At last!
Posted: Wed Feb 20, 2008 5:31 am
Just thought i`d post this story about one of thefarms i lamp on.It`s actually about 400 acres,and apart from cattle and sheep,it also has a syndicate pheasant shoot.due to this the foxes are very heavily controled by the local hunt,and also myself by lamping at least once a month.
Over the last few trips,we nearly allways spotted a fox in almost the same field,but he would never stay for the shot.A bit frustrating,but shows how inteligent they can be.
The problem started when i got a call from the farmer early last week saying that he`d had a couple of lambs killed,in the field next to where we allways saw the fox.
Last friday night we took the lamp out,and once again saw a fox very close to where we normally saw him.He didn`t even look back,but was straight out of there!I told the farmer i`d have to try something different, so i was there at 6 a.m sunday morning with the temperature at -5(at least it woke me up).
Called for about an hour,moving my stand every 20 minutes,but saw absolutly nothing.Must admit,it was really nice to be out of the house at sunrise,and even though i didn`t see a fox,i saw a lot of other rabbits and birds,and even a polecat,so the job wasn`t all bad.
Then yesterday i got another call from the farmer telling me he`d lost another lamb,and he`s snares hadn`t caught anything.I told him i had a day off today so would try again this morning.Once again i was up at six (i`m normally up at 5 for work anyway).Parked in the same spot and walked to the field,But this time i decided to put the lure out,about 80 yards from where i was going to call,at the base of a hedge.A good thing was that the lure could be seen from hundreds of yards away.
I started to call with a few mouse squeeks,and then some rabbit squeeling but without success.This went on for about 30 minutes,but i didn`t want to change location as i just thought for some reason i was in the right place.Anyway i Kept going while trying not to over call,incase anything got suspicious.
After an hour calling i`d almost given up,and the only thing i had left was an Australian fox whistle,which i`ve used with slight success before ,but have allways thouhgt it was a bit loud.Anyway i gave it a few good blows and sat back to see if anything happend.I was just about to gather my stuff together and head home when i noticed a movement to my right,coming up the hedge.I decided not to call as it was trotting fairly quickly towards the lure,and the last thing i wanted to do was to spook it.It run into about 120 yards (40 yards from the lure and stopped.The last thing i wanted to do was spook it by moving too much,so i decided to shoot it freehand.The first shot hit him in the side and he went down,but then he got up into a sitting position facing me.the second shot hit the end of his nose and it must have penetrated as the fox just flopped to the ground.
When i reached the fox you could see the first shot had done a lot of damage,but i didn`t want to take any chances.Needless to say the farmer is very happy.Just got to hope now that it is the fox we were after. Sorry about the long story and the bad picture quality,but i allways forget to take my camera with me.(Cant think of an excuse for the long story!)
Over the last few trips,we nearly allways spotted a fox in almost the same field,but he would never stay for the shot.A bit frustrating,but shows how inteligent they can be.
The problem started when i got a call from the farmer early last week saying that he`d had a couple of lambs killed,in the field next to where we allways saw the fox.
Last friday night we took the lamp out,and once again saw a fox very close to where we normally saw him.He didn`t even look back,but was straight out of there!I told the farmer i`d have to try something different, so i was there at 6 a.m sunday morning with the temperature at -5(at least it woke me up).
Called for about an hour,moving my stand every 20 minutes,but saw absolutly nothing.Must admit,it was really nice to be out of the house at sunrise,and even though i didn`t see a fox,i saw a lot of other rabbits and birds,and even a polecat,so the job wasn`t all bad.
Then yesterday i got another call from the farmer telling me he`d lost another lamb,and he`s snares hadn`t caught anything.I told him i had a day off today so would try again this morning.Once again i was up at six (i`m normally up at 5 for work anyway).Parked in the same spot and walked to the field,But this time i decided to put the lure out,about 80 yards from where i was going to call,at the base of a hedge.A good thing was that the lure could be seen from hundreds of yards away.
I started to call with a few mouse squeeks,and then some rabbit squeeling but without success.This went on for about 30 minutes,but i didn`t want to change location as i just thought for some reason i was in the right place.Anyway i Kept going while trying not to over call,incase anything got suspicious.
After an hour calling i`d almost given up,and the only thing i had left was an Australian fox whistle,which i`ve used with slight success before ,but have allways thouhgt it was a bit loud.Anyway i gave it a few good blows and sat back to see if anything happend.I was just about to gather my stuff together and head home when i noticed a movement to my right,coming up the hedge.I decided not to call as it was trotting fairly quickly towards the lure,and the last thing i wanted to do was to spook it.It run into about 120 yards (40 yards from the lure and stopped.The last thing i wanted to do was spook it by moving too much,so i decided to shoot it freehand.The first shot hit him in the side and he went down,but then he got up into a sitting position facing me.the second shot hit the end of his nose and it must have penetrated as the fox just flopped to the ground.
When i reached the fox you could see the first shot had done a lot of damage,but i didn`t want to take any chances.Needless to say the farmer is very happy.Just got to hope now that it is the fox we were after. Sorry about the long story and the bad picture quality,but i allways forget to take my camera with me.(Cant think of an excuse for the long story!)