SmallCaliberCentral

Several weeks ago we moved to a new property so thought I'd do some predator calling. For something novel I decided to try my luck using our pet dog's squeaky toy as a caller rather than the usual tin whistle.



After about 20 minutes calling and a few moments after sunset a male red fox cautiously emerged from the cover.
He came walking past about 15 yards from where I was hiding and was an easy shot with the 12g.



The double gun is a Fausti SxS made around 1950 and I'm the third generation of family to hunt with it.

Nice work mate. I often hear my dogs destroying another squeaky and wonder what a fox would think of it.
I've seen a few about the place lately too. Might give that a try tomorrow.
I'm on southern Eyre Peninsula SA. What about you? Looks like similar country, though most of southern Oz does this time of year

Nice Shooting 204_au .....were still hoping for some colder weather and snow in Missouri,the Coyotes,Bobcats and Foxes here haven't been moving much since its been warmer than usual!

Sth Oz Dan wrote:Nice work mate. I often hear my dogs destroying another squeaky and wonder what a fox would think of it.
I've seen a few about the place lately too. Might give that a try tomorrow.
I'm on southern Eyre Peninsula SA. What about you? Looks like similar country, though most of southern Oz does this time of year

I'm in Northern Victoria Dan, not far from the Murray, but I know SA pretty well as we lived there a few years. The squeaky toy seems to bring in some but spooks others. I'm putting together a makeshift E-caller to see if I can get a few of the real cagey ones to come out of the scrub into the open paddock and pick them off with the 204.

I tried the toy on a young fox yesterday but it didn't even look up. It's not interested in the tin whistle either though. Probably too young - hasn't chased rabbits, only mice and frogs.

Now, that is funny. I've been considering making mouth calls, poking around to see what it would cost to get started and such. Figured I could stop spending money on custom calls and maybe make a few for friends. Sounds like I need to head to Petco and hit the bargain bin!

This is the toy ball I've been using. It's called in 3 foxes so far and spooked 2 that came in to investigate baits hung from a tree.



The volume is quite a bit louder than my mouth callers and I think that's what spooked a couple of the takers as they got close, but for calling using a rifle where you have the option of a longer shot that probably wouldn't be a problem.

Here's the makeshift e-caller I quickly put together with stuff laying around to try some fox call wave files downloaded from the internet. It's just am MP3 player and speakers from the LCD monitor powered by a 240v AC to 5v DC USB adapter from my wireless modem, all powered by a motorcycle battery and 240V inverter to make it portable.



Those little speakers pack a fair bit of punch so it should be interesting to see how the foxes respond to the various red fox calls stored on the SD card. If it doesn't rain I'll hopefully get to test it tonight.

The Black plug coming out of the inverter is essentially a 240V AC to 5V DC transformer, so what you're doing (if my memory isn't as fuzzy as it should be this time of year) is converting from DC (battery) to AC, then back to DC.
You should be able to find some type of battery that will do the job directly without inverter or black power plug, ie, battery directly to MP3 and speakers.
5V might be a little hard to find, and you will need to cut the wires off of that black plug to go directly to the battery.
If you're not concerned about frying the speakers and MP3 player, try a 6V dolphin torch battery. I doubt it'll be too much voltage and expect it should work, but I reserve the right to say I told you so.
I'm also happy to take praise if it works