Out last night................

[re'M'ington]

I took a mate out last night that some may know from THL as Foxdropper...........

 

I had another visit from Foxdropper last night,and,after trying to zero his rifle and having a lot of trouble with it.....it was spraying the bullets all over the place.The rifle is a Tikka T3 lite in .243cal with a T8 mod,and,as such it should have a fully floated barrel,but,you can't thread a piece of paper further than 2" between the barrel and stock(this might be rectified tonight as he was sanding it down earlier).Anyway,I told him to use my rifle as I had just zeroed it after putting the Zeiss back on,and,we headed over to the next valley,but,the light was fading fast.As it was we were out of luck,and,as the light finally left us,we set off for a place that a chap I know that has a bit of land has been having his lawns ripped up,now I know what you will all be thinking.....'Badgers' but,I am pretty sure that it isn't,and,my reasons for this is that the damage that is being caused is with just the turf taken back,and,even undermined like someone had put a cake slice under the turf and made a pocket.There are absolutely no claw marks that you would expect if this was done by badgers after craneflies,so,I was wondering if this could in fact be foxes,here are a few pics taken in the days running up to that night......................

Some of the holes were quite small and far to dainty for want of a better word for a badger.....

Well,we got there just as the moon came through the clouds just to make it a bit harder,although it was cloudy and kept going behind every now and then.The wind was blustery and coming up the valley towards us,so we headed off across the top of the fields to the far corner to see if we could call something in.After about 15 minutes of constant calling I spotted a pair of eyes on the other side of a drystone wall,and,he was headed up the field to try to wind us,as he go to the top of that particular field I think he knew that as he was in front of a house that he was safe as he just laid down................what a cocky ba5tard!!!

We did try to bring him in,but to no avail,and,I said that if we drop back on ourselves and get behind him wind wise we might have a better chance albeit a long shot.When we got to within about 100yds of the drystone wall that he was behind,but,with us in a better position if we could get him to jump the wall we started to call again.I suppose we called for about 5 mins when a fox jumped through a gap in the wall to our left and about 5 yds in front of us,obviously he winded us straight away and ran down between us and the house again(same fox?)it wasn't a safe shot so he was let go,and,we started to call again,a minute or two later another fox came through the very same gap,but this time he was stopped by some frantic squeeks in a position that he could be led down by a 100 grainer,they were coming in from the other side of the road where there is a golf course,so,a trip up there to see the groundsman is on the cards shortly.The Dog fox which may or may not have been the first one we saw was a hell of a size,so much so 'FD' took it up his yard to weigh him,and,I got a phone call at work today to tell me that it went 21 lb 9ozs,and,here he is.........

Foxdropper had an early morning start so we called it a day at that point,but,5 foxes this week aint too bad..................................Martin.

 

p.s. If anyone does have an explaination of what might be doing the lawn in if not foxes/badgers then I would like to hear it please.Sensible ones only please.

[valleyboy]

Well Done.

[alled12]

Remington

I think you have had a visit from Sus scrofa, better known as wild boar. I have seen this type of damage before in photos it was attributed to them. Where abouts are you in the country that may help point to the definitive answer. At the very least it may well be some feral pigs but I think from the description of the turf being moved you may well have some form of piggy invasion. They push their snout underneath the turf to root around, they do a horrendous amount of damage to places. There is one seriously good thing about your problem if it turns out to be boar, they taste lovely. Best chance of seeing them at night with a lamp they are incredibly shy creatures, put a red filter on and stealth is required. They live in groups so there should be a few around but and its a big but watch your back, a 350lb pissed off boar is a very nasty creature. If you have got them may i recommend something big and slow or big and quick either way make sure its big. Well I hope you have got them however i am sure the missus will be nun to happy with the state of the lawn but the sport you have got will be great. Keep us posted.

[nemasis243]

Well done Martin,

 

I would have said myself it was moles, I have seen a fair bit of wild bore turfing and I wouldnt say they were doing that as they would have been in the flower beds first .My mate is a mole trapper and i have been out with him and I have seen its like!

But then I could well be wrong ,look at Bev you recon she's good looking

 

5foxes in a week you old bugger , I better get my skates on .

All the best Andy