3 bad boys

[foxwhistler]

I was supposed to be going to the syndicate shoot where i do a lot of fox control last night. It had been arranged for 10.30pm, however i got a phonecall at 8.30 to see if i could turn up early. By all accounts there was a dog fox calling up the valley, and also the farmer who lamps for me on this land said he wasn`t feeling 100%.

When i got there i must admit that Edwyn was as white as a sheet, so i asked him if he wanted to give it a miss till the following week. Not that i really wanted to as i`ve got a load of farms to get round at the moment before the lambing starts.

Well he said that he would have to give it a miss as he was really ill, however he said that his daughter Elin would do the lamping for me! How could i refuse.

Before we left i was told where there was a dead ewe situated as the foxes had already been at it.

First of all we had a quick look round the fields by the farm so i could check if there were any foxes about, and also let Elin know how i wanted the lamping done.

Nothing round the farm so into the Land Rover and a quick drive round to the top of the farm. We pulled in and walked into the field where the dead sheep was and first thing we see when the lamp goes on is a bloody great dog standing in the field. Some sort of alsation cross husky from the farm opposite.

It walks past us onto the road, and then starts barking at us.

F**k off you stupid bas***d i shout, and it runs off to the farm it came from.

I then told Elin to skan the field even though there was nothing likely to be there.

Quite a suprise then to see a set of eyes by the sheep carcase 100yds away.

I whispered to hold the lamp steady and squeezed the trigger.

There was a satisfying thump came back from the fox and he went straight down.

We went up to look and there was the fox with his far shoulder takern out for an instant death.

Quite a big dog fox and in very good condition, well until the 204 connected.

From there we headed to some more fields up to the left. First couple of fields nothing but then we got to a gateway where you can see into two fields at the same time. There about 220 yds away was a tell tale set of red eyes.

I tried squeeling and the fox headed down into the next field and then climbed onto the top of the hedge where he sat down looking at us. Mind you even if he had sat at the bottom of the hedge i couldn`t have taken the shot as even if i`d have layed down to shoot off the bipod there was a brow in the middle of the field that would have made the shot impossible!

After about 2 minutes the fox dropped down the far side of the hedge and we didn`t see him again.

We went back to the Land Rover and headed to another farm that is still owned by the same farmer but is about a mile down the road.

Once again we parked up on the road and as soon as we went through the gate we picked up eyes about 300 yds away down the valley, so this time i decided to try the vixen call to see if it would work. I`ve actually got a small cass creak speaker that i can plug the mobile phone into for a bit of extra volume.

As soon as i started the call you could see the fox coming at top speed and he must have covered 200 yds in about 15 seconds, so i had to switch the call off to try and slow the fox down a bit but he just kept on coming.

I had him in the scope and shouted "oi"and he stopped so quickly his arse end almost overtook his front end.

Once again the shot was a good one and the fox dropped, rolled once and stopped moving.

When i went up to see the fox was once again shot sideways through the chest and once again the bullet had gone straight through. Paced out at 94 yds.

Only problem was that when i tried to take a picture the camera said that the battery was dead. Teach me to lend my camera to my daughter! :-) Lucky i`ve got the camera phone.

I tried some more calling but nothing showed an interest so we headed back to the main part of the farm, stopping at all the gateways to have a look with the lamp.

Saw one again far off but once again he wouldn`t come in to the calls, so we headed back to the farm yard.

We had a look again at the fields in front of the farm and they were empty so we went round the back of the farm as there is a big valley there and also a big pheasant pen that attracts a fair few foxes.

As Elin shone the lamp up the valley there was a pair of eyes up near the far end.

I tried a couple of different calls but the fox just stayed where he was, and i began to suspect that it was the fox we saw earlier as it was heading towards the valley when it disapeared.

Just to the left of us was a hay trailer that i knew i could lay on and shoot off the bipod and i knew the rifle was spot on so it was a question of should i try the long shot, or should we try to get closer. As i suspected it was a fairly educated fox i decided on the shot.

Looking through the scope i could see the fox was sitting and looking towards us, and shooting off the bipod the crosshairs were rock steady on the foxes chest.

I once again squeezed the trigger and saw the fox jump in the air and land on it`s back.

I measured the shot at 194 yds and when i picked up the fox you could tell it`s insides were turned to liquid.

Once again it was a fairly big dog fox and by his teeth i think he had been round a while. Always nice to take a fox like that.

Anyway we went back to the yard and i told Elin she was obviously a lucky mascot so she could lamp anytime she wanted. I think she enjoyed it anyway!

Hope the post hasn`t dragged on too long.

Regard`s, Jamie.

[nemasis243]

Morning Jamie , nice to see a few in the bag there buddy , its lambing time again so things are gonna get busy by the look of things, that 204 really does the trick mate, what wieght bullets are you using, We were finding that the 32grn Vmax were opening on inpact so have started using 39grn blitz which really do the job.

Keep up the good work all the Best Andy

[grasshopper]

Enjoyed the read,good result,well done and thanks for sharing

[foxwhistler]

Hi Andy, i was using 32g v-max upto a few weeks ago, but have now swopped to 39g sierra`s. The best group i`ve got so far is .300 using Benchmark. They seem to have a bit more of a thump than the 32`s.

Regard`s, Jamie.

[tikka 223]

A good read that ,thanks well done

[Guest martin]

Nice one Foxy,keep it up mate..............'M'