shot a fox that was carrying a large bone, also shot a fox which had just eaten an egg lately. One of out ewes dispossessed a fox of half a hare a few years back.

fish slapped

Had one with a big chunk of an afterbirth in its mount.

jimmyzx

Had one with two blackbird chicks in it's mouth.