Andy R Posted November 28, 2011 Report Share Posted November 28, 2011 Hoping for a bit of advice.... I'm trying to limit fox numbers on my little shoot (800 acres or so) and help the sheep farmers out. At present I've been less than successful- I've shot two foxes in the last two months; one stalked in the evening and shot at 25 yards, and one at night with my ND3 at about 80 yards. The farmer's accounted for three in larsen traps (cubs) and we've had one with a shotgun on a shoot day last week, but I'm struggling to get to grips with them. Although I see foxes everynight- sometime just the one, other nights four or five in a hours or so. I have to walk singlehanded on foot across the ground (too steep/wet/no access for 4x4- Welsh hillsides) and last night was typical: I bought a new caller as the foxes were swinging round downwind of me and then making a swift exit before I can get a clear shot, so I bought a remote 'I-caller'- put it on remote, dropped it in the field walked cross wind 80 yards away (I can group 5 shots standing on sticks at 2 inches at about 90 yards), called for 2 minutes, switched lamp on to check- saw backside of fox disappearing sharpish.....it must have come in almost straight away, investigated the call (in a rabbit skin dummy cover).... I was too late...... Needless to see nothing else came in, in the past few weeks I've had foxes catch a flash of the lamp and off, and I've called others in by only to about 150 yards- a distance I'm not willing to shoot at off sticks, or they've come storming in (as above) to around 50 yards keeping moving and swinging round downwind, then obviously scented me and running off. I've tried baiting locations (tethered)to no success (I'm making 2 hours out of 24) the only thing I can't do is get out in daylight (job and baby boy at home) so I only get a couple of hours in the early evening (night) between 8pm and 10pm. My outfit is a Howa 1500 in .223, stainless green hogue stock, with an A-tec silencer (from Jackson Rifles) with a Redfield 3-9 x 50 scope on top. On top of this is an ND3- the whole outfit seems to work well once I've got the location of a fox with the lamp- which seems to be the issue. I've got red, green and amber filters- on a Lightforce Tracer 140, each has it's pros and cons but the result seems the same. As my shoot is between 3 large commercial shoots- the keepers are on them all the time with lamps and quads/mules and I think my foxes are fairly lamp shy- as soon as they get a flash of light they're off running.... I can't afford a night vision scope at the moment (my price range would be a Pulsar Digi-sight or pending more reviews an NS200 'telly') I have to wear glasses so the NS200 seems a reasonable alternative at the ranges I shoot, but think I should get a digital monocular- to spy until a fox was in range then switch on the ND3 and shoot. Has anyone any recommendations to make? I'm looking at the Bushnell Stealthview 5x42 and the Yukon Ranger 5x42 to help me spot them without a lamp. If I can get them into sub-100 yards I'm confident the ND3 does not spook them anything like a normal lamp (I've had a fox 'mousing' at 80 yards and not been bothered by the laser- this one in the end stood still and was one of the two shot) and I can get a killing shot away. Any recommendations/ views on these two models? Or other recommendations? Am I doing anything obviously wrong? thanks in advance, Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
223magic Posted November 28, 2011 Report Share Posted November 28, 2011 Hoping for a bit of advice.... I'm trying to limit fox numbers on my little shoot (800 acres or so) and help the sheep farmers out. At present I've been less than successful- I've shot two foxes in the last two months; one stalked in the evening and shot at 25 yards, and one at night with my ND3 at about 80 yards. The farmer's accounted for three in larsen traps (cubs) and we've had one with a shotgun on a shoot day last week, but I'm struggling to get to grips with them. Although I see foxes everynight- sometime just the one, other nights four or five in a hours or so. I have to walk singlehanded on foot across the ground (too steep/wet/no access for 4x4- Welsh hillsides) and last night was typical: I bought a new caller as the foxes were swinging round downwind of me and then making a swift exit before I can get a clear shot, so I bought a remote 'I-caller'- put it on remote, dropped it in the field walked cross wind 80 yards away (I can group 5 shots standing on sticks at 2 inches at about 90 yards), called for 2 minutes, switched lamp on to check- saw backside of fox disappearing sharpish.....it must have come in almost straight away, investigated the call (in a rabbit skin dummy cover).... I was too late...... Needless to see nothing else came in, in the past few weeks I've had foxes catch a flash of the lamp and off, and I've called others in by only to about 150 yards- a distance I'm not willing to shoot at off sticks, or they've come storming in (as above) to around 50 yards keeping moving and swinging round downwind, then obviously scented me and running off. I've tried baiting locations (tethered)to no success (I'm making 2 hours out of 24) the only thing I can't do is get out in daylight (job and baby boy at home) so I only get a couple of hours in the early evening (night) between 8pm and 10pm. My outfit is a Howa 1500 in .223, stainless green hogue stock, with an A-tec silencer (from Jackson Rifles) with a Redfield 3-9 x 50 scope on top. On top of this is an ND3- the whole outfit seems to work well once I've got the location of a fox with the lamp- which seems to be the issue. I've got red, green and amber filters- on a Lightforce Tracer 140, each has it's pros and cons but the result seems the same. As my shoot is between 3 large commercial shoots- the keepers are on them all the time with lamps and quads/mules and I think my foxes are fairly lamp shy- as soon as they get a flash of light they're off running.... I can't afford a night vision scope at the moment (my price range would be a Pulsar Digi-sight or pending more reviews an NS200 'telly') I have to wear glasses so the NS200 seems a reasonable alternative at the ranges I shoot, but think I should get a digital monocular- to spy until a fox was in range then switch on the ND3 and shoot. Has anyone any recommendations to make? I'm looking at the Bushnell Stealthview 5x42 and the Yukon Ranger 5x42 to help me spot them without a lamp. If I can get them into sub-100 yards I'm confident the ND3 does not spook them anything like a normal lamp (I've had a fox 'mousing' at 80 yards and not been bothered by the laser- this one in the end stood still and was one of the two shot) and I can get a killing shot away. Any recommendations/ views on these two models? Or other recommendations? Am I doing anything obviously wrong? thanks in advance, Andy just a short reply but I think you need a hight seat and a stealth camera if you wish to save time, bait them out with Felix Fish Cat food or buy some sardines and mix them with dry dog food, sprinckle them araound to hold them there, spotting with a digi sight is fine then shoot them, if your budget could stretch to an Archer or a pvs then you have cracked it, the other slightly cheaper option is buy a pulsar digi sight, but it is essential thet you upgrade the laser, and fit a doubler, these are spot on for baiting at 100 yards, you could also try changing your lamping times and try 4pm on. ATB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy R Posted November 28, 2011 Author Report Share Posted November 28, 2011 Thanks 223magic, I've tried some felix cat food, but didn't get the time to stake it out long enough......I'll add in the dog food and lay a trail. I think the main issue is the amount of lamp-shy foxes I have.......as soon as I turn on to have a look- they're off and running. I'd love to stretch to a Pulsar Digisight- an Archer is far out of budget. I've looked at the Pulsar Digisight, with the better IR illuminator and the lens doubler (x1.7) but that's £1500 or so- which is beyond me at the moment as my wife's on maternity- and her job prospects look dodgy. I though until I'd saved enough for a Digi-sight I'd get a monocular- in order to spot without a lamp- until they were close enough- then on with the ND-3 laser and bang. If this didn't work, then it would not be money wasted as I've never been a fan of 'waving a rifle about' unless you want to shoot at it. So I'd still use the monocular even if I had a Digi-sight in future for the actual shot. Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gunnery Posted November 28, 2011 Report Share Posted November 28, 2011 Hi Andy R what i use is a yukon ranger monocular with n100 on it good for at least 100yrds to spot the fox get my self set up and then switch lamp on if it is lamp shy i find if you leave lamp on it you may be lucky enough to get a shot of you can try it if you like pm me if you want and you can borrow it to try before you consider buying one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andybrock Posted November 28, 2011 Report Share Posted November 28, 2011 Andy, Couple of things to try if your foxes are lamp shy try using a dimmer switch on your lamp dim it right down and keep it moving don't let it stop on eyes when your scanning it's surprising how little light you need to spot eye shine, the other method I have used in the past try baiting your foxes close to a building with electric supply and leave a dim light permanently on so you can see you bait or set one up with a PIR, foxes will soon get used to it. Another cheap way to get into NV is the use of a standard Sony camera with night time mode hook it up to a laser or IR fix it to your scope and you have NV, have a look here http://www.airgunbbs.com/index.php in the NV section. Hope this helps Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy R Posted November 28, 2011 Author Report Share Posted November 28, 2011 Hi Andy R what i use is a yukon ranger monocular with n100 on it good for at least 100yrds to spot the fox get my self set up and then switch lamp on if it is lamp shy i find if you leave lamp on it you may be lucky enough to get a shot of you can try it if you like pm me if you want and you can borrow it to try before you consider buying one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy R Posted November 28, 2011 Author Report Share Posted November 28, 2011 Gunnery, That's exactly what I want to do, I think the issue is once the lamps been 'across them' once they run. If I hold the lamp on them- they run, the cub's have all been dealt with- and they lamped OK, but the adults have been across to 'properly keepered land' and have been made lamp shy. There's one keeper I know who uses a shotgun and 'runs them down' with his quad before giving them both barrels- he doesn't always connect but he does get 75%, so I think this has lead to a certain 'lamp shyness' of the remaining 25% on my ground. Is the Yukon Ranger the digital one I mentioned (about £300?) if so, many thanks for the offer of a lend, but that's exactly the kind of performance I need, my land is all 'dips and hedges' so I rarely spot a fox at over 150 yards even with a lamp- so only need performance out to 100 yards max.- so your testimony is enough. I try not to borrow stuff as I tend to break it somehow, if it's mine, it's my mess, but many thanks for the offer- much appreciated. Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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