6 for 6 makes for a good night

[happyhunter]

Out Monday night to sort a few problem foxes out. First port of call was a free range chicken farm at Welton where four chickens had been found minus their heads earlier in the day. On inspection it looks as if the chickens had been getting out by roosting in a tree and dropping back down on the wrong side of the fence (the branches have now been chopped back) getting there at half 7ish I laid in wait with the .223 and nv and was rewarded within 20minutes with a nice vixen at 120 yards heading straight to one of the dead birds, 50grn v-max through the engine room. Waiting another hour nothing else showed not even to a call so packed up as had two more spots to visit and some bait out. Got to next spot near Gretna just before 10 to meet up with a mate and his 4x4 for a lamp over some ground where they were on harvesting potatoes. Had got both an adult dog and vixen about 3 weeks ago but never seen any young ones about. Well within 30 mins we had four in the truck, three nice dogs and a vixen ranges where 40/90/120 and 165 yarder across the small river, two of them near the bait I had placed earlier in the day. Heading home I thought I would just pop up to the maize field we lifted end of last week and sure enough I spotted a fox slowly heading my way so just quietly watched him through the nv and when he stopped at 130 to sniff somthing on the ground I put a 50grn v-max through his neck. He was a very dark dog fox 3-4years old but on fine fettle. 6 for 6 so was a nice night for the job with abit of wind but not much rain for once.

Atb Simon

[tony]

Well done Simon, good shooting.

[gaz6br]

Thats what i like to hear mate, good work keep it up

[garyw]

Thats what i like to hear mate, good work keep it up

good going simon-as a side point how do you age a fox?normally its the teeth but this can be alittle obscure depending on there overall health.a dog fox that gets to 3-4 yrs old is good going in lamping/hunt country.

[happyhunter]

good going simon-as a side point how do you age a fox?normally its the teeth but this can be alittle obscure depending on there overall health.a dog fox that gets to 3-4 yrs old is good going in lamping/hunt country.

 

Just by the condition the fox is in and what state his teeth are in ( he was missing quite a few and they were very worn/blunt he also had a fair bit of scaring round his mussel Likely from fighting for territory?). the field which he was shot is next to a nature reserve and literally just a stones through from Carlisle it's self, many of the foxes up that end are very lamp shy as toe rags out the town are often chasing them about with dogs so rarly go, the exception been when a crop has been harvested. I always like to guessimate a rough age. Does anyone else do this?

[garyw]

Just by the condition the fox is in and what state his teeth are in ( he was missing quite a few and they were very worn/blunt he also had a fair bit of scaring round his mussel Likely from fighting for territory?). the field which he was shot is next to a nature reserve and literally just a stones through from Carlisle it's self, many of the foxes up that end are very lamp shy as toe rags out the town are often chasing them about with dogs so rarly go, the exception been when a crop has been harvested. I always like to guessimate a rough age. Does anyone else do this?

same way.funny thing is i have never shot a vixen that shows signs of old age shot the old dogs that have lost a lot of teeth ,one about 3 months ago was blamed for taking some pheasants from around a pen after catching up with it and ending its exploits i inspected its teeth or lack of them all that were left were rotten so how it managed to tear up a pheasant was hard to explain,to judge its age would have been a wild guess it wqas definatley more than 3 yrs old but after that its a guesstimate as its coat and general health seemed very good.