Fox hunting....assistance/advice required

[204 Ruger]

My need to kill something, clearly you do not know me, or anything about the countryside in general, maybe your'e "just a stalker"...................If you knew your arse from your elbow , you would know it 's impossible to shoot out the fox population, as was demonstrated by earlier attempts to clear the land for the purposes of disease control, or maybe someone imported the fox to restock? anyway, what is your knowledge base chum?

Quote: No Fin my Opinion is born out of knowlage and has a good sound base yours is just yours and born out of a need to kill somthing. Lets hope fox hunting is brought back and the gun lads get a bad on shooting foxes for a 5 year period.
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Come on chaps put down your rifle and riding whip (respectively). Didnt want to start an arguement, its been a useful thread for me. Thanks for the input

 

[6pointer]

No argument here mate have a sence of humour its a sunday and we should all be out hunting shoot or stalking and i need to bloody work so i am due a bitch.

 

[finnbear270]

Stevie, no one tells me I kill for pleasure, I do a particular service for farmers & landowners with a fox problem, I do it well, this is where the pleasure comes in, doing things to a very high standard, that's why I have been doing it for nearly 40 years.. ( doesn't that equate to a knowledge base?)... It does not add up to me killing every single fox I lay eyes on. My sense of humour was left by the side of the geese pens at 01.30 hours in Selattyn along with Charlie & her third eye.

 

[csl]

born out of a need to kill somthing.

A bit like how, for some, posting on here is born out of a need to up trouble?

 

[finnbear270]

Choc, you don't have to restrict yourself to pm's mate, anything you want to say to me, you can say on open forum, & I don't make an issue out of anything, unless someone impunes my integrity.

 

[sir-lamp-alot]

i'm going to lay my cards on the table with this one and hope that others whom feel the same do so as well
if you cant already guess i hate fox hunting and the atitude of some people whom do it and i also dont feel that its a sustainable or humane. my views are not based on a whim either atho i am seen in the eyes of many as young (29) i have had more experience in the countryside especialy in fox control than most whom are twice my age. i do not know how people can justify the time it takes from finding a fox with hounds to its death, i know that most people who hunt foxes throw up the argument that only the old and infirm are killed but this is total crap a wide range of foxes are killed and and you all know this. now i wouldnt worrie about this fact if it wasnt for the fact and it is a fact that you use this as argument that hunting is better than shooting and really the british public should be looking at banning shooting foxes rather than hunting them, but in the same breath you turn to shooting comunity for help when your back is up against the wall as you know that we have greater numbers and a bigger voice. if the hunt was really out to control foxes then it wouldnt be making up statistics that more foxes are being killed post ban by people whom are out lamping, the hunt has always known that more foxes have been killed in the lamp than by hound and horse back and this fact has been proved by this thread in that the fact that a person has been asked to stop shooting foxes as the hunt wants to have there fun with them which is wrong, as already said even if you were out lamping, hunting snaring and any other means of fox control you wish to mention every day there would still be foxes on your ground and the hunt needs to except the fact that the lamp will always control foxes and those with horse and hound will only ever see the fox as a play thing which they can chase around the countryside under the alusion that they are doing some good for the land owner. this post has been in no way a personal attack on any one person in any way just stating a few points that the fox hunting world needs to take a long hard think about next time they ride out

 

[204 Ruger]

the fact that a person has been asked to stop shooting foxes as the hunt wants to have there fun with them which is wrong, as already said even if you were out lamping, hunting snaring and any other means of fox control you wish to mention every day there would still be foxes on your ground and the hunt needs to except the fact that the lamp will always control foxes and those with horse and hound will only ever see the fox as a play thing which they can chase around the countryside under the alusion that they are doing some good for the land owner. this post has been in no way a personal attack on any one person in any way just stating a few points that the fox hunting world needs to take a long hard think about next time they ride out

I have to agree..The hunt in this case (and another near an estate near to one of my permissions) do not want the foxes shot purely to have their fun on the hunt.

 

[Dan Gliballs]

But remember not every hunt pack is full of marble mouthed red coated Ruperts.

The pack here is one huntsman with a pack of hounds, 20 odd keepers/stalker/sheperds with guns/rifles surrounding a wood waiting for the fox to break cover, imo a very effective method of fox control within commercial forestry.

Without such a method lambing around here wouldnt be as successful as it is.

Dont tar all hunts with the same brush

 

[204 Ruger]

But remember not every hunt pack is full of marble mouthed red coated Ruperts.

The pack here is one huntsman with a pack of hounds, 20 odd keepers/stalker/sheperds with guns/rifles surrounding a wood waiting for the fox to break cover, imo a very effective method of fox control within commercial forestry.

Without such a method lambing around here wouldnt be as successful as it is.

Dont tar all hunts with the same brush

Fair comment. Very effective and humane, no different to any vermin shoot that is practiced at Pheasant shoots around the country, if controlled and well trained dogs are used to flush the fox out rather than attack it.

 

[csl]

I don't think we want this to descend into a shooting vs. fox hunting debate. The OP's question was a legal query about shooting rights and the estate's retention of such.

Yes I know, "when hunting was looking like it was going to be banned they said this that and the other" but we're shooters, we don't do 'them and us'.

 

[6pointer]

There are more ways than one to skin a cat and shooting it with a rifle is only one.(to many did,ys take up shooting late in life and there opinion is blurd by there none exsitent passed ) Bring back fox hunting and proper terrier work. One of the best forms of fox control ask any keeper sheperd

 

[Dan Gliballs]

cant beat a good dig

 

[countrryboy]

Choc surely the hunting rules haven't affected u to much, it's still legal to dig foxes. I go out fairly regulary with a gun pack and i can tell you it is very efficent and the huntsman gets well p*shed off if any get away, he only hunts 2 to 4 couple and i've seen him put intoand draw big blocks of forestry(1000's acres) and still push foxes out, it's gettin enough guns in right bits is a problem. I must admit dont get many digs really as foxes generally shot quickly when they leave the fist wood so unless it has a den in it no digging.

As for the general argument i have to agree with dan it is a very good tool for foxing esp in big forestry blocks where lamping is impossible and only other option is snaring which can be very time consuming and tying every day.I have some experience of keepering on a hunting estate it is a nightmare, but this leaving foxes policy in my opinion generally works aggainst the hounds, too many foxes they never follow the same scent and jist run round the wood chasing different foxes(or thats wot the local mounted hunt hounds did althou they were usless, couldnae catch a cauld)

As for lamping it also is a great tool in the right hands, there is also a some people that i know shouldn't be allowed to do it, i also hear off farmers out taking pot shots at them in the lamp then they wonder why there lamp shy.
Foxes are a bloody clever animal and it needs abit of everything to try and keep them in check, they also say shoot 1 fox and 2 come to the funeral

 

[Hodadr]

Steve,

Well done, diplomacy won through and you got a bit extra as well. Nice to see the firm hand shake over a coffee still works!

 

[204 Ruger]

Steve,

Well done, diplomacy won through and you got a bit extra as well. Nice to see the firm hand shake over a coffee still works!

Thanks mate. Yeah, very pleased with the result overall. I took a stroll with the shotgun yesterday evening on the new land. Its a piece opf land I am familiar with from my fishing days, one that I always wanted to shoot as a kid. In total its apx 1 mile in length (separated into fields obviously) mixed part with wheat, maize, grazing land. I took 6 crows and 2 pigeons on the walk and will return this week to decoy the crows. I walked past 6 Hares and happily sat watching them chase each other around (knowing I am not allowed to shoot them anyway!!! Even if I wanted to which I generally don’t do). Part of the grounds has a free range chicken field which will obviously attract Charlies (which I am not allowed to shoot) but there is quite a lot of rabbit activity so some lamping still available. Overall a good result and better to be on the side of the game keeper than not. Have also agreed to do some beating once the season begins which I do enjoy.

Thanks for the involvement in the thread its been an interesting debate.

 

[geordieh]

Hi All
I have just been told i cannot shoot foxes on about 300 acres which i have shot for about the last 6-7 years because the farmer wants to get some planning permission to go through and he has been told that it stands more chance of being granted if he does not have anyone shooting the foxes, one of the big knobs in the hunt is on planning committee.Boy am i pi**ed off with the hunting people. So my view now is ban fox hunting with horses and hounds completely.(Only joking).I still have permission on some of the adjoining ground so i will try and make sure they don't see many foxes about
Geordie

 

[Cyres]

Tact and diplomacy can be a nightmare and a very fine balancing act.

I shoot on quite a lot of places where hunting is De rigor, but they also shoot so we need to keep fox no's in reasonable control. Couple years ago we saw 10 pairs of eyes one two stubble fields and shot 8. Owner is a big hunter and shooter so understood and was OK. Often best not too have too many foxes about when they draw a covert esp now cubbing is not allowed.

When up in the borders one of the keepers I shoot with has it in his contract that there must be a fox for the hunt, so they leave off them before the due day then it back to normal affairs.

Very important to remove the slain and dispose of them in an appropriate manner.

As they say "What the eye does not see the heart does not grieve"!!

All been said if you have free range chickens then you will have your work cut out, rimmy with sub sonics or a .204 with NV may be the ideal discrete tool !!

Good luck

D

 

[Orion]

Tact and diplomacy can be a nightmare and a very fine balancing act.

Very true. All this interaction with the fox hunts sounds like a piece of cake - you should try deer management/control/stalking in an area where one of the Stag Hunts has influence!

 

[204 Ruger]

It is a challenge especially early in the year when the lambs are arriving. The game keeper has said to me that if the farmer has lambs being taken he would be ok with me shooting the culprit as long as he is made aware (and may want to attend with me) he doesnt own a rifle @@@@*@@**@*.

 

[Hodadr]

God, if they ever ban snaring we will be over run with the blighters. I have no issue with hunting or lamping, both are a tool, but if you want to control foxes the only effective way is a proper snaring program. Now that is a real art/craft.