Lamping the night away March

[JohnGalway 1,043]

4th

 

So I've been out on a few sorties in the last week and there wasn't a fox to be found. Been working hard on the farm lately so late nights don't agree with that plan. There seems to be a patter this time of year that sees foxes traveling past midnight. I'd pretty much covered all hours between nightfall and that point up to date.

 

Last night saw me on the ground at 11.10pm. Plan was to cover the largest area of ground on which Dads flock will be starting to lamb towards the end of this month. It was really calm and somewhat overcast. So quiet in fact dogs from the far side of one bay were calling across to dogs the far side of the other bay. I was out with John on this ground on a similar night there was a wedding in the village. We could clearly hear the music out of the marquee, free entertainment!

 

There are three main ways into this ground for foxes. In along the road, and onto the old path then back the land. In along the shore then up the land. Or, they can come in along the far shore, circle around the end of the island and come in behind me - there have been dens over that side in the past. So I can cover either one shore or the other and the old path. I pick my spot and set up, not going to worry about the far shore tonight.

 

As soon as I set up I tried a rabbit call. After a while a hare call, then later on again another rabbit call. I left good long breaks between them, it's really calm and that sound is going to travel a long long way. John had heard foxes barking at the bridge end of the island around 9pm, Dad and myself had also seen scat and tracks so they're around.

 

12.30am on the dot, I see a lovely distinct bright spot out along the shore, something like five hundred yards away if I were to guess. Knowing where the fox will go I gather up the caller and rifle and take off towards the fox on foot. There's a much better shooting hillock closer to where the fox will enter our land on the top of the shore.

 

When I get there, the fox is 250 yards out and making steady progress. Out comes the bean bag for the butt of the rifle, off goes the backpack (love these shots where I know what's going to happen before it does). I settle down, get my fox in the scope and wait...

 

Foxy is moving, dodging between the big rocks at the top of the shore then moves up onto a rough grassy patch. Perhaps a scent marker. Either ways she's made a bad career move stopping 165 yards out and the returned thump of a Federal ballistic tipped bullet tells me Dads lambs will be a little safer now. The crack of the shot rolls away up the bay, times like this I often wish I hadn't a moderator

 

And that makes 31.

 

 

5th

 

I'd no sooner replied to Macks post on the other thread when John rang me. I'd texted him earlier about the time he saw a fox crossing the road between his house and my farm. Since the ewes are coming in from the hill tomorrow it was time to do some cleaning up.

 

During the call there was a lot of barking. Foxes were around his place he reckoned, that he'd heard them about around the same time the previous night, two at least and probably three.

 

I was going to go out later, around 11pm, to be there well in time for the midnight fox. But, seeing as there was activity at the time I decided to go early and come back early.

 

No sooner had I got out of the car than I could hear foxes screeching up the land from me. There certainly were two of them from what I could make out. I headed off up the farm and crossed into the neighbours onto the big hillock. I caught sight of a flash of eyes on the crest of a ridge out on the commonage before the hill proper, then gone.

 

I tried the hare distress and rabbit distress with no luck. Then I tried the vixen screech and a pair of eyes bounced back over that crest, hared down to the junction of the boundary wall, through the fence and into the fields next door. Game on.

 

This one was thinking with the little head. He ran along the wall while I was yipping, woofing, barking and finally roaring at him to stop :eek: He stopped of his own accord 120 yards out and received a little something through the right eye

 

 

13th

 

John rang me last night around 11pm. He was out in the rain and had spotted two fast moving foxes traveling together. I'd been flattened by a viral infection so going out in the rain, eh, no, thanks!

 

Tonight though I'm fighting fit again and it's back to business. Arrived back to Johns house at 9.30pm. Foxes usually started arriving 10pm, or at least that's when his dogs used to go nuts, and when he'd first spotted them the previous nights.

 

It's a lovely night out here in the Wild Wesht, cold though, with a coating of frost on my car before I left home. The moon is coming ahead strongly and we're both casting well defined shadows on the grass. The wind is a bit indecisive tonight, as we often find on calmer nights, can't trust it to blow consistently in any direction.

 

Next door John's neighbour has a lamb already. Through the night I kept an eye on them, good mother, standing over her lamb all the time we were there. A few ewes high up in the hill over the plots do my head in, they're agitated and keep moving outside the top wall. Every so often I catch sight of a fast moving eye, bloody sheep again...

 

Nothing happens for a fair while, 10pm comes and goes. I pull out the caller and stick on the rabbit distress call. *Bing!* 370 yards downhill in a rough field there we spy a brilliant set of eyes, can only be Mr. Fox.

 

We're not in the best position so I knock off the caller and we start moving downhill. Our fox has started traveling left to right, presumably to scent the noise and circle up below us. Keeping the call going, IMO, would only hasten that action which wouldn't be too good for us.

 

There's some gravel dumped in a heap down the land a bit which I had an inkling may come in handy tonight. I'm set up on top of it looking for the fox again. He's made up a bit of ground, so have we, when I do spy him he's stood stock still on a lovely rock 151 yards away. To be honest I'd all day and all night to shoot him if I wanted. Pssht! Thump! Over he goes. Well conditioned dog fox.

 

 

I heard another fox bark twice not long afterwards, but we never did spot that one. Have to start making a dent in then now what with miniature woolies making an appearance on the ground.

 

18th

 

Was out with John last Monday night I think it was. We were set up over a cliff looking down onto a nice junction between hill and fields. Foxes use it coming and going from the hill.

 

John spotted one coming in from the hill. Then he lost sight of him. But, I had seen him turn in the scope off the flat marsh and up towards a steep and very rocky hillside. Place is a bit of a nightmare so it took a while to see the fox again.

 

Caught sight of it again half way up the hill, through a V notch between two large rocks and a hill behind him. Crosshairs onto it's upper chest/lower neck and squeezed off a round.

 

:confused:

 

Very loud, hard sounding impact, didn't sound right to my ears. Fox temporarily sprawled over a big rock, recovers quickly and takes off.

 

Previous two shots were spot on, so I was at a loss.

 

I went out, had a thorough look. John went out, also looked for a good while. No sign.

 

Saw a pair of suspicious looking eyes, once only, in the marsh later on, weren't interested in the caller and didn't show again.

 

Spent an hour and a half Tuesday morning box searching the area, through rocks, furze, marsh, drains, paths etc. Nothing doing.

 

Not happy today so I put up a target at 100 yards. Inch and a quarter to the right, three inches low

 

I reckon the second set of eyes acting sus was a clipped fox moving away.

 

Anyway, back on song today and knocked off two magpies for John, ones that weren't going into his Larsen, 79 & 134 yards.

 

Thinking about it, I reckon the battery in my back pack must've given the rear of the scope a slap or two, while I had the rifle shouldered for crossing walls, gates etc.

 

The rear mount wasn't loose, but neither was it as tight as I would have had it myself.

 

Things don't always go to plan!

 

19th

 

Out with John tonight, this time covering Dad's land where I shot the last vixen. He got a strong smell of fox on one of the paths a couple of days ago. Bright as day out tonight, quite light winds and fairly cool while standing up as we were.

 

I had it in my mind to make for the same hillock as before to cover both shore and path. But, we were only half way there when I spotted a sus pair of eyes well down towards the shore from that hillock, definitely a fox. Something around 270 yards out.

 

The fox looked at the two numpties stood on the top of one of the highest hillocks in the place and the two numpties looked back at him. Then it took off into the neighbours furze.

 

A combination of vixen call/rabbit distress and crouching down brought him back to around 234 yards. Then my lamp went

 

Fiddled around with it for a few minutes, then gave up and shoved it into the backpack.

 

Foxy was by now most definitely interested in the calls. Back and forth along the fence looking for a spot to cross. All the excitement must've gotten to it as there's no shortage of places a fox could get under that fence. Eventually I watched the fox jump quite high through the fence and into Dads land. I'd have considered a shot at 230 with my own lamp but John has a 50W bulb compared to my 100W so I couldn't see as well as I'd have liked.

 

In the fox ran, down off the high hill, into a little depression, up out of that I barked and it didn't stop or even slow down. By now the range is less than 100 yards and our fox is just crossing in front of the gable of an old house.

 

"HEY!" Psssshhttt - thump!

 

Young dog fox at around 77 yards.

 

 

Two greycrows were circling us until the shot went off, pity they didn't land :cool:

 

21st

 

Rang John earlier, wasn't sure if we were to head out lamping tonight or not. He'd been talking to a fella who keeps some fowl, not much, few hens, ducks and geese, let's call him Dave :pac: Anyway, Dave wasn't the happiest camper at the wake, he'd just been relieved of six ducks by a red lad named Charles. But it was OK, Dave's hen house had just been given a shiny new pallet door :pac: Is it any wonder... Seeing as how Dave isn't a million miles from John's Dad's place, nor mine for that matter, we agreed to get out early and have a look.

 

I was surprised at the night, nicely overcast and plenty dark so close to the full moon just gone. Just enough wind not to have to be irritatingly careful about where to put a boot. Spring must be here officially now, as there's wasn't even a hint of a sting of cold in the air, happy days

 

Plan was, park up, do a large circle through my cousins, Dave's place, out onto the commonage/hill, then on to a hill overlooking John's Dad's place.

 

Once we'd navigated our way through the cousins farm gates down into the fields, right away I spied a fox out the far side of a reedy lake at the bottom of the field we were in. This field is saved for grass, not that you'd notice with all the rushes in it, must mention that to the cousin :pac: Picked out a hillock and after I tapped John on the arm about the fox I made off down for it.

 

This is where being a mind reader would have come in damn handy. Just as I tore off down the field to the hillock, John had spotted a fox to our left in the same field, just behind the crest of a hillock He couldn't shine the lamp on me or shout after me and the fox was out of range of the side by side :pac:

 

When he caught up to me on the hillock he told me Oops, as I'd also lost sight of the first fox now. John circled around downside of the foxes hillock, but didn't manage to rise him. He figured the fox had crossed the boreen and headed back along the bottom of his Dad's land.

 

Well, OK, this other fox has to be around here someplace as Dave's place, and all those fowl plus newborn lambs are in the field next door to us. I brought along my Acme (not just for Wylie Coyote you know) wooden fox call. So, with my best impression of a 90 year old emphysema sufferer I started huffing and puffing and squeaking away.

 

Out of the reeds bounds our first fox, and starts bouncing it's way up through the rushes towards the wall in the field next door. I'm down with the rifle as he pauses a moment. :mad: Top of a fence post dead straight in line with my fox. I've about six inches of granite left to my left to get around the post and it's just enough.

 

Pssshht! Thwap! No more sinus problems for this fella. Very smelly dog fox at about yards. Could only pick out his head out of the rushes.

 

 

We spent some time then watching over Dave's place directly, but nothing was to be sighted except a few cats in bushes and creeping along stone walls After that it was time to make for the commonage/hill out through the cousins jungle.

 

We got to the top of a hill covered in gorse when we saw an odd looking pair of eyes out on the commonage/hill and not too far from John's Dad's place.

 

Now, I don't know what was wrong with this fox, but something clearly was. We, unfortunately, had to cross a fence. No ordinary Connemara fence, but an amateur contractors fence. Sheep wire was well above the ground, then two rows of barbed wire well above that. The only thing to do was "walk" up it. A half daft old Limousin cow would have made less noise plowing through it than we did getting over it

 

There had to be something wrong with that fox, hearing impairment, bit slow on the uptake, suicidal? As not only did he not budge an inch, bearing in mind the fence was less than 150 yards from him, but as I laid down with the rifle at around 120 yards he actually sat down and looked at us :eek:

 

Never look a gift fox in the mouth! Another fine dog fox.

 

That was it for the night then, nothing to be seen down in John's Dad's fields, nor a couple of other spots we shone the lamp over quickly on our way home. Not bad, some damage done, a lot more to do :pac:

 

 

26th

 

Over the past few nights I've had a camera out on a particular farm. The farmer had lost a hen last Saturday, and there was some scat about on the path and outside the hen shed. Put out a bit of bait and got various times, for a dark fox with a silverish streak through it's hip and rear of the ribs, over the nights. 8.53pm, 1.36am, 3.18am, 5.15am, 5.27, 5.29am. This boggled my mind a bit as those times, well, they're not exactly social, nor is there a particular block together that I could target a two hour or so time frame with any reliability. Talked the times over with John earlier in the day and we came to the conclusion this fox isn't based far away, which makes regular visits easy.

 

I was supposed to go out last night, but something came up and I couldn't. Tonight I was ready early and on the farm around 8.30pm. After 50 minutes of watching the baited area I got bored, really bored. Nothing was stirring, and it was fairly calm. I also didn't know precisely which direction this fox was coming from and a lot of the ground isn't friendly in terms of spotting a fox in time to get the drop on it. Thought I'd take a ramble up to the top of the farm, see if I could raise anything there.

 

Badgers have been busy, my usual haunt on this part of the farm has been very successfully ploughed up, lots of grass destroyed. Odd thing is, I don't believe in the years I've been shooting this farm that I've seen a badger on it. Set the rifle down on the bipod pointing out towards the hill. 30 seconds after turning on the caller, I spy a pair of eyes, behind me to my right bouncing through a rough rushy/gorse field with lots of cover.

 

The eyes are too close for comfort, all I can do is drop down, turn the rifle. Had no time so didn't even think of clipping the lamp to the scope. Fox is belting in towards me, bit of trouble is some knobbly bits, ant hills, creeping furze etc on the slope away from me, plus a stone wall with a high sheep wire fence out a piece from where I'm at. All this is between me and that fox.

 

Rifle is tucked into my shoulder, safety off, trigger finger at the ready but not on it! Very quickly I've the lamp, held in my left hand, just shining over the fox. Pick the eyes up with the scope, drop the beam down, Arf!... Arf!...

 

Where does the fox stop? With it's entire front end hidden behind the only tallish rock in the field, that's where. Quickly, I pick the farthest forward spot I can and squeeze, Pssshhht!... thump! Another dog fox bites the dust at 90 yards.

 

 

Now that I look at the pic, the tail looks different. Hmm, not my camera fox!

[halamrose 24]

Epic

[weejohn 3]

Excellent write up john

[redfish77 0]

fantastic read -thanks for posting!!

[markswan20 2]

fantastic write up mate well done

[patdahat 41]

well done enjoyable read jesus i could nearly see them eye's from here.

[dave1372 83]

.....Outstanding work !!!

[bullmastiff 615]

A stunning read, thanks for sharing.

[dafmla 1]

great shooting john i think you should write a book it would be brillent i would buy a copy for sure

[thomasc4329 10]

A great read well done

[chimp 299]

good read that

[sibaldib 6]

Wow. That was one of the best write ups I have ever read on the forum. Very descriptive and emotive - I almost felt as though I was there with you.

 

Thanks for sharing.

 

Sib