An easy fox!

[ianm 2,594]

In April i got a phone call from a farmer that supplies some of the birds for our syndicate. Our shoot captain had told him that i would be interested in shooting foxes on his farm. Anyway after a chat with him on the phone i got invited to go one night a couple of weeks later. Now apparently it takes quite some time for this fellow to show any trust in someone he doesn't know. Our shoot captain had already warned me about this and said he will want to go with you. Well it is not a problem for me so off i went and took a spare n/v spotter with me for him to use. It ended up a successful night with me shooting a vixen. I seemed to get on quite well with him and we spent some time just talking in the motor. As we parted that night he said he would call me in September as he didn't go out late during summer due to getting up early, fair enough. Then i got a call from him a few weeks ago, something was killing his ducks, a rat he thought and would i go and see if i could kill it. I went that night and waited but nothing showed up but i said if you continue to have trouble let me know. He had no further bother so whatever it was had moved on.

Yesterday afternoon i got a call from him saying they had cut a field (the one where i shot the vixen) and did i fancy having a look for a fox before he puts sheep on it. After checking the weather forecast i rang him back and said i would go that night. He said well you know where you are going so just carry on, i will be going to bed. I arrived at ten o,clock and made my way down the tracks to the field that had been cut. This farm is ideally suited for attracting foxes. On one side there is a dual carriageway then rough ground for two hundred yards then housing estates. On the bottom of the farm is a rough area followed by a large retail park with lots of areas of bushes and several fast food outlets. On the opposite side of the farm to the dual carriageway is another patch of rough ground and a river beyond that. At the westerly end of the farm is rough ground followed by marsh. For several yards inside the field i went to is a hard standing on which i parked the Jimny. The foxpro was placed out at forty five degrees from the left corner of the vehicle at fifty yards distance. I didn't start calling straight away i left it for fifteen minutes to see if anything came without. It was still light enough to see a reasonable distance at ten thirty and nearly a full moon to boot. What wind there was wouldn't be a problem as i just felt a slight breeze on my left cheek once and any foxes i fancied would come from upwind. Eventually i started the caller up with pheasant distress. Fifteen minutes past and apart from three or four hedge hogs and a hare nothing else made its presence known. I had seen a few rabbits about as i made my way to the field so thought i would try young rabbit distress as it does carry further than the pheasant call. After the first few minutes it became obvious nothing was in ear shot and it was a matter of waiting until something was. A further ten minutes elapsed uneventfully when suddenly i spotted a heat source coming at speed from the farthest left hand corner of the field. I had used my range finder whilst it was light enough. The hard standing is nearly in the middle of the field and the furthest point is where the fox was coming from at two hundred and seventy four yards which is comfortably in the range of the 204/Drone combo. This fox was coming hard so i stopped the caller and switched the Drone and laser on. Usually a fox coming as quickly as this runs on for another forty or fifty yards after the caller is muted but this one didn't. It stopped and sat down, i could see it wasn't going to come any further so i placed the reticule at the top of its bib and squeezed the Tikkas set trigger. I saw it go down convincingly and the loud "thock" that followed a moment later confirmed all was good. I decided to continue calling for a while, in fact another thirty minutes using both the young rabbit distress and juvenile fox distress but nothing else showed up. After making the rifle safe i went to find the fox. It wasn't difficult on the newly cut field to find it with the thermal. A small vixen was lying on her side with a small hole at the top of her bib dead in the centre, she wouldn't have known what hit her which is how i like it. A marker was taken where she lay, on the app and off i set back to the vehicle. On arrival i marked the spot on the app and read the distance, one hundred and eighty four yards. I left her at a pre determined place for the farmer to dispose of today and headed off home.              

[shovel leaner 7,650]

Nice write up Ian . The farmer seems to trust you now . Some are hard work .

[ianm 2,594]

18 minutes ago, shovel leaner said:

Nice write up Ian . The farmer seems to trust you now . Some are hard work .

Yes he seems to.

[shovel leaner 7,650]

9 minutes ago, ianm said:

Yes he seems to.

A few shooters near me shoot Tac 20s . In fact I used to save my old . 223 brass for a couple of them . They swear that they are the best fox round , they have been shooting them for probably 15 years. What do you think if anything is better about a 204 . I’ve been watching some YouTube footage of the yanks killing Coyotes with them  and it’s devastating.

[ianm 2,594]

3 hours ago, shovel leaner said:

A few shooters near me shoot Tac 20s . In fact I used to save my old . 223 brass for a couple of them . They swear that they are the best fox round , they have been shooting them for probably 15 years. What do you think if anything is better about a 204 . I’ve been watching some YouTube footage of the yanks killing Coyotes with them  and it’s devastating.

Tac 20 is a true wildcat calibre based on 223 cases. I don't think there are any commercially available ammunition for it. The 204 is based on a 222 magnum case which is longer than the 223 and an inherently accurate one. The 204 can and will run hotter than a tac 20. Hornady do a 32 grain vmax factory load that is readily available and i have yet to see a rifle from any manufacturer that cannot shoot this ammo into sub MOA. I suppose it all comes down to personal choice as with any calibre. The 204 does everything i need it to do and i kill a lot of foxes with it. It rarely exits the target and dumps all its energy inside therefore devastating whatever you hit. Runners are a real rarity unlike when i had the 223. You pays your money and take your pick as they say. 

[Stavross 18,358]

Another cracking write up Ian and that is a smart looking truck

[FOXHUNTER 5,021]

Yep great write up and love the Jimny , great off roaders

[Sausagedog 7,381]

Ran jimneys for ten years, still would if not for the grandchild arriving!

Excellent vehicles.

[Gav 1,708]

Wish I had a Jimney with a gun turret What mountings have you used, will they fit my Defender?

Edited July 4, 2020 by Gav

[BenBhoy 4,706]

Whats the distance measurement app Ian? Smashing write up cheers. 

[ianm 2,594]

20 hours ago, Stavross said:

Another cracking write up Ian and that is a smart looking truck

Thanks, it has had a two inch body lift, two inch suspension lift and thirty inch tyres so a total of six inch lift.

18 hours ago, Sausagedog said:

Ran jimneys for ten years, still would if not for the grandchild arriving!

Excellent vehicles.

It is without doubt the best off road vehicle i have had and i have had a shogun, a fourtrak and a lifted Toyota surf. I have also used various pick ups which invariably sink on me.

4 hours ago, Gav said:

Wish I had a Jimney with a gun turret What mountings have you used, will they fit my Defender?

The stand at the back is mounted in box section welded to the chassis. The stand is also box section which slides into the short lengths of box section welded to the truck. It is held in place by pins which can be removed so that i can slide the stand out and remove it from the truck if i want to. I will take some pics if it ever stops raining.

3 hours ago, BenBhoy said:

Whats the distance measurement app Ian? Smashing write up cheers. 

It is called Mapulator.

[Stavross 18,358]

9 minutes ago, ianm said:

Thanks, it has had a two inch body lift, two inch suspension lift and thirty inch tyres so a total of six inch lift.

They are a cracking truck, I almost bought the new one last year but the missus was having none of it, I’ve had a jimny as a shoot truck that out in the field never let me down, the only problem was Suzuki make them biodegradable and it got to the point where it wasn’t worth repairing, in my younger days I had a couple of Suzuki sj’s, you could pick them up for nothing and they would go anywhere a land rover would go 

[ianm 2,594]

19 minutes ago, Stavross said:

They are a cracking truck, I almost bought the new one last year but the missus was having none of it, I’ve had a jimny as a shoot truck that out in the field never let me down, the only problem was Suzuki make them biodegradable and it got to the point where it wasn’t worth repairing, in my younger days I had a couple of Suzuki sj’s, you could pick them up for nothing and they would go anywhere a land rover would go 

I bought this one off a woman. One owner with thirty seven thousand miles on the clock. I oil spray underneath twice a year to keep it rust free.

[David.evans 5,323]

Mapulator is very good and so is google earth 

atb 

[FOXHUNTER 5,021]

I have had a couple of SJs years ago and the other shoot members in their Toyotas ,Landrovers etc used to take the piss until one day when they all got stuck going  up a muddy bank . I had the last laugh though when I overtook them all laughing