A week long Fox saga

[SportingShooter 0]

As some on here know, I have had a week long vendetta with a particular fox that has found a food source in one of my farmers runs, he comes everyday takes a chicken and kills another. He is a bit unusual however. Unlike most foxes he doesn't seem to be habitual, he seems to come everyday at different times. This is why I have had such a long run with him because I could not catch him at the right time. Yesterday evening at dusk I had him on the lamp, he was gone before I could get the crosshairs on him but I had a few precious seconds to see that he only had one ear.

To add insult to injury, I walked the rest of the farm, which is a main part of my shoot, and saw four more foxes, all of which bolted at the first shine of the lamp. This part is not ground which I am responsible for, the boys who are meant to be in charge have not been doing their duties and by the shyness of these foxes, they have been shot at and missed, something I shall be asking them about when I see them.

 

Anyway, by last night I was completely fed up of fox shooting, I was in such a bad mood with the whole scenario, I put all my fox shooting gear away, Rifle, Ammo all locked away, Lamp charged and put away, all my calls and everything put away, I was really fed up and didn't want to look at a fox until the Autumn.

 

So after all that, the gear was away, not the way for a keeper to behave but there you go, we are all irrational sometimes, I had made my decision and was going to stick by it. That was until a good friend phoned me.

This is roughly how the conversation went, "Have you been lamping recently?, Just a bit(jokingly), Good he said, I am raving to go, can you make it tonight?, Well I......, Good , See you at 9:30, Bye,", I hadn't been able to get a word in edgeways, he was determined to go. And so, all the sodding gear came right back out again! Probably a good thing.

 

I left the house just before 9:20 and was there just before nine thirty. He was there already, raring to go.

I parked up and got my gear on, Lamp around my waste, jacket on, call around my neck, spare ammunition in my pocket. While doing all this, by routine now anyway, we were chatting and I was telling him of the past week of frustration. I told him unless we get it bang on, we are wasting our time here, this was the extent to which I had given up on this one. He said "Oh come on, Stop moaning, its cant have been that bad 'a week!"

OK, so we loaded up, I had my five rounds of Ballistic Tips in my CZ .222, my buddy had his four Ballistics in his Remmy Model Seven .22-250. I locked my car and off we went.

 

The majority of the night was a tad predictable, walk around all the fields and nothing but lampshy foxes. They would take a lot of skill to get and I was not in the mood for stalking after them tonight. We had walked back to the yard by now.

Now, to put you in the picture, the yard and buildings of this farm are on top of a hill. On either side of the buildings you are looking down from high into a wide open valley bottom with a hedge and field boundary 300 yards away and a wood on the right which runs down the length of the valley into the distance. In the flat of this valley under the farm there is a pond.

 

We walked in the yard and stood, leaning against a gate on one side. He had a smoke and we chatted for a while.

The sky was still slightly pale even though it was 11:10 by now. We chatted for about half an hour and considered tactics for out next outing with me joking that I wont be here till the Autumn now and musing over the state of farming and the countryside as you do.

 

We finished up chatting and I suggested we have one last look down the valley for old times sake.

 

I opened the gate, we went through, thoroughly and honestly not expecting to see absolutely anything but grass.

My buddy had the lamp and he shone the whole area once and nothing at all to be seen. One more flash anti-clockwise and we would be off.

I saw a flicker of orange as he went across the valley bottom in amongst some rushes and thistles. It fecking couldn't be! He flashed again, nothing, and again. Then, there they were, those bright twins staring straight back at me.

I looked through my scope, he was a very long way away. Too far in my opinion for the .222. Then it F*****g struck me, he only had one ear, I looked again, yep sure enough, it was HIM! Lamp off.

I said to my buddy he was too far for this gun and he said he would take it with the .22-250. I said "There's no way you are taking this shot!, you can have the next twenty if I can have him!", he said OK and handed me his gun.

 

This all happened within around 10-15 seconds. If he was still there it would be unbelievable.

I had the gun rested on a fence post pointing down into the valley, in roughly the spot I had seen him last.

Right, safety off, and I whispered "lamp on". I couldn't believe he was still in the area let alone the same 10ft/sq.

The only part of him I could see clearly was his head and uppermost parts of his neck, the rest was obscured by rush and thistle, and firing a ballistic tip into a clump of rush is going to get me nowhere.

I took account for the drop and aimed square in his head.

 

I had had the go slow moment once today already but it suddenly dawned on me yet again, the slowing of the surroundings as you grip the trigger and in this case if I missed this one, I would not point a gun at a fox for six months nor would I ever live it down.

 

I gripped and gently squeezed, BOOOOM!!, f**k all I could see was smoke and flame from this unmodded gun.

I regained my focus on the fox, he was rolling on the ground a fair bit, so reload, BANG! Smoke, Flame again.

Looked again, he was running, now even though I have been after this one for a week and he has caused me frustration, the last thing I wanted was for him to suffer. I saw him halt for a split second and I fired againBANG! Smoke, Flame! And with that he disappeared from my view. FECK! I thought I had injured him and he had gone away bleeding.

 

I handed my buddy his gun back and we walked down the hill track to the fence line where I last saw him.

When we arrived I breathed a sigh of relief, he was lying on the dusty track, dead as a doornail.

All three of my shots had hit him, the first was fatal, it was the adrenalin I think that carried him all of the 30ft which he had run.

 

The first shot had been low, entered below his bottom jaw and gone straight into him. He must have been in quite a mess. The second had caught him square in the guts, the last as he was on the move was up his back end. I hate it when they move at all let alone the 10 yards he had gone.

 

As I stood there,looking at this Dog's one ear, a sense of satisfaction came over me, then came the release of some of that frustration. A week long bout of being at my wits end with this critter and I had finally won. Paced out, the shot was 260 yards from the firing point to where he lay.

I can go and sleep now, not expecting to be getting a phonecall at 06:30 from the farmer that this fox had been there again. Aaaahhhhhh! Peace!

 

Regards

SS

[Radders 0]

A great account!

[wag 13]

well done S/S after reading that i felt like i was with you good shooting

[Mr_Logic 5]

Good going!! Glad you got the bugger, and a nice shot too, esp with a rifle that's not setup for you.

[SportingShooter 0]

Good going!! Glad you got the bugger, and a nice shot too, esp with a rifle that's not setup for you.

Well, I have a little bit of a feel for his rifle as I zeroed it with him and had a few shots with it then with a reasonable group. But I was still over the moon I had got him in the right places.

 

Thanks for the replies

SS

 

P.S I will PM photos to people if they want, he was in a bit of a mess.

[sounder 9]

great write up ss,i could see how it unfolded for you well done and i hope it's the one you being after

cheer sounder

[SNAP SHOT 194]

well done on getting the beastie.............

[FOXHUNTER 5,021]

Excellent write up , thoroughly enjoyed it Always good when you get the one youve been after !!

[garyw 0]

well done there s/s it always works out in the end------------------------------------ or does it?

you know it and i know it that there will be another along shortly to take its place!

 

that old saying rings true" shoot a fox and two will come to its funeral ".

[SportingShooter 0]

well done there s/s it always works out in the end------------------------------------ or does it?

you know it and i know it that there will be another along shortly to take its place!

 

that old saying rings true" shoot a fox and two will come to its funeral ".

Oh definately Gary, there are four lampshy foxes there they will all be at is funeral!!!

I am going to have to get on them as the boys who are there now wont do it, they cant be bothered to chase a spooked fox even though they have spooked it by firing and missing.

Oh well, more frustration.

 

Any new tips to get these lampshy ones anyone?

 

SS