My Article In The Shooting Times

Paddy_SP

Well-Known Member
I'm pleased to say that the Shooting Times has published an article of mine in this week's edition, entitled 'Outsmarting the Spring Fox'. I would be most grateful for any feedback anyone may care to give, as there's the chance that they'll print more of my work, and I'd like to know what people liked/didn't like, as well as what they might want to read about in the future...

As ever, any help would be most appreciated! :)
 
Picked it up and put it down again at Victoria station after flicking trough and only seeing something uninspiring about a Tikka T3 and rubbish grouping.

Will grab a copy on the way home now I know it contains something by an SD member as I well recall the excitement of seeing my first ST article in print.

Cheers

K
Ps: Isn’t the Editor’s pen a wickedly cruel thing??
 
I'd been thinking about cancelling my subscription, but if there's going to be something decent in it in future that'll have to wait.
 
Well done on having your work published! I really must get my act together on that front one of these days. I'll read it when I return from France next week.
 
Well done you! I've never reached the heady heights of the shooting times but have had 7 stories published in the Countrymans Weekly.

I'll try and have a read when I'm in the garage later lol ;)
 
Paddy

I enjoyed your article and look forward to reading your book when it is published.

2 things jumped out of the article for me. Where are you getting your data from to suggest that half of roe fawns suffer Fox predation? Also, is it only me that queries a keeper suffering significant losses within sight of his house that has to call someone in to assist? Has he heard of snares? :p

Novice
 
Paddy

I enjoyed your article and look forward to reading your book when it is published.

2 things jumped out of the article for me. Where are you getting your data from to suggest that half of roe fawns suffer Fox predation? Also, is it only me that queries a keeper suffering significant losses within sight of his house that has to call someone in to assist? Has he heard of snares? :p

Novice

Not sure of the statistics myself- would be interested to know but I saw a fox carrying a roe fawn kill last year in long grass. With two witnesses, I took the shot and shot the roe fawn clean out of its mouth :(
Luckily I happened upon the vixen the next night and got her but I swore there was no way I'd see anything like it again.
Of course inevitably, the very next week, I shot at a fox and when I went to pick it up, found a pheasant poult that I had shot out of its jaws :(
I've also found a roe fawn dropped in front of a snare!


There are lots of reason why a keeper might not resort to snares, I for one have a pen with a footpath right alongside where I've encountered Geocachers, dog walkers, cyclists and ramblers during nearly every hour possible! I'd never run the risk of a Badger ending up in a snare in such an exposed situation and the only way to guarantee that is to not set one ;)
 
Paddy

I enjoyed your article and look forward to reading your book when it is published.

2 things jumped out of the article for me. Where are you getting your data from to suggest that half of roe fawns suffer Fox predation? Also, is it only me that queries a keeper suffering significant losses within sight of his house that has to call someone in to assist? Has he heard of snares? :p

Novice

Many thanks for your kind words. To answer your questions:

1. From memory, the article that the roe fawns being killed by foxes info came from was in the BASC magazine, but then again, it might have been the BDS journal. I'll have to think about that one!

2. Much to the keeper's frustration, the landowner on that estate (as with several others in this area) does not allow snares. The topography around the keeper's house - as referred to in the article, does not lend itself to other traditional methods such as lamping, although he does his best in that respect. Hence why I get called in!
 
I think this is what you want to read


The ecology of red fox predation on roe deer fawns
with respect to population density, habitat and alternative prey
Manuela Panzacchi
A CO-OPERATION PROJECT BETWEEN:

Department of


Sorry was thrying to paste PDF but not working but just Google the above for whole paper.

D
 
iv just read it, very good article well written and informative, I can imagine roe fawns are a major food source for foxes we have shot foxes that have been carrying muntjac fawns (we don't get roe out our way much) but im sure muntjac suffer quite bad especially at this time of year normally we find remains of fawns around the cubbing dens if you have Robert bucknells 2nd excellent book theres a photo of the remains of one muntjac fawn that was in an artificial fox set that id just taken a litter out of but there were still bits from other fawns so it wasn't a one off theres also a pic next to it of a muntjac fawn in the mouth of a fox that my head keeper shot one evening, keep up the good work and hope you get a regular slot!
 
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