The lucky once but not twice fox!

[ianm 2,594]

The story of this particular fox started in early February. I think i have mentioned before that a chap in the small game syndicate i am in has another couple of shoots that i control foxes on for him. Well we went to one of these shoots foxing in early February. The farmer had seen a couple of foxes about, which isn't unusual for this ground. The chap i go with is keen to control foxes early on because he also stalks this ground for roe and he is convinced that since i have been killing foxes there the numbers of roe have increased. I have no doubt that foxes will predate on fawns so he is probably right.

It was a decent night for foxing, not much wind, dark,dry and cold enough for the thermal spotter to work really well. We decided to set up overlooking a long wood. This meant driving across two fields ( on tracks ) till we reached a crossing point at a deep dyke. At this point you are approximately two hundred and fifty yards from the wood and you can scan over four fields from the back of the Jimny. We choose this location because it offers good visibility over a large area but more importantly it nearly always produces a fox. Whilst i readied the rifle on the Jimny's roof my mate put the foxpro out in the field in front of us and about fifty yards to our right. I chose pheasant distress and set the caller to work. Within a short amount of time ( maybe three minutes ) a fox appeared directly in front of us. It had come out of the wood and jumped over the deep dyke that runs around the wood. I switched the Drone and Solaris laser on and picked it up in the scope waiting for it to trot in. Well old foxy had other ideas and decided not to come any further. It sat down and just looked over towards the caller. I tried another couple of calls, rat distress and field mouse distress to no avail. It wasn't going to come any closer so i decided i would have to shoot it where it was. After settling the reticule on it's head i squeezed off a round and saw it bowl over backwards. It was on it's back with legs and tail moving about so i cycled another round into the chamber. Well before i got chance of a follow up shot it was back on it's legs and doing a good impression  of a fox Lynford Christie. The shot had been approximately two hundred and twenty yards and it's tail wasn't up in the air when it ran, so i couldn't of hit it low. Anyway the net result was it had run off seamingly unscathed.

  My mate went back with dogs the morning after but found nothing, no blood trail, no hair, nothing Well i don't like anything like that happening so before shooting at anything else i checked the rifle next day. As is often the case in instances like this no fault could be found with the rifle, scope combination. It was absolutely spot on, two hundred and thirty yard zero one inch high at one hundred yards. Whatever had happened was my fault and not the equipments. I  continued foxing over the next few months with no further mishaps.

May the twenty first saw us back at the same farm, but this time on the opposite side of the wood due to the wind which was in the opposite direction than in February. Again having driven across a couple of fields we decided to set up over looking the wood. We where on a big grass field with a wheat field off to our left. Whenever i get out of the Jimny i open the back door and step up onto the purpose made platform at the back to scan with the thermal. As i started to pan left to right i saw a heat signature on the edge of the wood and thought it too big to be a hare of which there are plenty. I whispered to my mate that i thought there was a fox to our left and to put the caller out quickly. Meanwhile i set up the rifle on the roof on it's four inch bipod and a rear bag. Once the scope was switched on i found what i had seen with the thermal. It was a fox but i could only see it's head and neck due to the height of the wheat. I tried three or four calls to try to move it into a better position but it was having none of it. Worse still was it had started turning it's head round to look backwards a sure sign it's thinking of going back where it came from. I told my mate i was going to have to shoot it where it was or not at all and he was keen for me to kill it where it was. I had a quick look on my phone at an app i have on there that gives you the distance between two points and decided i was well within the parameters of my zero. I settled the reticule between it's eyes and steadied the rifle on the rear bag. After exhaling i squeezed the set trigger on the Tikka and saw a halo of dark mist surround the target followed a split second later by that unmistakable sound of a head shot. I made the rifle safe and locked it in the Jimny before going to retrieve the fox. I had marked our position on the app before setting off . We found it on the headland of the wheat field with an entry wound right between it's eyes. It was a dog fox and on examination i found a scar about two inches long running vertically down it's head an inch or so above the entry hole which was just about the width of a .204 bullet. He had been lucky on our first encounter but not on our second. The shot that killed him had been two hundred and thirty one yards. 

[dytkos 17,534]

Very good write up mate.

Cheers, D.

[Baldcoot 2,352]

Arrows nice to know you got him ,and the first time he may have just twichted enough for sure shot to become a close shave .Mind that scar probably got him a few lady admirers too 

[Sausagedog 7,381]

Good stuff.

The first shot may of touched something on the way. Don't take much!

[shovel leaner 7,648]

Good write up Ian , and a good result. Had a similar thing happen to me the other night . I missed an easy cub . I wasn’t sure if an earlier knock on the scope had affected zero , so I found a safe rabbit at about 70  meters and missed that . Convinced I’d knocked the scope I went home . Went to sort it out the next day on a paper target and it was bang on ????  I tend to have nights like that and it’s all my fault . Sometimes I’m just tired and for whatever reason can’t hit a barn door . I’ve got a routine I subconsciously run through before taking a shot , it involves breathing and cheek and shoulder position checks and sometimes it just all falls apart .

[Stavross 13,713]

A cracking result and a lovely write up, I love a bit of detail in a story

[David.evans 5,323]

Great write up and a great result at distance 

now what's the app you use on your phone 

Atb 

[ianm 2,594]

3 hours ago, David.evans said:

Great write up and a great result at distance 

now what's the app you use on your phone 

Atb 

Mapulator it's called, really handy..

[Rimfireboy! 1,463]

Good account and good result Ian. Well done fella

[wilbur foxhound 480]

Lucky once but not twice ,,usually when a fox makes a mistake it’s its downfall,good shot but can you pull a shot of like that all the time,wf

[David.evans 5,323]

I would say most can WF 

BUT a good few sessions on paper would not be out of order first 

atb 

[ianm 2,594]

2 hours ago, wilbur foxhound said:

Lucky once but not twice ,,usually when a fox makes a mistake it’s its downfall,good shot but can you pull a shot of like that all the time,wf

Yes i can because i make sure everything is right. I also regularly check the rifle /scope / ammunition combination. Time and effort doing so gives me the confidence and ability to take long shots when i have to although i really don't mind the eighty yard shots either.