Trip to Ireland foxing

[grasshopper]

Wales - Tulkyuk,s

I set out on thurs afternoon,1st stop,Wrexham,to meet Paul and his mate Graham.Just over 3hrs and 200miles later,i,m knocking on his door!

A bit of a chat over a coffee(not hungry,just want to lamp)changed and out by 9pm.

We headed to 1 of the estates Paul does the fox control on.

Nothing showing at 1st.Paul lamps a field his brother missed a fox in last week,but it,s empty,so we head up to a hill to have a call with the Fox-Pro.

As we drive into position,we,re aware of how wet the track is!!!

We have a few calls but nothing showing,now this is a turnip field,and as we turn around to exit...yep,we,re stuck..

After about 10mins of trying different routes and gears,we make for a gate which luckily is halfway down the field and open..phew,through this and into the next field which is dryer......Shogun 1 turnips 0.

 

On the way back,Paul lamps the field the fox was missed in,and there in the same spot is the fox.He was totaly relaxed,so lamp and engine off,Paul gets his .223,i get the lamp and we walk into position through the gate...lamp on,fox was walking away so i gave a little squeak,he stops and turns side on,about 50yds away and less than 2 seconds later he,s down to a chest shot.

We saw another further out in the field,but it was having none of it.

Next we moved to another part of the estate,saw 1 but it was hiding behind a tree,and when Paul got down on the bipod,he couldn,t get a clear sight as it was moving around a lot so we gave it best.

Next field over is a bank down into the wood,good place for a call we thought,so Fox-pro was placed 50yds to our left and switched on.

About 6-7 mins later,i pick up the tell tale eyes in the NV.Graham gets into pos on the bipod across the bonnet and wait.I,m watching the fox come in closer,it,s now about 150yds out with a safe backstop,Paul switches on the lamp and he promptly runs off up the hill onto the brow,where he sits for a while and no amount of calling will persuade him to move.

On the way out of the estate,a fox is spotted feeding on a sheep.Grahaam sets up on a gate,Paul lamps,fox is about 160yds out sitting....Graham misses...oh dear...there is an inquest and this is when Paul utters the imortal line " i never miss a fox " time is but a ticking clock thinks i.

 

Ireland Friday Co Meath;

Next morn after staying at Pauls and having a hearty breakfast,it,s off to Holyhead(1.5hour drive) for the ferry to Dublin(just over 3 hours)this is where i got a little worried.Paul came back from the duty free shop stinking of perfume now i could of let this pass,but when i saw the lipstick and blusher on his face i quickly stood with my back against the wall until he promised to wash it off

When we landed it was straight through customs and up to Meet Tikkamark(1.5hours drive)book into the hotel freshen up.

Mark turned up later,we had a look at his rifle and new Berretta Extrema 2.

 

We head out in Pauls motor,park up and into some large fields full of sheep.I,m on the lamp and Mark is shooting.Fox is picked out straight away in the distance.These fields are full of small rolling valleys,we decide to get onto the next brow and slowly make our way.Unfortunately,once there the fox has gone into the hedge and we can,t coax him out.

A few calls were tried here and over the road on some other great looking ground,but to no avail,so we move on to another area just down the road.

Here the land is similar,just the hills are higher,fox-pro is placed on the hill 100yds to our left as the wind is coming from there and there,s a wood up that way.

I pick out a rabbit call and watch with the NV,2-3mins into the call i spot a fox coming up the valley about 280yds out,and typically it,s downwind.I tell Mark to get ready,he drops onto the bipod,i check the fox and he,s now trotting towards the caller only about 160yds now..they don,t half cover ground quick when they,re interested.

This is where the wind crosses,it stops looks and is out of there

The caller is left on but nothing else appears so we head off after him.As soon as the lamp hit him in the field we expected him to be in,he was off,so it was off to try another spot a few miles away.

Mark spotted 1 on a hill,so we parked down a way and circled in behind and downwind,could not see him with the nv or the lamp so Paul started hand calling,nothing appeared after 5 mins,so i lamp behind us and there is a fox only 75yds away looking at us.Mark drops onto the bipod,i take the main beam off him and Paul keeps him there with some softer calls.

I see mark is ready so main beam on,crack,thump and our 1st Irish fox is down.Cleanly shot through the top of the chest and out of the ribs.

After collecting the tail,it,s off to try the rest of this farm.

After thinking a set of eyes were spotted,the fox-pro is set out 100yds in front of us and set away.It takes about 10 or more mins but through the NV,i pick up a pair of eyes on the brow of the small hill the caller is just below.They are only 60yds away but the fox had clocked us and has moved out into some rushes in the next field.

Paul is on the rifle now and Mark is lamping.

The fox is stopped at about 170yds facing away and looking back.Paul is confident but he misses..As i said-time is but a ticking clock Paul is distraught and is beating himself up over it...me i,m just taking the mickey out of him mercilessly,as you do hee hee!

We get him onto a rabbit at 70 yds

He now feels worse as he hit just where he aimed and the ribbing continues...this is the point at which i knew i wasn,t going to shoot this weekend

Further into the farm and the FX5 is again set up.We hide in a hedge and in no time Mark picks up a set of eyes at the far hedge..again the fox came in from downwind and no joy is had.

The caller is picked up and we head back.

Mark has a sweep around,picks up a pair of eyes 2 fields away and starts to call.This fox keeps coming in then going back and we all have a go with the same results,so we make our way closer,finally stopping at the edge of the field.

There is no safe shot and it finally disappears so the fx5 is switched on.

At the same time as i pick out a fox coming in behind us with the NV,Mark picks out 2 coming in from a field away in front so we concentrate on these,but they seem to meet up and start playing,not entering our field.

The caller is eventually switched off and i watch for a little through the NV.

5 mins later we have a fox coming down the far hedge,he is staying on the other side of the hedge which is raised higher therefore no shot on and the battery is fast fading now.

When we eventually get him to stop,there isn,t enough light for Paul to see him,so we head home.

I think the hotel we stayed at was haunted,as all night long i could hear crying and wailing from the room next door

Saturday;

Mark took us clay shooting at a club near Dublin....the least said about that the better i prefer live targets,the sun was wrong,the guns didn,t fit and oh what the hell,i couldn,t shoot for ****

On the night it was off to his mates granma,s to try for some very elusive foxes that had been evading him.Plan was to use the FX5 and NV to spot them before switching on the lamp.

We felt sorry for Paul(still crying about the missed fox)so he was on the rifle again,Mark lamped and i was caller and spotter.

We set up the caller away from us downwind and stood under a tree,big problem now was that the fog was dropping fast,but the caller worked again.

Mark picked out some eyes,again it came from upwind,but as this 1 made off,another was seen coming in from 400yds away.

I stayed under the tree out ot the way so as not to have too many bodies out there and the other 2 moved out a ways too get up higher for the shot.

I had a cracking view as the fox was circling around them to get to the call.Mark got the shotty ready as the fox was keeping below the hill and as Paul was prone his view was limited to its ears.Foxy made the mistake of coming up for a look and got it straight between the eyes.There was another hill behind giving a good backstop so safe shot.

Fog was too thick,and even though we walked quite a bit more of the land it was clear the night was over

Sunday Galway;

We set off just after 11 to meet up with John and Connor(3 hour+ drive)

We met John in a pub and talked and had a look at his rifle set up(have to say,all these boys in Ire set up there guns right)the nightforce scopes on his and Connors rifles are superb.

I had fun annoying them with the NV and the laser,which was lighting up the far side of a lake.Also attached it to a scope to show them what it would be like..i think they were impressed!

We met up with Connor-he had been to Mayo on a fox drive that day.These fellas are keen

The ground around Galway is as rugged and trecherous as you would think if you,d read any of Johns accounts,so it was agreed whoever shot 1 would pick it - I,ll watch then

We spotted a few that were too far out to shoot,John and Connor walked in to get onto 1,but it never presented the shot.Another stayed at 451 yds(ranged)although i showed Connor it with the Archer and it,s eyes were lit right up.

Eventually we got onto 1 that was near a dead sheep,by the time we were set up,it had moved out to 170yds or so,but Connor dropped it lovely.This was farmland so myself and Mark collected her..the ground still moved all around you when you were walking,Don,t know if these lads are brave or nuts

We got to see a few more,but no luck getting on to them..surprise surprise,John,s place was fox free

We lamped 1 just near to Connors on the way back,it wouldn,t come in.Connor went last night and shot her,a vixen 166yds on a dead sheep.

Monday;

After Connor kindly putting the 3 of us up for the night and making us a cracking breakfast we headed out for some corvid bashing with his .17hmr.

I started with some misses,whilst Paul dropped a few,then i dropped a couple of grey crows as did Mark,who then missed a magpie.Then Paul had a few misses so it was down to Connor as it was his rifle...and he missed a magpie Checked the zero and it was on 1 of them days eh?

Just before 3 we headed home,dropped Mark off,got lost in Dublin as the battery died on the sat nav,caught the ferry,drove to Pauls picked up my motor and got home at 5-50am this morn,tired but happy.

That was a cracking weekend fellas,thanks to Paul,Mark,John and Connor..all of whom i,ve met through these forums.

It was great to meet you lads over in Ireland and put a face to the names,what a laid back good humoured bunch you are

 

GH

[tulkyuk]

Cracking write up GH - glad you enjoyed the trip down to mine and it was really good to get over to Ireland and meet a few of the lads with you.

 

It wasn't purfume, it was aftershave i tell thee and the lipstick was my colour ( well at least thats what the women said)

[provider]

Cracking story, sounds like you had a great time.

[6mmBR]

Great write up and a good time by the look of things

Cheers

Dave

[Guest varmartin]

Bloody good write up. Sounds like you all had a lot of fun.

 

Well done on the foxes.

 

Martin

[reloaderdan]

well done to all of you sound like you had a cracking time out there

[nemasis243]

Enjoyed the write up glad to see you had a great time and a few charlies

[timbuck2]

Well done

 

Great read up and pics looks like you had a great time and managed a few foxes aswell.

[kip270]

Sounds like a cracking trip, good shooting and in good company, what more could you ask for

[Oly]

Sounds like a great tour fellas, nice one!