Has anyone used these before? Are they worth it or is there a cheaper alternative?
Trail cameras and scraps of your local butcher buried under an inch or 2 of sod grass taken from where you're putting bait.Meat must be under sod or birds will spot it and have it gone.Dont bury too deep as you want smell to come up.
Place trail cameras on post or bring one yourself and drive it down.Place camera around 20ft away.Do this all in a spot where it's safe to shoot towards and somewhere you can place yourself 50-100yrds away.Give it a week,check cameras and work from there.
Thermal spotter and NV attached to scope and that's the setup.Also livestock love breaking cameras,cattle will lick it but horses well my horses will chew at camera and break locking points and ir screens so I buy 20e ones from AliExpress.
Setup is 223 with decathlon tripod with 4-16-44 scope shooting fiocchi 55gr epn
Haven’t done it in a few years myself, basically retired from hunting now unless asked by landowners to sort a problem. Have a pal who does it by himself and is super successful, far better than I was.
First thing is know your ground thoroughly, where they (dens) live, coming from, going to, places where they are not, where they cross/traverse from one place to another. Basically ask yourself, who/where has hens/chickens/ducks/sheep/lambs/rabbit/pheasant pens, etc in my area, once you know this it’s half the problem.
Once you know some/all of these areas you can target a specific area or just set up nice and quiet on one of their routes and use a squeaker (some lads can do it naturally, others use a blade of grass/reed or a squeaker from a dogs toy), fox are highly intelligent and like all intelligent animals (rooks/crows/magpies, etc….) they are drawn to food/activity (including sounds) plus if there is food freely available in an area (nearby chippers/people feeding foxes, etc..) that’s where you’ll find them.
As to time, most lads I know go out anytime from seven in the evening to midnight, foxy needs/likes his late night snack...😜
Best of luck.
For lads who go out after foxes alone,
What's your setup? And general plan when going out?
Interested in what ways other lads do it
Cubs smaller than a cat can defend for themselves. At this stage, most of them will survive without the mother
I've been out shooting rabbits recently, (lots about currently) and have seen quite a few foxes, haven't shot any as the landowners want them to reduce the sudden surge in rabbit numbers (like myself).
I'll be going to my deer permission this afternoon (S42 in place) as they're doing a lot of damage. If I see any foxes there, they'll be targeted, as it's sheep farming country and all the landowners are keen to see foxes culled.
As to how big they are, I came across four cubs on the "Forest Road" just after dark leaving Carrigaline last week. They were more than 1/2 grown and looked to be in really good condition. Unlikely to be any shortage of foxes for the foreseeable future given the surge in rabbits (they had been scarce for quite a while.
Many lads after foxes at the moment or are you letting them rear their young? What size of cubs are you seen about?
It's years since I set fox snares.
When we used to do it we brought a garden fork with us - an old one that had the centre prongs cut off - it only had the two outer prongs.
On the rare occasion that we did snare a badger we used the fork to carefully hold down the badger's neck while we cut the snare with a wire-cutters.
Finished in a minute or two and no harm or unneccessary stress to the released badger.
With extreme caution !
There's always the option of using breakaway snares. This allows badgers etc, to break free from the snare, but will still hold any fox. Another way to avoid catching badgers, is to only set on open runs, and avoid setting fencelines. A nine inch loop about nine inch off the ground should avoid catching any badgers.
I've had badgers get caught before but I ALWAYS carry a good quality wire cutters when I'm doing the rounds, not a snips, not a pliers, not a fencing wire cutters, a PROPER quality wire cutters like Draper make that wire cut wire easily and I would use that to cut the wire and release the badger. Experience will guide you in where to set and for that reason I set my snares high deliberately to avoid non target catches but let's be real here, it happens and I only snare on my own property where the snares are checked an absolute minimum of twice daily. I won't snare on a fence line if I think a badger will use that location.
Yes of course, all ur doing is putting tension in a specific part of the cable to make it close faster, nothing else.
Gave up snaring as I don't have time to commit to it atm. When time allows I'll go back at it. Great way to control numbers. Never thought to load snare. Must keep that in mind.
Happened to a buddy of mine. He ended up having to get a vet in to tranqualise it so he could release it.
How do you manage a badger if one accidentally gets caught up in a snare.
Very legal. The snare would still be a relaxing snare. It just means that the snare closes quicker, and as said, it results in more catches around the neck, which is what you want.
Would that be legal?
Load your snares, so basically put tension in your snare where it wants to fire shut, so on contact with the foxes neck/chest area it will fire shut rather than be dragged shut, results in more neck catches and few back outs as the fox shouldn't have time to feel the snare dragging as the tension will make it fire shut on immediate contact
In late winter and early spring though they start getting territorial again as mating/courting ramps up. If you can identify an area they frequently use and appear relaxed in, then that will certainly increase your trapping success provided sensible placing etc. is adhered too
In the winter do foxes move around a lot more than during the summer. As in they would not have any set feeding areas. So if a cage was permanently set would that be a better method.
You can give it a try - but shy animals can be suspicious of new additions to their regular feeding areas and especially if it involves them entering a confined space like a trap that may also have a human scent lingering on it. Tis why I mentioned getting Charlie comfortable with feeding in the area you intend to set the trap and using strong smelling bait like roadkill etc. to mask ones own odour from your quarry.
There was a time when you had lads that would specialize in such things and bring it to a fine art - not alot of them about now and its been decades since I was doing regular snaring. I remember using a type of spring for securing them alrights that we got from specialist outlets like old style tackle shops and hunting outfitters. Online is probably now your best bet to track such things down, also some good youtube vids from old timers passing on good knowledge of how the make the most of a snare line in terms of design etc.
If you baited the trap for a time would it have the same effect.
I have them set up along a sheep wire fence and tied directly to the fence.
Is there a good way of introducing spring into the snare to stop them getting the sharp jolt when the pull against it?
You had to get your target fox comfortable in the area you intend to trap him in - that would typically involve him getting into a regular routine of feeding in the area to the point were he is relaxed coming into it. This can be done using the likes of a small stink pit or pipe setup as described in earlier posts here. One he is comfortable you bring in a trap that is intergrated well into the site in terms of cover and is baited with similar stuff that goes into the stink pit. Then remove the stink pit and usually he will then go for whats in the trap soon enough
That can be tricky alright cos depending on the time of year and condition of individual animal, smaller skinnier individuals can indeed get out of the loops. Back in the day when I hung out in the local GC as a young lad, I remember alot of trial and error trying to get it just right for the particular problem fox
How did you set it up.
I have a regular problem with my snares, I’m using the correct legal snare with the stop but I’ve had a number of foxes go in but then manage to get themselves out again.
Any tips?
Did back in the day - handy in areas that are too built up for lamping
Anybody here use cages for trapping foxes.
