Mangey Dog Fox!

FrenchieBoy

Well-Known Member
After casting my vote in the referendum and several "meetings" I decided to get out yesterday evening to have a bit of a lay out to see if any more foxes were showing near the earth where I took three vixens from a week and a half ago. The landowner's wife said that she had seen a couple of foxes above the earth early in the morning while walking her dog so it looked like I might get a shot or two in.
I had just got settled in to my shooting position when one of the heifers noticed that I was there - Within a couple of minutes I was totally surrounded by a dozen or so inquisitive heifers. I felt that the best thing to do was to just keep my rifle unloaded and lay still and try to ignore them. I have to say that it was a bit annoying when one of them started licking my boots and got a swift kick on the nose for it's troubles - In hindsight not a good idea as if it had caused them to "stampede" I could have got trampled on! Anyway, a bit of patience paid off and they eventually realised that I was not going to feed them and they slowly made their way off to pastures new!
I had forgotten to bring any midge repellent with me so I soon found that I was attracting rather a lot of midges and that if I was going to try for a fox I was just going to have to grin and bare it!
About 45 minutes after the heifers had left me in peace a fox decided to make an appearance and was approaching the earth from the skyline, slowly making it's way towards the earth and a safe shot. Once it was below the skyline I tracked it down with the cross hairs on it all the time and when it got to where I had a nice clear shot with it sideways on to me I gave it a quick bark and the moment it stopped I squeezed a round off.
The shot was good and it dropped on the spot, gave a quick twitch of it's legs and that was that. Through the scopes it looked like an older fox but I could not see if it was a dog or vixen and I decided to leave it there in case there were any others in close proximity in need of a little lead 130g pill!
As it was the midges were becoming too much for me and I was getting eaten alive so after another 15 minutes I decided to knock it on the head. I packed the rifle and gear away and then donned a pair of rubber gloves to retrieve the dead fox so I didn't have to drive home stinking of fox, and I'm certainly glad of those rubber gloves! The fox was a really old boy with worn down and really dirty teeth, and was showing heavy signs of mange, he truly stank!
I dragged him back to the farm cottage and let the landowner know how things had gone, which he was delighted with and said that he would chuck the carcass on a large bonfire he was planning in having today!
All in all a fair result but even after a good shower and a couple of beers the wife said I still looked like something from a horror film where I had been bitten by so many midges and reacted badly to the bites - I've still got some of the marks showing on me this morning and even thinking about it I am itching again!
The things we do and put ourselves through to try to keep out farmers happy - And God do I hate those midges!
 
Well done - that's a good result and a decided vote for persistence! I had two last night - through the NV I couldn't get any size reference, so assumed they were both cubs. They fell within a couple of feet of each other, and both looked much the same through the thermal. When I got to them, however, I was amazed to see that while one was very small, the other was a huge dog fox. I would lay money on it that it was one of the individuals that's been responsible for wreaking havoc with local poultry owners!
 
nice one FB,

i had had three in the space of 9 mins all just outside the earth, I too thought as paddy said they where all Cubs, after letting things settle I went down to collect them and it was 2 Cubs and a average sized dog, both Cubs where about the same size but the young dog was IMO to young to be a father and to old to be part of this littler?

i then had one more from about 200 yards and it looked small but in fact was the biggest I have had this year, a stonking big dog in fine condition, so they will not be setting about on the birds this year, the only thing holding us back now is the crops too high in places and not enough clear spaces to determine if what you seen was a fox? or something else.

keep the good work up.

bob.
 
Well done - that's a good result and a decided vote for persistence! I had two last night - through the NV I couldn't get any size reference, so assumed they were both cubs. They fell within a couple of feet of each other, and both looked much the same through the thermal. When I got to them, however, I was amazed to see that while one was very small, the other was a huge dog fox. I would lay money on it that it was one of the individuals that's been responsible for wreaking havoc with local poultry owners!

Nice one Paddy, a good result for you too!
From what I can gather there's still a little work to do at this particular earth but and it looks like it will need another really early morning start! Just waiting for a nice dry warm morning and I will do what I can to keep the local poultry keepers happy!
 
I came across this one a couple of weeks ago.



Other than condition, no other sign of trauma. Not that I wanted to look too closely.



Steve.
 
Horrible as that is, at least it's still got some fur - some of the ones we see around here look as though they've got the skin of an amphibian!
 
I came across this one a couple of weeks ago.



Other than condition, no other sign of trauma. Not that I wanted to look too closely.



Steve.

Not a pretty sight and not the sort of end I would wish on any animal. They might be vermin/pests but they still deserve a quick and humane death.
 
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