Close escape

blackstairsboy

Well I have a long narrow wood near my house which I regularly shoot in. I often roost pigeons there and also shoot crows and magpies there when I can. I always leave the crows in a heap so I know if charlie is about. The crows are always gone and there is always evidence of fox presence in the wood but no earths. With all this snow around I said now would be a good time to try some daytime calling. I was armed with my trusty under and over loaded with alphamax 36 gram bbs. It was about half two when I arrived at the wood and there was a lot of tracks about. I found a nice beech tree which I climbed up to a height of 14 feet. I had good vision with only one blind spot over my right shoulder but there was a road in that direction so I said not to worry it is doubtful that a fox will approach that way. I began to call and called away for about 40 minutes. A pair of magpies began calling down the wood which in my experience can mean that reynard is about. I kept calling keeping a sharp eye out and scanning all directions. I saw a flash of red about 50 yards away so I called gently but there was no sign of the fox. After a few more minutes with still no sign of the fox I decided it was time to move on to another spot. As I jumped out of the tree a huge rattle and splashing went up the drain at the edge of the wood. I had to take a detour around to where I heard the noise and there was the tracks of my fox. He had circled around behind me and had literally been at the base of the tree I was sitting in only directly behind me. I loaded the gun and followed his tracks. He had a five minute head start on me but I knew where he was heading. I managed to circle around and get to the conifer block hopefully before him. I concealed myself and began to call. It was snowing very heavily now and there was no sign of him. I decided to call it quits and began to head for home. I suddenly spotted the fox when I was out in the open. I just crouched down and began to call but charlie was having none of this. We had a 60 yard stand off for about five minutes before he cleared off. I did manage to nail a magpie on the way home so it was well worth the effort getting out and I am going to try again tomorrow as that fox is for the taking.

Any advice is welcome.

bazza888

maybe you would be better of on the ground being up the tree sortof restricts you interms of where u you can see and get set up to take a shot quickly

blackstairsboy

I thought that but there is only one blind spot and the main road is only about 70 yards away from there so I reckon that I would be very unlucky if a fox approached from that way again. Added to that I cant fire that way and I should not be able to be scented or sighted as foxes don't look up for danger. All things considered its advantages outweigh the disadvantages.

Steyr243Hunter

Do you have a rifle?

blackstairsboy

No. In the market for a 17 hmr though. I am going to start looking in the spring. I have done my research and have decided that this is a good choice for vermin and it is cheap to run. What do you recommend?

crackcrack30

Shoot a few crows or let off a few bangs pile them up as per usual and then hide nearby for a while or return with a lamp...see what happens( I'd leave the trees to the birds, too dangerous for me)
Recently saw a vermin clip on metacafe or utube where they let off an airraid siren thru a loudspeaker for a few minutes prior to hunting coyotes, draws their attention I suppose or wakes them up??
good luck.

homerhop

blackstairsboy wrote: »

No. In the market for a 17 hmr though. I am going to start looking in the spring. I have done my research and have decided that this is a good choice for vermin and it is cheap to run. What do you recommend?

We started lamping years ago with a .22, hornet and up along. I have to say from a personal point of view that we were never as glad to get rid of a rifle for foxing as the .17. We found it just so lacking in dropping foxes at a reasonable distance. Using a .22 swift now and find it perfect for the job.

beanie10

blackstairsboy wrote: »

No. In the market for a 17 hmr though. I am going to start looking in the spring. I have done my research and have decided that this is a good choice for vermin and it is cheap to run. What do you recommend?

I have a marlin 917 hmr 4 weeks now, killed a fox at 100 yards with a head shot. I am fairly confident i could kill a fox out to 150 yards with a good head shot. The Marlin wont disappoint, the trigger is heavy which is ideal for hunting( safety wise). Use 20 gr hornady rounds for foxes.

blackstairsboy

Thats not a bad idea and I have done that while lamping. Gutting a rabbit and throwing it out into the field where I am going to call from. The tree works well for me as it gives improved vision, limits the chance of being scented and is safe as long as you are sensible. It has all the advantages of a high seat and as I am young I have no bother getting up or down.

blackstairsboy

As regards the rifles I have looked at the 17 because I am new to rifles and it is so I am told a good caliber to start with. I want an all round vermin rifle. To be honest I will mostly be using it for magpies and grey crows and the odd fox. I use the shotgun for lamping now and limit myself to 25-30 yards. If I was using the 17 I would limit myself to 80 yards. I looked at a 22 hornet and was tempted but apparently it is expensive to run.

homerhop

I am looking at getting a .223 as an all rounder after the christmas all things working out well. Not knocking ya at all and dont take me up wrong, as I said we started with the .22 and worked up and found very quickly as the foxes got use to lamping they were just getting further and further out of range for us.

blackstairsboy

I know what you mean. Foxes out my way seem to stop at 50 yards a lot when lamping with the shotgun so I was thinking if I had a 17 that would handle them out to around 70 yards. I would be doubling my range from the shotgun and should account for more foxes. But you know as well as I do the minute I go lamping with the 17 foxes will decide they will stay 120 yards away!!:rolleyes:

Greensout

blackstairsboy wrote: »

I know what you mean. Foxes out my way seem to stop at 50 yards a lot when lamping with the shotgun so I was thinking if I had a 17 that would handle them out to around 70 yards. I would be doubling my range from the shotgun and should account for more foxes. But you know as well as I do the minute I go lamping with the 17 foxes will decide they will stay 120 yards away!!:rolleyes:

Call me crazy if you want but i know a man here in athlone iv never tried it myself mind but it seems to work for him i was sceptical at first but i have seen the system and its pretty impressive... he has a large concave mirror set up on the ditch at the edge of the field he has this on a swivel and a light rope out of it about 150 200 yards long as this brings him to the centre of the field. he sets up a small temp but quite effective hide in the middle of the field the lamp he aims at the mirror and this reflects the light back down so for the fox it looks like the lamp is at the ditch when ur quite u can get them to come right by the hide and sometimes past it. very effective way of getting a fox very close... mind you it takes alot of skill and practice with the mirror to be able to swivel it correctly around effectively..... sounds crazy i know but its a thought