Fox with a headache!

Leica Fortis 6 - Bright and powerful.
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User00047

Well-Known Member
I was out last night lamping with the .243 when I came across this fox who appeared to be a bit odd.....there was something about his gait which indicated ill health and so I shot him cleanly through the chest from about 50yds. On closer inspection he appeared entirely healthy and normal except for a large hole in the top of his head! looked/smelt like it was infected.......had yellow/green puss last night but this morning when I went to take the picture the flies had cleaned it up. My guess is: headshot gone wrong (.22lr/17hmr?)
what do you think?FOX - brain injury 008.jpgFOX - brain injury 014.jpg
 
Robert bucknall has some very similar photos in one of his books, including a fox that had been shot broadside without the round expanding, only to be caught up with again by the same team a couple of weeks later. I've had similar myself, shot a Fox with .243, no reaction other than a squeak, shot again 50 yards on when it walked out of cover and it went down. 2 entries and exits at completely different angles!

Novice
 
By the look of it I would agree with gr1ffer - air rifle shot head on, I haven't shot a fox with my .17HMR as yet but with what it does to rabbits cannot believe that this would be the culprit. Have shot foxes with a colleague with a HMR and at the correct range and correct shot placement is a perfectly suitable round for a clean kill.
 
I think a better title for this thread would be "Idiot who should not have access to a gun".

What kind of moron shoots a target species with a gun that is wholly unsuitable for the job.

It is a good thing that someone with a suitable calibre (.243) was around to clean up the mess.
 
I once shot a fox looking at me with my 22lr at about 20yds right between the eyes and heard the round zing off into the distance ! it had richochet of the top of it's skull due to the low angle ? anyway it went down and i gave it another straight away and killed it but if it hadn't killed it it may have gone away with a wound that could have got infected?
 
That's a good old SD answer Bob!

I have come across this in both fox and badger and the fox I know for a fact had been hit by a car. Even rabbits will sustain top of head injuries from a sump nut or similar if the car passes right over it.
 
old keeper said:
That's a good old SD answer Bob!

I have come across this in both fox and badger and the fox I know for a fact had been hit by a car. Even rabbits will sustain top of head injuries from a sump nut or similar if the car passes right over it.
Click to expand...
+1 looks like vehicle knocked a clump of turf off charlies head
 
tackb said:
I once shot a fox looking at me with my 22lr at about 20yds right between the eyes and heard the round zing off into the distance ! it had richochet of the top of it's skull due to the low angle anyway it went down and i gave it another straight away and killed it but if it hadn't killed it it may have gone away with a wound that could have got infected?
Click to expand...


finally!!
I had this "discussion" about ricochets off the fox skull in exactly this spot of the skull and apparently I was "mistaken"
at least now someone else has seen it happen first hand

mine was with an HMR and well inside 100yds
mine didnt got down but gave the tell tale spinning and jumping of a wounded animal

is that the brain I can see, i.e is there a circular hole through the skull?
or is it the skull you can see.
If the latter I would put money on a projectile rather than a vehicle.
not too many foxes would fit under my car without breaking limbs, ribs etc
 
bewsher500 said:
finally!!
I had this "discussion" about ricochets off the fox skull in exactly this spot of the skull and apparently I was "mistaken"
at least now someone else has seen it happen first hand

mine was with an HMR and well inside 100yds
mine didnt got down but gave the tell tale spinning and jumping of a wounded animal

is that the brain I can see, i.e is there a circular hole through the skull?
or is it the skull you can see.
If the latter I would put money on a projectile rather than a vehicle.
not too many foxes would fit under my car without breaking limbs, ribs etc
Click to expand...

I think that is the fractured skull you can see in the centre of the hole. I poked at it with a stick and it was hard, but fragmented if that makes sense. It wasn't soft like brain material. The hole in the head was about 12-15mm diameter and there was no other obvious injury to the animal (other than the hole through it's chest where I'd shot it)
FOX - brain injury 012.jpgFOX - brain injury 003.jpg

So it didn't look like it had been hit by a car although perhaps a vehicle with more ground clearance could have been responsible?
I thought that it looked like a highly frangible projectile had hit it (perhaps at the wrong angle) and expanded too fast to penetrate the skull sufficiently to kill it outright.
 

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My brother and his girlfriend are real antis. They ranted on and on about a similar one where the poor thing had been shot with a .22. They spent money taking it to the vets and when it went to an 'expert' they were told it happens amongst the population and teeth holes in skulls aren't that rare.

I'm not sure about how true this is but it shut them up for a bit.
 
Speculation really I suppose. Could have gone under a vehicle, could have been shot a glancing blow with a rifle of really a number of differing calibres, or it could have been in a scrap. The main thing is that it doesn't look like something that would have healed and the best thing for it was what happened.

It's hard to criticise unduly the original shooter if that is what happened to it, as we don't know if they shot it with a suitable calibre but nearly missed, parting a bit more than it's hair! Of course if it was some dope with an air rifle....
 
I posted a while back about ballistic tips and a fox I shot in the head with a 22-250 at around 100yds, poor thing was still alive when i got to it!IMAG0733.jpg
 
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