November - Lamping the night away

[JohnGalway]

Evening folks,

 

Well it's been a bit of a slow month of the fox front for me, so I'm padding out this months report with some corvid action. Two reasons for it really, foxes are getting a bit scarce and I haven't been out all that much. This coming year I'm going to do things a bit smarter, summer lamping is definitely out :yes: Got a few other things to try in my mind, if they work I'll be very happy but keeping it all under wraps for the moment in case it goes **** about elbow.

 

Saturday 10th November

 

Bit of a hoodie bashing opportunity before the foxing. Don't normally write about them anymore but today was very satisfying.

 

Myself and Dad were letting out a Suffolk ram onto one part of the farm for his yearly love fest when my eyes popped out of my head, now I know what you're thinking, cute ewe, but no, that's not it. Seven magpies, five ravens (protected here, not shot at, so that's my retaliation in first ) and oh maybe thirty or so greycrows (hoodies). Do I know where I'll be in an hour and for the rest of the day, oh yes I do. Now unfortunately to collect this gang of vermin, ravens excepted, a ewe had popped her clogs.

 

She was, however, good enough to spend her final hour picking out a perfect ambush spot. A smaller field with furze (gorse) bushes surrounding it and a nice fence line which had a steep hill behind it as a backstop. Yes, I think to myself I can happily while away a bit of time here.

 

Went home and dusted off the .22 and my camo gear. Brought a full box of subs just in case they decided to rush me. Should have brought the shotgun too but you live and learn. I got myself set up around seventy yards from the ewe and popped off a couple of hoodies before they get a bit nervy and fly off.

 

I take that opportunity to scout out and set up in another spot around fifty yards from the ewe, roughly ninety degrees from where I had been. This is a choice spot, good cover and field of view. The horde return and the fun begins. I'm watching one greycrow when I see a huge beak appear in the scope, one hoodie has decided to walk across my line of fire only a few yards from me, I let him take a couple more steps and POP! Dangerous spot to be a pedestrian hoodie. They rise and sort themselves out again and land on the fence. POP! One falls off it. How'd that happen... Fly and land again, much squawking and aggro. POP! Another one bites the dust off a stake. The previous ones mate lands on the same post and starts going nuts, POP! Perfect cure for ya. I could get used to days like this.

 

They're twigging that something is up and they head off, so I go home for dinner. Back after an hour or so and it's getting dark. Out of nowhere one lands beside the ewe, POP!, down. Five minutes later another one lands in the same spot and starts jumping on the dead one POP! Seeya later birdie. Getting proper dark now and I want to take one last shot. One lands off to my right and I have to shift around in my cover. Maybe seventy yards out, standing on a rock in front of a rise so it's a safe shot. POP! I am now happy.

 

I could only recover six. The reason being with the .22lr I have found that a lethal hit will sometimes take up to two hundred yards for the hoodie to realise it's dead (I take this to be like a shotgun pellet, that the .22 round doesn't expand due to it's speed and just passes right through the crows body). Conor will have seen this especially with a certain lakeside hoodie... Two of today’s flew into the field next door and crash landed (literally) into some tall furze, and another did the same in our own place, I'm not getting stuck with a trillion thorns to recover them. There's a nice meaty POP out of a .22lr round when it connects proper with a hoodie. When it hits ground/bog there's a tzzzzapH! kind of sound so it's easy tell the difference in a kill and a miss. I know that sounds strange but trust me on it Nine hoodies for my troubles, not too bad. More tomorrow if I have anything to do with it! Hope I remember the picture.

 

 

(I've been editing this account today as I'm about to post it online. Starts raining outside and next thing I know there's a large bright blue spark coming out of the top left hand side of my laptop screen Then comes the rolling BOOOOooooommmmm outside. Damn lightning, gives me no warning. I don't think it's done any damage this time, but until I get my phone line back I won't know for sure. Lightning already killed a Gateway PC on me a few years back, blew the external modem clear apart and fried the motherboard on that one. Needless to say I'm continuing the edit on battery power with everything unplugged. Well, just rang the phone company, it'll be Monday before there's anyone out to look at it, they didn't say Monday of which week though.)

 

Right, on to the foxing....

 

Same evening I head out with the .223 and the Lightforce 170 to keep an eye on the dead ewe. I'm standing on a hillock and see two bright eyes a few fields away. I head off down towards them. Get set up in a spot only for the two horses in the next field to start thundering around and foxy heads away. They're normally not bothered by the lamp or even a shot going off, they sure did pick their moment.

 

I head back up to where I was. On the way I see a fox out in the hill. Same one? Off I go and cross two awkward walls topped off by two foot high sheep wire. I need stilts or something. This hill is maybe five hundred feet high, maybe six? I'm not entirely sure off the top of my head. Picture the scene. Me wearing heavy insulated muckboots, Stormkloth trousers and jacket, complete with rifle and battery. Fox keeps heading up the hill, forty-five plus degree incline. I'm dying here Enough! I pick a hillock and make my move. I get the fox in the scope, shout, she stops and looks. BOOooommmmm! Just in time for the mass going public in the village below, perrrrfick

 

140 yards vixen. Complete with take-away dinner.

 

 

After that since I'm all geared up and drenched with sweat anyhow I say I'll head out to where I winter my sheep. Madness really but I won't shoot anything home on the internet. Away I go and along my route I spy a fox mooching by a lake. There's a nice handy hillock/rock to shoot from in front of me. I set up and find the fox in the scope, coming out of tall grass going away from me to my right, across a lake (this spot is riddled with lakes, the grass being withered mountain type). Again, I shout to stop her and send a Federal 50grain hollow point to do it's deed. It's only AFTER I'm half way to picking this one up I see the second fox making good it's escape over a hill two hundred and fifty plus yards away, on the crest of a hill and it's very breezy even if it were a safe shot so no thank you. Oh well, one for another night. I spied another fox on the way back but this one led me a merry dance the last night and since my battery was waning I'll catch him another night too.

 

107 yard vixen. Not enough money for take-away.

 

 

I was asked to put the rifle in pics more to provide a bit of scale, as it was remarked upon that my foxes seem to be shorter in length and fatter than foxes in another area. I remember in one of the Warrener videos he mentions a difference between Irish foxes and foxes local to him, can't remember the exact quote though. So I'm doing that more now, here are both foxes and the rifle. The near fox is the hill fox, you can see the exit wound above the left shoulder and slightly forward. This happened as I was quite a distance below her and due to the angle I was shooting up into her from slightly behind (ever so dodgy way of putting that...). Also, apologies for the odd fuzzy pic, most of them aren't of the best quality but I'm relying on a two/three year old Nokia to do the job :good: (Mark, when are you buying me that new camera, I've not forgotten that loaded smilie a while back ).

 

 

Got to say that I enjoyed the hoodie bashing a lot more than the foxing! Often wonder if ever I was presented with a fox with a hoodie on it's head which one to go for... Get a bazooka licensed maybe.

 

Oh, something I almost forgot about the hoodies. After my last shot they were still hanging around but it was too dark from my MTC Viper to shoot. I wonder if anyone has tried lamping hoodies? Would it be legal? Would they fly off right away? Yes, I know it's a hair brained idea but it could account for an extra one or two maybe.

 

Must remember to charge the battery...

 

Monday 12th November

 

Hoodie bashing again.

 

Up early, 6am. Not in the best of health yesterday so no shooting was on the cards. Decided I should be out and set up before it got bright and the plan was to pop off the greycrows as they were coming in and landing in safe spots. Today I brought my decoy hoodie. This was fun. I cable tied his ground stake to the tallest fence post and popped him on top. First hoodie does a circle and flies into land on an unsafe post far down the fence, making a good racket. He takes to the air again and tries to shift my decoy off the tallest post but Seamus, yes I've named him, was having none of it. The hoodie landed on the post nearest to Seamus and turned in his direction and started giving out yards. POP! Down he goes, you can almost see the look of surprise on their faces as the Eley sub hits them. Got three more, nothing special really. All taken off the fence posts with safe backstops. A couple flew and cart wheeled down out of the sky, one fell into the middle of some high furze (gorse) and I didn't retrieve but he was D.O.A. as I could see him plainly.

 

 

One thing I did notice was this. At one stage four hoodies were on the fence making a racket. Seven or eight ravens arrived doing their own AWK! AWK! AWK! chorus. About a minute after the ravens started up nearly twenty hoodie reinforcements arrived for an impressive battle. None of the hoodies stayed after that but the ravens calling sure did bring them in.

 

Saturday 17th November

 

The heavens opened this morning and poured the bathwater down upon us, never seen rain like it! Floods all over the place. It cleared later on in the afternoon so since we'd been to the mart earlier I thought I'd head off to see if I'd pick up a greycrow or two. I got a seventy four yard magpie out of a tree with a safe backstop and a 10 yard greycrow which was mooching around in the shore with it's back turned to me (never ever feel bad about shooting one of those in the back!). I've another spot baited for hoodies and I checked it out from a distance, they're back! Had to go home to pick up my camo trousers and a few bits and pieces. Forgot my sling and bipod for the Sako Quad .22, duh! Found a bit of a log to rest the rifle on and got into cover. A lone hoodie came along and gave three slow calls, which brought in seven or eight more hoodies. If I'd had my bipod I could have started popping them off then and there but I wanted them a bit closer since it was attached to the Remmy in the gun safe... I'm fairly low down under cover and got some bits of tall grass ahead of me. Next thing I heard an odd noise that I've never heard before UF! UF! UF!... UF! UF! UF!... I can't see the spot where it's coming from and I'm wondering is it a badger or a fox, or maybe even a raven? Whatever it is I want to know as I'm in a bit of a vulnerable position lying prone for a run in with brock. I don't want to move too much in case it's just a raven and I end up spooking the hoodies away. So as I'm lying low on my elbows I raise up as much and as slowly as I can. Sod it, I still can't see over that little furze bush. It's really playing on my curiosity now, so I curl me toes and push myself up more very slowly. Ohhhhh lookit, a fox!!!! I've been waiting ages to get one of them in daylight and as usual my heart starts thumping like mad. I've the worlds worst position for shooting, but he's leaving with a bit of my bait so I need to take a shot. Miss!!!!!!! Reload, he turns to look at me and I hit him high in the back as he takes a step at the wrong time, shaking like mad. Cursing myself for the bad shot he just crests a little hillock. I break cover and make for that crest. I see foxy hasn't gone far and set up fast on the first spot I can shoot from properly, a very quick headshot later and foxy is down and out for good. Definitely not a good display of marksmanship but I'm happy to have gotten him all the same.

 

Cock pheasant was there also, he rose up after the first shot at foxy. I had no shotgun with me at the time and it's just as well as I'd have had him if I saw him first!

 

So now I've decided my next trip ambushing corvids I need, of course, my .22lr, and my 12ga in case they mob the bait (two birds with one blast) and my flippin .223 (real gun) in case of a fox! At this rate I'll need an assistant!

 

 

I'll just mention it again, so there won't be any handbags about it. The hoodies I've been shooting off fence posts and out of trees have come with safe backstops.

[kip270]

Bloody good write up John, and shooting that Vixen with her take-away, talk about caught in the act

 

Don't worry we don't often get the handbags out here, unless it's about a rifle or moderator

[craigyboy]

nice ging John, I oftens shoot crows etc outta trees myself the nature of my ground is that your always on the top of the valleys shooting in. I would also take a hoddies over a fox if both presented them selves at the same time no contest.

[Guest varmartin]

Great write up JG. Nuthin like a good ambush.

 

Martin

[foxshot]

That was one good write uo john, sounds as though you have been having some great shooting

[JohnGalway]

Thanks lads, blowing a bit of a gale out now! Waiting for the roof to lift off lol (better not joke about it maybe...). Only got a greycrow and carrion crow today. Hope to get out in the morning again

[6mmBR]

Thanks for taking the time to share your exploites with us.

Cheers

Dave

[charly hunter]

Darn good read pard, look forward to the next instalment