Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie
Hi there,
There is an issue with role permissions that is being worked on at the moment.
If you are having trouble with access or permissions on regional forums please post here to get access: https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058365403/you-do-not-have-permission-for-that#latest

Fox Hunting !

  • 22-05-2012 4:15pm
    #1
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,062 ✭✭✭


    First I'm not Anti-hunting !
    Now should Foxs be put on a season ie: only shot during winter or can be shot 24/7 during pheasant season, etc.
    Personnaly I'm for putting them on the same season as pheasants.
    Just a question !
    Your thoughts ?
    Tagged:


Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 333 ✭✭dbrock


    well wher i live there is a season for me, its called lambing season :)
    i shoot them all year round keeps the father in law happy and local farmers hence i get more deer land


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,615 ✭✭✭kildare.17hmr


    Some lads do this as it is, all depends what area your in i suppose. Lads with bird pens, sheep, chickens ect in their area will shoot them all year round for vermin control other lads who think of it as their sport will shoot in the winter like you say.

    Me im a bit of both tbh, i dont go lookin for them now but ill shoot one if i get the oppertunity or see it somewhere it shouldnt be but i hit them hard lampin in the winter


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,161 ✭✭✭crackcrack30


    I think there are enough 'silly' seasons.
    most guys put the guns away for a few months anyway following the main hunting dates...me and my buds dont go looking for them in the early summer months but would have no problem sorting out a problem fox.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,576 ✭✭✭garv123


    Not much point putting them on the same season as pheasants when all the young stupid released pheasants would be killed by foxes by the time the season comes around.

    Most people only shoot foxes around winter anyway or only around areas with young birds or livestock.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,181 ✭✭✭landkeeper


    you clearly have no concept of the damage a fox can do to an outdoor lambing flock , or to nesting gamebirds or for that matter a flock of free ranging hens
    those of us who live and work in the countryside and derive our living from it shoot foxes 12 months of the year not just as sport or a pastime:(


  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,062 ✭✭✭whydave


    I feel I have to reply :
    My mother has 120 hens,90 duck all free range to which I have shot a number of foxs in the past few years.And I fully understand the hardship of earning your living for the land !No insult was offered and if you feel thus I can only quote the church of Rome 'Sorry' !
    The question was just a hypothetical !


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 392 ✭✭rabbit assassin


    I used to have my own personal season which was basically the summer months. But in the past two years I have started shooting them all year round. There has just been an explosion in numbers !!
    I rear 250-300 pheasant a year from eggs to full grown, last year I shot 209 foxes and still lost alot of released birds to them :(


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,489 ✭✭✭No6


    Foxes are vermin and have no season, if people want to let them breed so they can have more thats up to them, if people want to shoot them all year round thats also up to them. IMO they should be shot at all times, the reason more lamping occurs in the winter is simpy because it gets dark much earlier, in summer it dosnt get dark until after midnight at time so you have to be out very late which dosnt suit lads working the next day.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,181 ✭✭✭landkeeper


    no reason to apologise no insult was taken , i'm sure the day will come when foxes get a close season or complete protection, they have seasons for them in other countries so i'm sure some eu beuracratprat will force it on us in the future.
    after all who in their right mind would give grey crows /magpies one :confused:
    i just get dismayed, when lads who shoot for sport who have a 9-5 job that no fox is going to impact on, start preaching to those of us who foxes actually do affect that we should leave them alone till the winter that shooting them in spring and summer affects THEIR sport


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,161 ✭✭✭crackcrack30


    Not everyone with a 9-5 job have your described perception you have of effecting their sport or fox numbers, if you are willing to put on your coat and wellies there are plenty of fox to be had during the winter months... my reason for not hunting them during the early summer months is to reduce suffering on dependant cubs, and that would be the same for me with any living species.....

    All over the world animals have been wiped out because they don,t fit in with what man is doing in that particular area or country at that time, you can name them yourself, from dolphins to seals and back to eagles, wolves or bear, thankfully fox are not at any threatened stage here.

    As i said in my previous post if there are problem or threatening fox i have no problem knocking them, but that is not the case for everyone all of the time and some regard should be given to suffering of the young IMHO.


  • Advertisement
  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,181 ✭✭✭landkeeper


    of course not all lads with a 9-5 job who shoot foxes don't preach to those with lambs and fowl ,but there are those that do and i doubt you'll find a sheep farmer lambing outside or anyone with free ranging fowl or rearing gamebirds asking to leave them to the winter so that lads can have their sport .
    if you went to a sheep/ poultry farmer and told him you'd shoot foxes for them but only in the winter, i'd be interested to hear the reply !!.
    only last night i was asked to go shoot a fox that is gradually clearing a womans free ranging hens during the day, she is afraid to even let them out of the run now


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,656 ✭✭✭Spunk84


    Weren't wiped out during the tails for money I highly doubt they will be wiped out by hunting them during the summer !


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 10,271 ✭✭✭✭johngalway


    Season or no season I'd still shoot them.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,271 ✭✭✭.243


    when you see them,they're "in season" !!!!


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 93 ✭✭Longfellow


    One man's vermin be another man's friend. No shooting of foxes around my place. They keep rabbits and hares under control and help protect the vegtable garden and young trees. The worst vermin of all to me are feral goats and those feckin hybrid deer/sika. I'd exterminate them from the whole country if I could:mad:


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,615 ✭✭✭kildare.17hmr


    Longfellow wrote: »
    One man's vermin be another man's friend. No shooting of foxes around my place. They keep rabbits and hares under control and help protect the vegtable garden and young trees. The worst vermin of all to me are feral goats and those feckin hybrid deer/sika. I'd exterminate them from the whole country if I could:mad:
    If ya want a hand to shoot some of them goats iv a few freezers with plenty of room in them!


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 93 ✭✭Longfellow


    If ya want a hand to shoot some of them goats iv a few freezers with plenty of room in them!
    Feck all goats around the place now. We lamped the shíte outta the fúckers. Me on da lamp don't own no gun anymore. Two local lads have the permission on them deer, pity they can't hammer them 365 days a year. Thanks for the offer though.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,615 ✭✭✭kildare.17hmr


    Offer stands if the numbers come up again!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,719 ✭✭✭German pointer


    If ya want a hand to shoot some of them goats iv a few freezers with plenty of room in them!

    You must have liked them:D


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,615 ✭✭✭kildare.17hmr


    Oh there was a bbq! And another will be had on sat!!


  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 629 ✭✭✭thelurcher


    For 'Fox Hunting' we impose our own unofficial season - late August/early September to Paddy's Day.

    Hunting is all about management - if you have to shoot all summer then that to me says you're not doing it right. No real sportsman likes to see cubs starve.
    Between the harriers/foxhounds/gun club in my area controlling all winter I haven't heard one farmer complaining about a 'problem' fox so far this spring/summer.
    The gun club finished up the week after Paddy's Day.

    This is why I can't understand people that feel the need to start threads on public forums obviously proud of the fact that they shot a milky vixen.
    To me - getting a call out this time of year is a failure on my part - not something that I want to show off to the World and worse still the antis.

    Some idiots just don't get the message and haven't the cop-on to come to the same conclusion themselves.
    Keep it up lads and we will end up with a season imposed upon us.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,656 ✭✭✭Spunk84


    That's your opinion and like most opinions its neither right or wrong . Now here's my opinion , you haven't a clue ! So u run hounds/harriers and are in a GC WOW you are the man lol the lads who shoot all year round are either farmers or doing it on behalf of a farmer because his regular "hounds/harriers and GC" couldn't get it done during the "unofficial" season !


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,181 ✭✭✭landkeeper


    yes i'd agree with spunk there, you haven't a clue about fox territories or behaviour.!! if you think stopping fox control in march will prevent milky vixens getting shot/killed you are very wrong i have seen cubs above ground 2 weeks after paddys day and found plenty more over the years in the 1st 2 weeks of the month
    calling lads who do legitimate vermin control pricks and idiots is a good way to start a row fella


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 335 ✭✭Constab2


    Strong opinion there to label everyone who shoots out of necessity for livestock protection as prick/idiot ,take a look at your own post on a public forum before preaching to everyone else from that lofty tower you are in.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 690 ✭✭✭Hunter21


    Get your head out of the clouds!
    You come on here and give out to lads for shooting a vixen, their not boasting their just saying that they went out and did a job.

    Was on land lately with two lots of fox dens with 4 cubs in one and 5 in another, we seen a dog fox hunting so we chose to shoot it to control numbers.

    There's plenty of foxes around, more then we imagine so keep your knickers on, the sport won't die anytime in our lifetime


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 629 ✭✭✭thelurcher


    :D looks like I was right to use the word 'idiot'.

    Right - I can't help stirring it up here - but this is the important part -
    Summer fox control is perfect fodder for the antis - so why post about it on a public forum.

    Pretend at least that you're all responsible sporting country people - makes it easier for the NARGC and FACE etc. to defend us on the airwaves.

    Spunk - I'm saying why don't the lads shooting on behalf of the farmer do it earlier in the year - they're mostly the same foxes :confused:
    My parish and surrounding area is hunted by 3 different foxhound packs, 1 mounted and 2 foot harrier packs not to mention the maverick packs. The gun club also has some good lads running it and they put a lot of work in. We all know each other - we work and socialize together - so all have a good idea of what goes on - that said I'm not a member of any of them anymore - I moved on to greener pastures where hunting is concerned.
    I've checked most of the burrows around me and places I'd normally expect to see a vixen rearing cubs this time of year are devoid of life. Not all mind you but there's always next season to think of ;)


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,656 ✭✭✭Spunk84


    thelurcher wrote: »
    :D looks like I was right to use the word 'idiot'.

    Right - I can't help stirring it up here - but this is the important part -
    Summer fox control is perfect fodder for the antis - so why post about it on a public forum.

    Pretend at least that you're all responsible sporting country people - makes it easier for the NARGC and FACE etc. to defend us on the airwaves.

    Spunk - I'm saying why don't the lads shooting on behalf of the farmer do it earlier in the year - they're mostly the same foxes :confused:
    My parish and surrounding area is hunted by 3 different foxhound packs, 1 mounted and 2 foot harrier packs not to mention the maverick packs. The gun club also has some good lads running it and they put a lot of work in. We all know each other - we work and socialize together - so all have a good idea of what goes on - that said I'm not a member of any of them anymore - I moved on to greener pastures where hunting is concerned.
    I've checked most of the burrows around me and places I'd normally expect to see a vixen rearing cubs this time of year are devoid of life. Not all mind you but there's always next season to think of ;)

    Let me say it this way, **** the Antis and **** The scare mongering!!!!!! Who cares about them ? Who on here has actual had an anti step out in front of them or get blood thrown over them ?

    Again I will say **** the Antis and **** the scare mongering,if your gonna let some one dictate to you what you can and can't do then your a coward .


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,615 ✭✭✭kildare.17hmr


    Well said spunk couldnt agree more. Could not give a flying fook about any anti or what they think of what i do, if it pisses them off its their problem not mine. I wont hide what i do


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,181 ✭✭✭landkeeper


    if you shoot a territorial dog/vixen in the winter you break up a pair that would have defended that territory from other adult foxes, they may have tolerated a barren vixen but that would be about it , they want that area for themselves to raise a litter
    what happens then is you have a vacuum that will draw in other pairs/individuals that are looking for a territory for the same reason or you may just extend the territory of other pairs that were adjacent .
    in my experience over the years it makes very little difference to the numbers of foxes on the ground when you shoot them, as nature abhors a vacuum and another fox will all ways replace the one shot within a short space of time ,
    i remember reading a study years ago that said that on average adult fox will travel approx 7 miles a night
    so by shooting them heavily all winter then stopping in march, you really are achieving very little, as within a month of you stopping your area will have just as many foxes in as if you had not shot it , the only difference being that most of them will be unmated/barren animals pushed out from others territories that do have young


  • Advertisement
  • Closed Accounts Posts: 335 ✭✭Constab2


    One of the best posts I have read very informative from experience ,well said sir.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 40,038 ✭✭✭✭Sparks


    Mod Note: Please review rule one of the forum charter before we have to close off the thread.

    That said, a small comment:
    thelurcher wrote: »
    this is the important part -
    Summer fox control is perfect fodder for the antis - so why post about it on a public forum.

    Pretend at least that you're all responsible sporting country people - makes it easier for the NARGC and FACE etc. to defend us on the airwaves.

    That quote, right there, does more harm to our community than any honest and open discussion ever does. This "quiet lads, hide it away, don't mention it in public" mindset does not work, is not clever, and has never worked.

    You want to avoid giving someone ammunition against you?
    Then stop doing things you know aren't right.
    Just pretending to stop isn't going to cut it, it'll just get you in twice as much trouble, and from the point where you're caught onwards, nobody believes you when you point out the good you do or deny the bad.

    With approaches like that, you don't need ICABS to go after you...


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 207 ✭✭Alan 1990


    @the lurcher
    "
    This is why I can't understand pricks that feel the need to start threads on public forums obviously proud of the fact that they shot a milky vixen."

    My first fox I shot Was a milky vixen, had I of known this I wouldn't have pulled the trigger but thats near impossible to know when their in long grass and all you can see is the head. I am proud to have shot my first fox but wasnt very happy that she was milky.

    By now the cubs would be big enough that they would survive, so I have been told anyway.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,161 ✭✭✭crackcrack30


    I feel that there are a few different topics being discussed here at the same time, I probably can't cover them all so feel free to add.

    - Fowl/phesant/ lamb protection (no problem there....)
    - Problem fox (no problem there......)
    - Greedy hunters thinking no one else other than them should be allowed control fox numbers (Stupid....)
    - 12 Month recreational shooting ( regardless of cubs.... not for me)
    - The feared Antis (No problem there....but this is a sporting forum)
    - Peoples perception or vermin- yes fox are vermin.. Rats/ munjac/ mink are also vermin & i couldnt care less about there young?:confused: .


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,181 ✭✭✭landkeeper


    good post crackcrack.
    that was how it started off different strokes for different folks
    if you only shoot/hunt foxes as a pastime and that is what you enjoy then fine get on with it, within whatever season you set yourself. if you have nether sheep or fowl, then foxes really don't pose you any threat , but don't talk down to the lads who rear lambs pheasants and fowl or call them pricks and idiots and expect them to abide by the same seasons
    12mnth recreational shooting is not for me either, but 12 mnth shooting foxes in our lambing fields or round the rearing pens where i keep my birds is .a problem fox is a problem fox irrespective of month or the year or lactation status
    and yes it is down to perceived perception the lads doing the name calling i'm sure would go shoot crows or pigeon over crops without a second thought or kill a rat not caring if it had young or not


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,271 ✭✭✭.243


    thelurcher wrote: »
    Summer fox control is perfect fodder for the antis - so why post about it on a public forum.
    ANY form of fox control is fodder for the antis,better again..... the moment you saddle a horse for hunt,take your rifle from your safe or even pet your terrier before leaving your own house,its anti fodder


  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 629 ✭✭✭thelurcher


    Lads if someone doesn't think the anti's could use this against us then look at how fox hunting in the UK was hammered by them for years over 'cub hunting' as we used to call it.
    Also don't blame me for drawing attention to it on here - you're the ones posting the stories and pics :roll eyes:

    Sparks - what are you on about. Is that directed at me or the summer fox hunters........if it was me I was being sarcastic - I'll have to be a bit more generous with the aul smilies in future!

    Sensible post Landkeeper and I'd agree with most of what you say. There are however a finite number of foxes. If you have proper fox control in operation over a wide enough area then they do find it difficult to repopulate in a single season. I know what you're saying - 7 miles is a possibility a night so in theory they'd cover the largest of hunt countries in under a week - but it doesn't happen like that. Feck me I doubt there'd be many foot packs left if every fox under pressure gave you 7 miles in a straight line ;)
    Most lads on about last season were giving out that foxes weren't running - I suppose the mild winter meant better feeding and less pressure to push animals out.


    Alan 1990 if a vixen is milky - then the cubs are not old enough to survive.
    Some of the cubs are strong enough for the most part now and getting out and about but are in no way ready to survive on there own.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 40,038 ✭✭✭✭Sparks


    thelurcher wrote: »
    Sparks - what are you on about. Is that directed at me or the summer fox hunters........if it was me I was being sarcastic - I'll have to be a bit more generous with the aul smilies in future!
    Directed at everyone, including you.
    If you see a practice from fellow hunters that you disagree with and your response is to tell them not to talk about it in public, that's a bad response, for two reasons:
    • Firstly, "hunters do something wrong and cover it up" is much more damaging a story for the antis to run with than "hunters do something wrong" because the latter is really "antis think hunters do something wrong" and the former is really "antis catch hunters thinking that hunters do something wrong and then covering it up" and while antis disagreeing with hunters isn't news, antis "catching out" hunters in something underhanded like that is.

      On a slow news day, that little lie can fill a tabloid spread.
    • The second reason is internal - if other hunters really are doing something wrong and you're more worried about who knows about it than the something they're doing wrong, well, your head's in the wrong place alltogether. Argue your point, try to stop it. That's the ethical thing to be doing, not trying to cover up something someone else did which you don't agree with.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,181 ✭✭✭landkeeper


    thelurcher wrote: »

    Sensible post Landkeeper and I'd agree with most of what you say. There are however a finite number of foxes. If you have proper fox control in operation over a wide enough area then they do find it difficult to repopulate in a single season. I know what you're saying - 7 miles is a possibility a night so in theory they'd cover the largest of hunt countries in under a week - but it doesn't happen like that. Feck me I doubt there'd be many foot packs left if every fox under pressure gave you 7 miles in a straight line ;)
    Most lads on about last season were giving out that foxes weren't running - I suppose the mild winter meant better feeding and less pressure to push animals out.

    yes there are a finite number of foxes but i can guarantee you, there is no where on this island where proper fox control is done on a wide enough area that you won't have repopulation of any area within a month


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,807 ✭✭✭Birdnuts


    landkeeper wrote: »
    yes there are a finite number of foxes but i can guarantee you, there is no where on this island where proper fox control is done on a wide enough area that you won't have repopulation of any area within a month

    Plus you have an enormous, basically uncontrolled urban fox population that will constantly spill out into surrounding rural areas.


Advertisement