sandersj89 Posted January 24, 2008 Report Share Posted January 24, 2008 Sussex Lad kindly joined me this evening on one of my permissions on a mission to find a fox or two. He arrives at my house as I am getting the last of my kit together and we then head off to get to the shoot for 7.15pm. A dark night, well as dark as it can be at my shoot as it is close to Gatwick so there is a fair bit of light pollution, lots of cloud cover and a good stiff breeze. We head off to bait up a high seat for later, I have kept some rather stinky pheasant and lamb bones with a nice crust of penicillin just for such an occasion. We hang the bag up about 60yards in front of a high seat, in fact it is this one, an old picture: And the view is thus: We then head off for a walk and as we run along the side of one of the woods there are rabbits galore so I decide to take one to add some more fresh bait just on the other side of the game cover. I shoot of the sticks and make a bit of a horlicks of things but drop one, we gut it and then hang it up for later. We then go for a mooch about heading towards the farm yard to see if anything was around. The ground is sodden and walking is both hard work and very noisy so I decide to head over to one of the farm tracks that bisect the famr. Easier walking and quite. We slowly walk and get that hit of fox smell, wind is coming from our right so move forward a bit to a gate and scan the field, full of sheep so eye reflections all over the place. A few rabbits as well but no fox to be seen. Move along the track a bit more to a cross roads and I suggest we use my phone and the new sound track I have compiled to try and call for a bit if there is something nearby. So, select the file on the phone and then holding it high above my head start to run the calls through it. Every now and then we scan the fields to our front with the torch, a cluson smart light with amber filter, but nothing is showing. I then decide to check one of the fields behind us, bingo, eyes no more that 80m away sat up on the hedge line. But there is no real clear shot as there are a few wispy branches on top of the hedge to shoot through and no gate nearby to get into the field to get a clear shot. I wedge the phone onto my shooting sticks and leave it playing as we have a hushed conversation. Brain is happy to take the shot with his .223 as it should not be effected too much by a small twig should it stick unlike my HMR. He takes up position on a gate post as I climb the gate with my lamp to get a nice image of the fox without any glare back from any vegetation. The phone call is holding the foxes interest and has not budged. Brian lines up the shot and down she drops without a twitch, a nice vixen, dark like the last one we shot there a couple of weeks ago: We then carry on walking and within 5 mins hear a fox calling up wind. We head that way and do a little calling but nothing so back onto the track to cover more ground lamping as we walk. After about 15 mins we get a set of eyes way out across a field, the wind is not great but Brian sets up on a gate post and I start to call using a WAM caller and my hands. This fox has been lamped before and is having nothing of it, he angles across and away from us to the far fence, not going to stop or come in……. We head away from him to try and cut him off, but he has made it into a cover I believe, damn. Then move 15 yards forward and scan the next field, eyes out to our right and approx 180m. This fox is not so jumpy, it is a chance it was the same one we saw 5 mins before but I don’t think so. I start to hand call and it moves in a bit but crosses us. It is moving slowly but wont stop. Brian sets himself up, sat on a style and rifle on a post. I clap my hands and it stops on the spot long enough for Brain to squeeze off the shot. Damn, missed and it legs it away to our right at a rate of knots. I walk the field to make sure but it is gone. It was a clean miss so no real harm done. We walk a few more fields, see another set of eyes way out but they leg it straight away. We then get two sets of eyes but they don’t feel quite right, indeed there are 3 roe deer sat looking at us! We turn and head for the baited seat, I set my sticks up 40m infront of the seat and place my phone on the sticks and start the 40min sound track of mixed calls and silences going. Up into the seat for a rest and to see what moves, nothing other than rabbits though an owl did take an interest in the calls. So we call it a night and head home. One fox in the bag, close to being two but they will be there next time! Jerry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest martin Posted January 24, 2008 Report Share Posted January 24, 2008 Bad luck Jerry,but,if it was easy then everyone would be doing it mate.......and,they will be there for next time. martin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandersj89 Posted January 24, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 24, 2008 Bad luck Jerry,but,if it was easy then everyone would be doing it mate.......and,they will be there for next time. martin. True, and it was still an enjoyable evening and some good exercise, must have walked a good 3 miles across wet boggy fields! Jerry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reloaderdan Posted January 24, 2008 Report Share Posted January 24, 2008 nice write up there mate i enjoyed reading it one fox is better than none and it sounds like you both had a good night Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foxshot Posted January 25, 2008 Report Share Posted January 25, 2008 Good post jerry the main thing is you didt blank and thats why we travel to do our foxing as i dont know how many times i have blanked on our doorstep Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandersj89 Posted January 25, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 25, 2008 nice write up there mate i enjoyed reading it one fox is better than none and it sounds like you both had a good night Yep, good night was had, hopefully get another one next week after beaters day on my shoot. Jerry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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