Foxing Tips For a Newbie

[old 30-06]

Well, georgedoubleyou, you asked for advice ! Plenty of it there, and I agree with a lot of it. You are very fortunate to have this permission, so look after it well. I will only add two pieces of advice to the mix. Firstly, and most importantly, enjoy it whether you get a result or not. Secondly, keep a diary. Date, time, weather, result (yardage). This will help you obtain the most from your "novice" experience. Good luck.

 

[WalkedUp]

In your diary include the “reason for miss”…. For me almost every miss has been due to my stupidity in not being 100% in my equipment and trying to “make do”. Shooting off hand if you forget sticks etc. Put in systems to try to slowly eliminate the errors and chip away at the success rate. That reminds me, I need spare batteries for the caller… I’m out tonight!

 

[gelert]

Foxes are generally creatures of habit, and will often come along same time same field/path etc. If you're up a high seat I'd be leaving baited areas, and making a note of distances.
Don't discount early mornings, and be in the seat as light breaks.
Cat food in an empty bottle with water squirted on the ground works well to keep them sniffing long enough for a shot, a metal steak with meat or plastic pipe fixed to the ground also works.
An electronic caller will pay for itself in no time, look at Best Fox call.

 

[hairlesshunter]

Just Don’t eat when you shoot your first one

 

[Overlay]

Check your ground out thoroughly, if you can locate an earth or two, set out to rein these in first, as your learning the ground, if you can pick these off you’re save a hell of a lot running about after this years brood have starting to spread out and move on.
Find the earths - high seat set up over the earths

On the earths, knock over the cubs first ( all of them) then the adults after, starting with the dog fox, the vixen is the key to getting the cubs out of the earth, just a little squeak from her and they will come out,some are full on some are timid so a accurate head count is essential, when you have shot a cub pick it up and hide it away the vixen will come into collect it after a head count and move the carcase to a safe place other wise and then probably out of a bolt hole from earth move the rest un seen it’s the best reduction you can get for the area for just a few weeks you know where they all going together

Stick with it and you can see the results pretty well

Good luck

 

[Bo Diddley]

Check your ground out thoroughly, if you can locate an earth or two, set out to rein these in first, as your learning the ground, if you can pick these off you’re save a hell of a lot running about after this years brood have starting to spread out and move on.
Find the earths - high seat set up over the earths

On the earths, knock over the cubs first ( all of them) then the adults after, starting with the dog fox, the vixen is the key to getting the cubs out of the earth, just a little squeak from her and they will come out,some are full on some are timid so a accurate head count is essential, when you have shot a cub pick it up and hide it away the vixen will come into collect it after a head count and move the carcase to a safe place other wise and then probably out of a bolt hole from earth move the rest un seen it’s the best reduction you can get for the area for just a few weeks you know where they all going together

Stick with it and you can see the results pretty well

Good luck

We all have a different approach it seems to "dening" I always want to shoot the adults first then the cubs, the vixen & dog will keep coming back to the cubs, the cubs aren't going anywhere and you can deal with them when the parents are clobbered.

It's the same as leaving a bait station unshot until the breeding season is in full swing, I've only done it properly once but the amount of "traffic" that was arriving at the station just built up the more I left them, all that pi$$ & $hite being left on the ground just added to the draw (pheromones) I think more than the bait itself, every vixen I shot I always emptied the bladder out as well, 16 adult foxes in three weeks from an area in rural Norfolk was pretty good.
ATB BD.

 

[Foxyboy43]

Walk your ground in daylight and look for patches of heavy cover be they little woods with lots of undergrowth or even old overgrown thick hedges - log them;
Buy or make a set of quads - practice deploying them and mounting rifle until it feels totally natural.
Learn to do a passable handsqueak or buy a caller - simple or electronic and return to those spots at any time of day;
Return to logged cover areas in daylight hours, conceal yourself in nearby cover - say 100 yards away, wear gloves, hat and facemask and set rifle up on quad sticks, then start squeaking;
Scan the cover repeatedly - think tail gunner on a Lancaster bomber, if any foxes are in it you will soon find out - usually they appear from nowhere - think Vietcong tunnel rats and charge straight at you or the remote caller;
Control the inevitable panic, stop the fox with a loud shout, shoot the fox, keep calling - wait ten minutes then repeat calling;
If no further shows relax, congratulate yourself and repeat as required - best fun ever!
Simples…

 

[Len the dog]

Along with practising with the quadsticks, practice like hell with the record button on your NV, until it becomes second nature.

 

[Foxyboy43]

Along with practising with the quadsticks, practice like hell with the record button on your NV, until it becomes second nature.

Dead man walking!

 

[jall55]

We all have a different approach it seems to "dening" I always want to shoot the adults first then the cubs, the vixen & dog will keep coming back to the cubs, the cubs aren't going anywhere and you can deal with them when the parents are clobbered.

It's the same as leaving a bait station unshot until the breeding season is in full swing, I've only done it properly once but the amount of "traffic" that was arriving at the station just built up the more I left them, all that pi$$ & $hite being left on the ground just added to the draw (pheromones) I think more than the bait itself, every vixen I shot I always emptied the bladder out as well, 16 adult foxes in three weeks from an area in rural Norfolk was pretty good.
ATB BD.

Cull them before they breed - far less welfare issues - and far less damage to the "prey" populations

 

[Lace1978]

Patience kills foxes

 

[Bo Diddley]

Cull them before they breed - far less welfare issues - and far less damage to the "prey" populations

I always give the foxes a break from culling personally, it seems the only fair and humane thing to do... it's usually Christmas day for me....

 

[Overlay]

I remove the cubs first, firstly no chance of young cubs left to wander about dying, and it’s the humane thing to do, the adults will come back to the earth looking for the cubs, just with that there are no extra foxes in situ prior to the breeding season from that pairing , cleared out the cubs now your working on the next year breeding cycle with adults that’s how I do it and it works for me

 

[Overlay]

Patience kills foxes

My middle name.

 

[Nickb]

I remove the cubs first, firstly no chance of young cubs left to wander about dying, and it’s the humane thing to do, the adults will come back to the earth looking for the cubs, just with that there are no extra foxes in situ prior to the breeding season from that pairing , cleared out the cubs now your working on the next year breeding cycle with adults that’s how I do it and it works for me

Ask any keeper , shoot the adults first then deal with the Cubs

 

[Triggermortis]

If you’re stood waiting tucked up in a hedgerow of a square field don’t stand half way along one side, you’ll potentially have an arc of 180 degrees to cover/ watch, stand with you’re back into a corner, that way you’ll have a maximum of a 90 degree arc to watch and have to move you’re sticks to get a shot.
Triggermortis

 

[LewisL]

Following for future reference