Fox Shooting Calendar

liamnjs

Well-Known Member
Evening all,

I'm interested in how you structure your fox control throughout the year. Do you lamp all year round? Do you try different shooting tactics at different times of the year? Do you vary your snaring/trapping throughout the year?
 
Hard on them during the autumn/winter months but after the cubs arrive leave them alone. I don't like the thought of starving cubs to death.
Lamp, early morning trips out and snares. Early morning trips can be the most effective.
 
i will lamp all year round, i do admire the above posters tho for stoping when cubs are about but i think very few cubs will starve tho as i stand by that vixens are a totally differnt animal when cubs are about and are very hard to catch out as the will up tail and run to the slightest upset, i know that dogs stil get shot but a vixen can feed a litter of cubs on her own without any problems. one thing i will make sure of tho through out the year is we always lamp the same night as anyone cuts grass or crops even if its only one feild we still go out
 
sir lamp alot
so what happens when you shoot one full of milk clearly with cubs about
that will starve to death .
gone are the days of cymag when a full time keeper who knows his ground
like the back of his hand could find the earth and deal humanely with the cubs
so many of us are off to work early the next day after a nights lamping and probably
not have a clue where the earths are anyway .

I have chosen to lay off for the last five years now but everybody to there own
ATB pete .
 
Some people curl the lip when they realise I shoot those little chocolate coloured fella's on the edge of the earth.

im with you shoot them all year if i shoot a vixen in milk then ill be out morning noon and night checking earths to make sure i get the cubs as well
 
I shoot them all year round as I have a job to do for farmers. If you are a recreational foxer then 'stopping' is fine! Just means more for me- LOL
 
Lamp all year round,snare when you have the cover,and a few fox drives helps keep the numbers down,as for cubs,they grow into big ginger things with a bushy tail and big teeth.
Atb John.
 
im with you shoot them all year if i shoot a vixen in milk then ill be out morning noon and night checking earths to make sure i get the cubs as well

Tell me swatty, How many miles can a fox travel from it's earth in one trip out? Assuming you give me the right answer you would have to be out morning noon and night to find the correct fox hole for the vixen you have shot. What happens when the fox hole is not even on your ground. And how many do you know that can properly deal with a fox hole.

As for being a recreational foxer firsttimer you jest. I am often out 7 days a week. The landy in the avatar is not for fun and no complaints for landowners I do work for. If you can do a proper job during Autumn and the winter months there won't be too many litters anyway. I just see no reason to starve a litter of cubs to death when I can easily take care of them above ground and as long as I get no reports of a specific problem during my stoppage period (never happened yet) I'm happy.
 
Been in full time game management for a long while, like rabbits little ones grow into big uns and the damage the parents do while feeding the little beggars is totaly unreasonable.
I kill em by all legal methods, and am very hard on them all year round.
If I can kill the parents and then the cubs great, but I will not loose sleep over any fox ever.
I don't want loads of flack for this statement you asked me and i told you HONESTLY.
Kill em all.
If I was told on a shoot that the 2 foxes in the wood were the last 2 in yorkshire I would shoot em both TWICE for good measure.
regards john.
 
Been in full time game management for a long while, like rabbits little ones grow into big uns and the damage the parents do while feeding the little beggars is totaly unreasonable.
I kill em by all legal methods, and am very hard on them all year round.
If I can kill the parents and then the cubs great, but I will not loose sleep over any fox ever.
I don't want loads of flack for this statement you asked me and i told you HONESTLY.
Kill em all.
If I was told on a shoot that the 2 foxes in the wood were the last 2 in yorkshire I would shoot em both TWICE for good measure.
regards john.

john make no apologies for being honest there arnt many of us left :lol:
I have turned down many a shot on a good roebuck to take a fox
on estates i manage .

regards pete .
 
Thanks for your replies everyone, I really appreciate the feedback. To give you some background my students will soon be working on pest control plans for the estate and it is useful to feed in different methods of doing things as opposed to just my own and those keepers I know/have worked with. The internet is a wonderful thing.

For those of you who do shoot all year round do you change methods (baiting/lamping/calling etc.) throughout the year?
 
High seats in the summer around pens and crossing points.
Carefully parked truck on a barley stubble next to a standing rape field.
Lamping on the stubbles and right on to about april.
Then wait for returning adults at the dens/earths.
And snares in the tramlines gateways.
Any sign of them going to ground and i'm on the phone to the terrier lads.
Sunday mornings from about end of july - end of sept i get between 4 and 8 rifles dotted around the shoot.
Last year was slow about 30 man hours a fox this year it was 8 so 1-2 an outing for whoever was lucky.
 
Lamping thoughout autumn/winter - as soon as we can get out after crops being cut, we're out, and keep going until everywhere is sown up again.

If I saw one during the spring/summer whilst out shoting rabbits/pigeons, I'd shoot it. They aren't tolerated around us - far too many people concerned over lambs/chickens/ducks. And we have wild grey partridge on our shoot - too rare a species to let ginger rascals wander around....

Don't use snares, etc. It's only rifles and shotguns.
 
FORGOT TO SAY ON CALL FOR CHARLIE IF ANY COMBINE DRIVERS FIND ONE IN A CROP.
THEN A CALL GOES OUT AND AN AMBUSH IS SET WITH SHOTGUNS AND A HEAFTY LOAD OF BB's
 
FORGOT TO SAY ON CALL FOR CHARLIE IF ANY COMBINE DRIVERS FIND ONE IN A CROP.
THEN A CALL GOES OUT AND AN AMBUSH IS SET WITH SHOTGUNS AND A HEAFTY LOAD OF BB's

...we were out lamping last week, and stopped for a natter with one of the farmers.

"Could have done with you guys the other day..." he says, "...was out contracting pulling fodder beet up, got to the last patch, about 20 yards left.....four F***in' foxes jumped out of that one piece!!"

Now THAT would require a spot of snap-shooting! :D
 
lamping all year or at least before the crops are too high, plus high seats used as much as time allows through the year.
the occasional snare plus fox trap set by chickens at home.
we would always shoot a fox over deer.
i am with john, shoot any fox any time of year, if i find a litter i would try to shoot the cubs first but not at risk of the vixen moving them.

atb

Nick
 
sir lamp alot
so what happens when you shoot one full of milk clearly with cubs about
that will starve to death .
gone are the days of cymag when a full time keeper who knows his ground
like the back of his hand could find the earth and deal humanely with the cubs
so many of us are off to work early the next day after a nights lamping and probably
not have a clue where the earths are anyway .

I have chosen to lay off for the last five years now but everybody to there own
ATB pete .
i accept that even tho the chances are slim some cubs will un-fortunatly die due to there parents being killed, its not somthing i set out to do but i shot foxes for the greater good. sure the main reason is for game management and i make no bones about that but many other species benifit by the death of a litter of cubs including hares and songbirds for starters as we all already know. i never go out with the intention to starve a litter of cubs to death i just know its a sad situation which can arise from what i do but before you tar me as a cub starving ******* just take a look at what you shoot, as i bet you shoot rabbits, squirrel, crows, muntjac,pidgeons, magpies, ect ect all year round without a thought for there young? and muntjac and rabbits can have dependant young all year round! so where do you draw the line? as just because somthing looks cute and cuddley like a fox cub doesnt mean it has the right to live or die any more than a ugly wood pidgeon sqwab
 
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