Foxing

[cakeordeath]

Right off I am going to say, its prob been asked before and what a dumbass question, buy....

 

How do you get started in foxing? what sort of kit is involved?

 

Ta

[foxpig]

Not wanting to sound like a smart arse but foxing ground is the easiest ground to pick up down my way.

Look for a farm with sheep or chickens on. Knock on the door . It's either a yes or no.

As for kit. Get a 223 or 243 spend as much as you can on the glass.

Get familiar with rifle. Shoot it at paper at 200 yards as often as possible.

Then buy a lamp ( not vital) mornings and evenings just as good.

Go out and shoot one.

Learn to call with your hand or buy a cheap plastic one. Your good to go.

You'll soon pick up feild craft and using the wind

[Grum87]

Getting started? Find a farmer happy to have you shoot over his land, day and night.

 

Equipment....warm clothing, a rifle, lamp, hand held torch. Calls be it hand or electronic help.

 

also handy to have....shooting sticks, a 4x4.....and night vision or thermal.

 

Patience and be prepared to put many hours work in too.....

[gunner]

Not wanting to sound like a smart arse but foxing ground is the easiest ground to pick up down my way.

Look for a farm with sheep or chickens on. Knock on the door . It's either a yes or no.

As for kit. Get a 223 or 243 spend as much as you can on the glass.

Get familiar with rifle. Shoot it at paper at 200 yards as often as possible.

Then buy a lamp ( not vital) mornings and evenings just as good.

Go out and shoot one.

Learn to call with your hand or buy a cheap plastic one. Your good to go.

You'll soon pick up feild craft and using the wind

What he said

[pengo]

Not wanting to sound like a smart arse but foxing ground is the easiest ground to pick up down my way.

Look for a farm with sheep or chickens on. Knock on the door . It's either a yes or no.

As for kit. Get a 223 or 243 spend as much as you can on the glass.

Get familiar with rifle. Shoot it at paper at 200 yards as often as possible.

Then buy a lamp ( not vital) mornings and evenings just as good.

Go out and shoot one.

Learn to call with your hand or buy a cheap plastic one. Your good to go.

You'll soon pick up feild craft and using the wind

Hi Foxpig,

 

In your opinion, what mag range would you say is required and does the scope need to have an illuminated reticle?

 

Cheers. Paul

[foxpig]

Well I've just sold the ultimate foxing scope in the for sale section.

Most of the time you will be on 8-15. But on them long ones 20x is a bonus.

And daytime foxing anything up to 32x but a decent scope like a sightron 8-32 with lrirmoa ret will do the job perfectly

I'm a big fan of a simple illuminated reticle. Just a little dot that's dimmable. When foxing in low light and on corn and maize stubble s, and over ploughing and worked ground. A nice little dot can save seconds trying to see your x .

[trucraft]

Once you find a farm that needs foxes controlling spend plenty of time walking the fences, hedge rows and woodland edges, understanding the lay of the land and looking for signs of foxes.

 

This will save you a lot of time in the long run and make shooting a dam site safer.

 

An other easy tactic is baiting up a spot for a week or two then sit out and wait.

[Offroad Gary]

Lamps are so "last year", you need a thermal spotter if you want to be effective (and taken seriously by the local fox population).

[baldie]

I haven't shot a fox in years Gary, but I fail to see how a lamp is no longer effective.

 

Foxes have a short life....even the lamp shy ones, so no in-built preference for nv exists in the fox population.

 

The more honest truth is that folk with more money than sense , and invariably no skill at lamping, or calling, are now decimating the fox population with Night vision.

 

Fine if people are using them on a professional level I suppose.

 

NV has brought with it, a lot more shooting from roads and poaching....as there is no giveaway lamp when people are shooting where they shouldn't.

 

If you are foxing for sport, get a lamp and learn to use it, same with calling. We used to walk miles each night, never drove.....and enjoyed every minute of it.

[swagger700]

I haven't shot a fox in years Gary, but I fail to see how a lamp is no longer effective.

 

Foxes have a short life....even the lamp shy ones, so no in-built preference for nv exists in the fox population.

 

The more honest truth is that folk with more money than sense , and invariably no skill at lamping, or calling, are now decimating the fox population with Night vision.

 

Fine if people are using them on a professional level I suppose.

 

NV has brought with it, a lot more shooting from roads and poaching....as there is no giveaway lamp when people are shooting where they shouldn't.

 

If you are foxing for sport, get a lamp and learn to use it, same with calling. We used to walk miles each night, never drove.....and enjoyed every minute of it.

Well said !!! I've got 2 custom rifles and nite vision, but don't shoot any more than i did before with factory rifle and 8x56 scope and lamp. Getting somewhere to shoot is the hardest bit and when you get going learn to not shoot at one's to far off and not miss the one's you are confident you'll hit. and you'll do fine with basic kit, then upgrade as you go along

[foxpig]

I haven't shot a fox in years Gary, but I fail to see how a lamp is no longer effective.

 

Foxes have a short life....even the lamp shy ones, so no in-built preference for nv exists in the fox population.

 

The more honest truth is that folk with more money than sense , and invariably no skill at lamping, or calling, are now decimating the fox population with Night vision.

 

Fine if people are using them on a professional level I suppose.

 

NV has brought with it, a lot more shooting from roads and poaching....as there is no giveaway lamp when people are shooting where they shouldn't.

 

If you are foxing for sport, get a lamp and learn to use it, same with calling. We used to walk miles each night, never drove.....and enjoyed every minute of it.

Hahaha well said that man. Not gonna go into number s but we shoot alot of foxs down here . Good old nightforce lamp is all we use.

If we cock one up . The next few days or weeks are spent learning the habits of that fox. Usually they are accounted for at first light to bait a few days later.

This nv thermal is getting out of control.

End of the day it's a fox . It's brain is the size of big grape.

Whatever you do main thing is enjoy it. It's the best form of shooting about in my opinion. Especially when your mission for the night is a real problem fox that's been doing serious damage in a pheasant pen or taken multiple lambs.

If you are thinking of going down the nv thermal route. I would still suggest you take the time to learn the art of lamping first.

Cheers

[foxpig]

Well said !!! I've got 2 custom rifles and nite vision, but don't shoot any more than i did before with factory rifle and 8x56 scope and lamp. Getting somewhere to shoot is the hardest bit and when you get going learn to not shoot at one's to far off and not miss the one's you are confident you'll hit. and you'll do fine with basic kit, then upgrade as you go along

Well said !!! I've got 2 custom rifles and nite vision, but don't shoot any more than i did before with factory rifle and 8x56 scope and lamp. Getting somewhere to shoot is the hardest bit and when you get going learn to not shoot at one's to far off and not miss the one's you are confident you'll hit. and you'll do fine with basic kit, then upgrade as you go along

Great bit of advice.

My foxing buddy has a 243 uses 75 gr Norma factory loads. And will not shoot a fox over 200 at night.

Sounds a bit daft don't it with a flat round like that !!

Well not really . Last time he missed a fox was a very long time ago. That's why he's my foxing partner.

If the fox won't come in we will go to it.

If it really won't come then I use my rifle.

Trying to say

Know your limits. You'll soon loose a permission due to the offending fox being lamp shy and still doing the damage.

[MJR]

Fox pig, your shooting buddy has the right idea.

I agree with everything Baldie has already said. Foxes are only lamp shy when they've been educated that a lamp may not be good for them!

One thing I will say about nv and I have limited experience of nv is this. A friend and I had a problem fox around a farm at lambing time. We got to know its routine and were able to remove it from the lambing fields without the stress a lamp can at times cause the ewes.

[Offroad Gary]

I haven't shot a fox in years Gary, but I fail to see how a lamp is no longer effective.

 

Foxes have a short life....even the lamp shy ones, so no in-built preference for nv exists in the fox population.

 

The more honest truth is that folk with more money than sense , and invariably no skill at lamping, or calling, are now decimating the fox population with Night vision.

 

Fine if people are using them on a professional level I suppose.

 

NV has brought with it, a lot more shooting from roads and poaching....as there is no giveaway lamp when people are shooting where they shouldn't.

 

If you are foxing for sport, get a lamp and learn to use it, same with calling. We used to walk miles each night, never drove.....and enjoyed every minute of it.

 

Dave, a lamp can be effective, but not as effective, anyone that believes differently is naive. I still lamp from time to time especially with company but I have been using NV for 5 years and have just invested in thermal. I'm now seeing fox behaviour that I hadn't seen before and am learning how to deal with them even more effectively. I only last Thursday night saw foxes running from vehicles, these are not lamp shy but definitely shy of the vehicles. you wouldn't have even seen them with a lamp or NV spotter, but with the thermal they were a clear as anything. a single person with a thermal spotter and NV scope walking into the wind will kill everything in his path of he can move without making noise. you're right about the decimation of the fox population, this will really tests its ability as a survivor. thermal also turns inept deer stalkers into more effective killers, which might not be a bad thing in certain areas where the population is out of hand, or an invasive species that needs controlling, but people need to show restraint and know when to stop.

 

don't agree with foxing for sport, its about wildlife management for me.

[happyhunter]

Decent clothing/footware (military surplus) summer/winter

A rifle, take your pick on make and calibre but I would stick to .204/.22cf/.243 (do it all rifle .243?) sound mod?

A scope, buy decent glass 6x42/8x56 or even a 8-32x56 but you'll have little time to be faffing with mag/parallax etc. I find reticle choice important, it's pointless if it covers your target at 200yards, some like illuminated ret for night shooting some don't.

Lamp, see ludicrous lumes.

Get to know your kit, and practice to ranges beyond what you expect to shoot in all manor of positions.

Most importantly get to know your ground, keep safe and if your not happy with the shot don't squeeze the trigger no point making it lamp shy.

 

 

I use nv/thermal 100% of the time now, absolutely nothing wrong with lamping apart from the small minority would think its right to lamp/shoot/run dogs where they have absolutely no permission to do so and thus scaring the that which promotes growth and vigour out of every fox for miles which is fine until they start causing problems.

It was becoming no fun at all trying to get on to lamb killers night after night as some numpty driving about in their tranny van with a blitz lamp lighting up half the country side from the road hundreds of yards away because they have nowt better to do.

We get called out to deal with a lot of problem foxes, nv/thermal allows us to do this quickly and efficiently as we cover thousands of acres and kill hundreds of foxes a year all on foot the areas involved are vast and the fox numbers always remain roughly the same year on year.

[andybrock]

It's a fact that disease and traffic accidents are the biggest desimators of the fox population.

[Offroad Gary]

I've never felt the need to turn on the red dot in the lamp.

 

I did turn it on the other morning to shoot the muntjac sitting under the bush that I found with the thermal though!

 

best tip ever for foxing is to only shoot if you are 100% sure you are going to hit it (and that you know its a fox)

 

for the novice, practice, practice, practice... if you have the ground, get a 4" gong and keep ringing it, you should be able to hit it 100% in daylight from 0-300m just by holding over with a good foxing rifle/scope.

[cakeordeath]

All good advice gratefully received, so thanks.

I have a rem 700 in .223 and a Vortex 4-16x50 scope on it. It did have a Hawke scope with a illuminated reticle but I didn't like the scope at all.

Lamping sounds interesting and I know nothing about NV/Thermal, but I will read up on it.

[David Hancock]

Cake, My advice is get a mentor, and learn your craft.

 

It is an earned craft not a hobby. It needs to be done professionally, and cleanly.

 

I get too many calls from farmers who have let a person shoot on their land, whay hay hill billy boys cutting up crops with a vehicle, scaring walkers, and leaving wounded stuff hobbling around or leaving lamp shy foxes still doing serious damage. Losing ten piglets a night is a grand !!

 

100 yards in the day is a long way. 100 yards at night needs experience and judgement. Eyes at night can be anything including shagging couples or a child, or a dog walker taking bonzo for a stroll through the pig arcs - the only time the police helo has come out.

 

At Christmas I spent an hour lying in sxxt for a fox worrying sheep to come in to a safe backstop. Glamorous it is not.

 

As the above comments, foxes can be taken at any time. The timing to shoot varies, the kit varies. There is no one answer.

 

Sorry to be serious but sometimes zealous idiots who have a rifle and profess to be fox shooters do more damage than the fox !!!!!

 

- Get a mentor

 

- Get a book with maps, boundaries, a business card, letters of permission and a reputation for being a safe and considerate shot.

 

- Offer to work on a farm / estate - build trust

 

- Ask and create your own luck

 

- Enjoy - and don't worry about foxy who has spent the last 15 minutes sat ten feet behind you wondering what you are doing dressed like a blancmange on a cold wet night when you should be in the pub.