martin 332 Posted October 9, 2009 Report Share Posted October 9, 2009 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. Quote Link to post
weejohn 3 Posted October 9, 2009 Report Share Posted October 9, 2009 (edited) It certainly looks like a badgers work to me, could you get a lend of one of those trail cams just to make sure. my T3 stock was the exact same till i took some sand paper to it. Edited October 9, 2009 by weejohn Quote Link to post
THE POACHER 13 Posted October 9, 2009 Report Share Posted October 9, 2009 deffiantly badger martin seen it so many times they can cause alot of damage in 1 night. another good night by the looks of things welldone mate and one happy farmer Quote Link to post
waidmann 105 Posted October 10, 2009 Report Share Posted October 10, 2009 looks like badger to me,they will push turf with the snout hence the lack of claw marks. good going with charlie Quote Link to post
runforyourlife 361 Posted October 10, 2009 Report Share Posted October 10, 2009 Definately badger............. Quote Link to post
The one 8,479 Posted October 10, 2009 Report Share Posted October 10, 2009 Nice reasd and picts mate them badgers dont half make a mess Quote Link to post
Squirrel_Basher 17,100 Posted October 10, 2009 Report Share Posted October 10, 2009 Never mind the fecking badgers lol.What about my record fox or should i say coyote Quote Link to post
monte 0 Posted October 10, 2009 Report Share Posted October 10, 2009 wwell done thats a good one this is my best one this season Quote Link to post
martin 332 Posted October 10, 2009 Author Report Share Posted October 10, 2009 wwell done thats a good one this is my best one this season Did you weigh him Monte? Martin Quote Link to post
vimto 0 Posted October 10, 2009 Report Share Posted October 10, 2009 Just average size foxes to me Quote Link to post
monte 0 Posted October 11, 2009 Report Share Posted October 11, 2009 NO MARTIN DID NOT HAVE ANY SCALES WITH ME AT THE TIME Quote Link to post
martin 332 Posted October 11, 2009 Author Report Share Posted October 11, 2009 Just average size foxes to me I had a feeling it might be Vim.........Martin Quote Link to post
Deker 3,478 Posted October 11, 2009 Report Share Posted October 11, 2009 Martin Well, if you were in another part of the country I could suggest the Boar (none your way yet are there?) The Badger becomes the obvious choice, don't see the fox doing that, at least I have never seen the fox round my way cause that grief! FD Good fox, hope the T3 is ok now! Quote Link to post
blubitch 0 Posted October 11, 2009 Report Share Posted October 11, 2009 NO MARTIN DID NOT HAVE ANY SCALES WITH ME AT THE TIME Quote Link to post
Yokel Matt 918 Posted October 13, 2009 Report Share Posted October 13, 2009 Funnily enough Deker I was going to say the same thing – I remember seeing furrowing similar to that when I was in NZ… more likely to be old brock though… Looks like a good fox lads – hope your rifle’s singing true soon FD.. speak soon guys Quote Link to post
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