Missed Fox

[MikeT]

I have seen a dog fox in my sheep field a couple of times in the last week. This has worried me as I am expecting the lambs at the end of March. I mentioned this to the gamekeeper on the Estate and he kindly offered to look out for the fox. He decided to sit on the reservoir bank overlooking the field with his 243 in case the fox appeared. The fox appeared at roughly the same time as I saw it the previous evening. He fired at a range of about 100yds and could not believe he missed the animal. On inspection he found he had shoot one strand of the barb wire fence. The fox was shot the next night while lamping, by the gamekeeper on the Estates land.

 

[jonnybeegood]

I have seen a dog fox in my sheep field a couple of times in the last week. This has worried me as I am expecting the lambs at the end of March. I mentioned this to the gamekeeper on the Estate and he kindly offered to look out for the fox. He decided to sit on the reservoir bank overlooking the field with his 243 in case the fox appeared. The fox appeared at roughly the same time as I saw it the previous evening. He fired at a range of about 100yds and could not believe he missed the animal. On inspection he found he had shoot one strand of the barb wire fence. The fox was shot the next night while lamping.

You might think you have saved your lambs which the fox probably wouldnt have touched anyway but you have probably just killed 4/5 young fox cubs that will now probably slowly starve to death when the vixen cant cope on her own, she might now attack a lamb in desperation.

 

[MikeT]

This was not a deliberate post to wind anyone up, and by the way I did not shoot the fox it was one of the gamekeepers in the area.

I will do what is necessary to protect my animals as any good stockman will do. I will try and anticipate any problems before they occur and if it means protecting against a fox so be it. I have had sheep attacked by dogs in the past and I am not prepared to risk damage anymore. Just the site of sheep torn apart by dogs and the likely hood of lambs receiving the same treatment from a fox angers me
The fox was probably after the nesting geese on the reservoir bank. There are usually about 50 pairs of greylags plus numerous duck of several species nesting. Can you imagine the carnage a fox would do to defenceless geese on their nests.

 

[oliver90owner]

Well done. What a good wind up! Keep it going. A 270 was often the choice calibre but the high speed, flatter trajectory, ammunition of the 2250's etc is superbly effective. BLD posted about possibly getting a 170 or similar fairly recently. Even the good old 12g is very effective for vermin when appropriate loads are used. Talk about the vermin around these days! Definitely need controlling, IMO.

We hat do you reckon, JBM?

 

[dn170221]

Did hitting the barbed wire cause the miss?

 

[oliver90owner]

Did hitting the barbed wire cause the miss?

Quite likely. High velocity bullets often disintegrate on impact.

 

[MikeT]

The wire was high tensile, now just hanging where it was shot. Another fencing job to do! The hitting of the wire would have deflected the shot because of the twisting of the wire.

 

[dn170221]

As i said, big well done i am sure everyone on here will be impressed

I don't count myself as being of your opinion.
Foxes can be a pest and do at times in certain places need controlled.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Well done. What a good wind up! Keep it going. A 270 was often the choice calibre but the high speed, flatter trajectory, ammunition of the 2250's etc is superbly effective. BLD posted about possibly getting a 170 or similar fairly recently. Even the good old 12g is very effective for vermin when appropriate loads are used. Talk about the vermin around these days! Definitely need controlling, IMO.

We hat do you reckon, JBM?

5.56 (.223) has been the prefered calible for foxes for quite a while although .243 with a lighter grain bullet is as good (just a little noisier, but with H&S nowadays most use a supressor) some use .17 HMR but with a flatter trajectory and longer carry you have to be careful where you use it.
I know a few who are skilled callers and can call a fox right in so a 12 bore can be effective but I prefer to reserve that for hunting days - rifles being a non with so many people around.
You can get quite a debate going over 'correct' ammunition, Defra funded quite a detailed study a few years ago (fears of an increase in shooting foxes with the introduction of the hunting act) and they found overall anything from 3's to 5's were effective (although they depended on the second shot for full efficacy), I still use a side by side but with a heavy (42g) load of no 1's but I have had nice clean kills at long range through a full choke and 32 grams of BB although a lot on my hunt use semi autos as it reduces kick (lightweights) and have progressed to the new generation of super magnums (3 1/2 inch chambers) pushing out 52 grams of 1's or 2's
Using larger sizes of shot can result in many 'running through' the pattern so we don't dabble there.

 

[jonnybeegood]

why have my posts been edited or removed hivemaker? am I not allowed an opinion or am I just supposed to standby like everyone else seems to on here & watch.

 

[pargyle]

why have my posts been edited or removed hivemaker? am I not allowed an opinion or am I just supposed to standby like everyone else seems to on here & watch.

Perhaps everyone else recognises that, occasionally, there is the need for some wild animals at the top of their food chain to be culled ....as long as it is humanely done and by people who know what they are doing I don't have a problem with it ... just part and parcel of looking after our environment. I would not hunt for sport but having had all my backyard urban hens killed by a fox in the middle of a Sunday afternoon where they were free ranging in our enclosed garden I can well understand the need to keep predator numbers down. They only have man above them in their food chain ...

 

[Bob D.]

Did hitting the barbed wire cause the miss?

I'm no expert, only occasionally go for bunnies on farmland with a .22 (supervised by the rifle owner) but I would have thought attempting to shoot through a fence would have been a violation of basic safety rules.

Put two bunnies out of their mixi missery with the end of a spade last year, they clearly weren't gonna recover. Seems to me the population varies quite a lot from year to year but last year was noticeably low.

 

[jonnybeegood]

I'm no expert, only occasionally go for bunnies on farmland with a .22 (supervised by the rifle owner) but I would have thought attempting to shoot through a fence would have been a violation of basic safety rules.

Put two bunnies out of their mixi missery with the end of a spade last year, they clearly weren't gonna recover. Seems to me the population varies quite a lot from year to year but last year was noticeably low.

I agree a 243 bullet or any other could go a long way with a ricochet off a fence, you would think using a lamp he would have spotted the fence easy enough, lets hope the bullet didnt hit anyone in the vicinity that night.

 

[TOBY-3652]

Well done. What a good wind up! Keep it going. A 270 was often the choice calibre but the high speed, flatter trajectory, ammunition of the 2250's etc is superbly effective. BLD posted about possibly getting a 170 or similar fairly recently. Even the good old 12g is very effective for vermin when appropriate loads are used. Talk about the vermin around these days! Definitely need controlling, IMO.

We hat do you reckon, JBM?

222 all the way the only good fox is a dead one..

 

[biglongdarren]

We got four call ducks last autumn and lost the first one to a fox three weeks ago at the edge of dark.
I hammered a post into the field 80 yards behind my house and tied a rabbit to it, from the rabbit i have fishing braid running into the house tied to a battery in a clock, when the fox comes it pulls the rabbit and stops the clock so i can tell what time it comes at,
The first fox (the duck killer) was coming the same time on the edge of dark every evening, the way i have set up means i can stand on my kitchen worktop and shoot with my 17hmr resting out the velux window, Since starting this i have shot three foxes, two large dog foxes and the last was a vixen last saturday night at 4 in the morning. The bait was taken and the clock stopped again the other night so will fed it for a few nights yet to get a routine going.

Darren

 

[TOBY-3652]

why have my posts been edited or removed hivemaker? am I not allowed an opinion or am I just supposed to standby like everyone else seems to on here & watch.[/quot

 

[TOBY-3652]

I agree a 243 bullet or any other could go a long way with a ricochet off a fence, you would think using a lamp he would have spotted the fence easy enough, lets hope the bullet didnt hit anyone in the vicinity that night.

a 243 bullet on hitting a fence will not ricochet at all a 2.2 maybe but not a 243 the 243 bullet will be no more

 

[MikeT]

As we are now on the calibre of bullets, what would be the gun and calibre of the bullet a marksman used to kill one of my Highland Cows which became aggressive after her calf died. She was shot at a range of 250 yds. The marksman was also employed to cull red deer in the area.
This shooting had to done with a vet present. I have never seen an animal put down in this way before and hopefully never again. She was shot just behind the ear and died immediately.

 

[REDWOOD]

I did not know there was so much choice of weaponry involved in killing a fox, I don't think a fox has much of a chance these days compared to days of the bow and arrows but someone told me hunting with such weaponry is illegal, so a clean kill with a gun in the right hands is the most humane way of disposing of vermin.
I often fed a fox in Chiswick green in London, quite a lovable animal but I have also seen their sly nature when one got into a chicken run.

 

[biggles]

5.56 (.223) has been the prefered calible for foxes for quite a while although .243 with a lighter grain bullet is as good (just a little noisier, but with H&S nowadays most use a supressor) some use .17 HMR but with a flatter trajectory and longer carry you have to be careful where you use it.
I know a few who are skilled callers and can call a fox right in so a 12 bore can be effective but I prefer to reserve that for hunting days - rifles being a non with so many people around.
You can get quite a debate going over 'correct' ammunition, Defra funded quite a detailed study a few years ago (fears of an increase in shooting foxes with the introduction of the hunting act) and they found overall anything from 3's to 5's were effective (although they depended on the second shot for full efficacy), I still use a side by side but with a heavy (42g) load of no 1's but I have had nice clean kills at long range through a full choke and 32 grams of BB although a lot on my hunt use semi autos as it reduces kick (lightweights) and have progressed to the new generation of super magnums (3 1/2 inch chambers) pushing out 52 grams of 1's or 2's
Using larger sizes of shot can result in many 'running through' the pattern so we don't dabble there.

Did you mean a 17 rem?
I would not recommend a 17hmr unless the fox is 60 yards or less away and you can head shoot. We shot a few coke tins a while ago at 300 yards and most shots did not go through the tin! Far batter off with a .204 .223 +
A farm near us lost 15 lambs last year to fox before it was finally dealt with.