Fox identification at night

[rainger 0]

What's the safest way to identify fox from other quarry at night. The land I shoot over has a high population of fallow and muntjac deer of varying sizes. As a novice, I'm finding myself uncertain. The animals aren't venturing out far from the hedgrerow and are out to about 100 yards.

Any suggestions well received.

 

Cheers

 

Simon

[speedystu 0]

Hello mate!!! Well its all in the eyes! if your lamping? charlie have orange eyes and most others like deer munjack have green eyes. hope it helps...stu

[salukiwhippet 6]

Foxes tend to blink, or look away and look back, deer tend to stare solidly. Fallow should be easy enough due to distance between the eyes and height above the ground. Though obviously they do bend down to feed and some are smaller than others. I always have binoculars in the truck which I use if I'm not sure, but 90% of the time I can ID the eyes by behaviour and size. Foxes seem to me to have brighter eyes than deer, but so do cats and badgers!! It sounds as if you're erring on the side of caution, which is absolutely the right thing to do. It will get easier with practice. Do you know anyone experienced who you could go out with? Whereabouts in the country are you?

 

Just my experience, hope it helps.

 

James

[Guest smashygadge]

fox are a brighter orangy colour of the rabbit almost hare looking eye but brighter

also ive noticed some deer with dark peircing blue eyes which i believe is the red deer .

also the fox will weave in beetwen the hedge to be nosey if you are a good call

[Fidgety 8]

You should ALWAYS identify the WHOLE animal when shooting at night, if you can't, don't shoot it! Simple and safe.

Edited July 22, 2008 by Fidgety

[Guest Ditch_Shitter]

Thank F*ck for Fidgety! Someone's finally talking some sense here!

 

WTF has happened to Field Sports these days that someone has to ask such a question, then get such answers?

 

No wonder kids and Dogs are getting shot.

[Fidgety 8]

Mind you, Rainger on reading your post again, I suspect you want to ID eyes to save wasting time sneaking up on something you don't want to shoot at?? It's a good question, Interesting post.

Edited July 23, 2008 by Fidgety

[SNAP SHOT 194]

You should ALWAYS identify the WHOLE animal when shooting at night, if you can't, don't shoot it! Simple and safe.

 

 

agreed, be sure before you pull the trigger fact.............100 % sure......

 

look for eyes that blink is correct but also have a more red to orange colour i find rabbit hare i find are more deeper red.........

think backstop is the next thing that sould go thruogh your mind after the fox has been indenified whats behind the hedge, a hill or a field full of cattle and sheep, safety first...........

[Mr_Logic 5]

THE golden rule - if you can't definitely identify the target, DO NOT fire. I adhere to that even when my gut and instincts and everything tell me it's a fox, if I can't see head or ears - something - that marks it 100% as charlie, then it can escape. I NEVER, EVER want to have to explain to someone why I shot their cat/dog/horse/husband, tbh I'm not sure I could do that.

 

In terms of identification for a stalk. Well, it's mostly gut feel so the more you do it, the more you learn.

 

Basic guidelines

 

Fox = orange eyes, occasionally green depending on the angle. Tends to blink. Also very common for them to duck out of the light, and move slightly, and come back again. Helps to differentiate them from ...

 

Deer = generally green eyes, brighter green than fox. Tends to stare back at you. As and when they take flight everything bounces, foxes skulk, even when they're pegging it.

 

Cat = green eyes normally. Usually similar to fox, leaving you wondering. Not a lot you can do except take a butcher's, but they are normally so forgiving you start to wonder whether that 'fox' is really a fox - probably a cat then!

 

Dog = Not a clue, never been unlucky enough to see someone else's out with the lamp, or lucky enough to have my own.

 

Horse = white / occasionally pale green eyes. Very dopey, too far off the deck for a fox. Easily dismissed BUT, in the winter keep a good eye out because people often rug them with dark rugs, and if they're looking the other way they're very easy to miss in the background of your shot on the fox stood in front. (I did actually have a fox hide behind a sleeping horse once, Deker witnessed that one. Needless to say foxy escaped, clever sod!)

 

Owl = white eyes, looks rabbity to the uninitiated.

 

Sheep = green eyes, very forgiving, easily identified because they're never on their own. (fox within sheep can be a tricky ID, as can fox within deer)

 

Cow = dunno yet

 

Badger = remarkably fox-like. Identified through mannerisms and noise rather than eye colour.

 

Think that's most of the species you'll often come across. I'm still relatively new to this myself so others please feel free to chip in...

[SportingShooter 0]

THE golden rule - if you can't definitely identify the target, DO NOT fire. I adhere to that even when my gut and instincts and everything tell me it's a fox, if I can't see head or ears - something - that marks it 100% as charlie, then it can escape. I NEVER, EVER want to have to explain to someone why I shot their cat/dog/horse/husband, tbh I'm not sure I could do that.

 

In terms of identification for a stalk. Well, it's mostly gut feel so the more you do it, the more you learn.

 

Basic guidelines

 

Fox = orange eyes, occasionally green depending on the angle. Tends to blink. Also very common for them to duck out of the light, and move slightly, and come back again. Helps to differentiate them from ...

 

Deer = generally green eyes, brighter green than fox. Tends to stare back at you. As and when they take flight everything bounces, foxes skulk, even when they're pegging it.

 

Cat = green eyes normally. Usually similar to fox, leaving you wondering. Not a lot you can do except take a butcher's, but they are normally so forgiving you start to wonder whether that 'fox' is really a fox - probably a cat then!

 

Dog = Not a clue, never been unlucky enough to see someone else's out with the lamp, or lucky enough to have my own.

 

Horse = white / occasionally pale green eyes. Very dopey, too far off the deck for a fox. Easily dismissed BUT, in the winter keep a good eye out because people often rug them with dark rugs, and if they're looking the other way they're very easy to miss in the background of your shot on the fox stood in front. (I did actually have a fox hide behind a sleeping horse once, Deker witnessed that one. Needless to say foxy escaped, clever sod!)

 

Owl = white eyes, looks rabbity to the uninitiated.

 

Sheep = green eyes, very forgiving, easily identified because they're never on their own. (fox within sheep can be a tricky ID, as can fox within deer)

 

Cow = dunno yet

 

Badger = remarkably fox-like. Identified through mannerisms and noise rather than eye colour.

 

Think that's most of the species you'll often come across. I'm still relatively new to this myself so others please feel free to chip in...

I couldn't agree more with Mr Logic and Ditch,

 

However much you want to kill that fox(supposed Fox), you DO NOT fire until you can see the eyes, ears and head through that scope or Binoculars.

 

If you stare at a pair of orange for a minute or and hour, if you cannot see what it is, put the safety back on and walk away, you may well get another shot later on but you cannot go back on shooting a Non target animal.

 

Regards

SS

 

Mr L, you forgot to say what colour the husbands eyes were.

[The one 8,451]

You need a brighter lamp mate so you can see the whole animal then stalk in a bit closer before you pull the trigger

[SportingShooter 0]

Or a better scope which allows you to draw in all the available light.

 

Its not always the lamp, its the distance and your ability to recognise quarry. Its not easy with a red filter for example, but easy enough through a decent scope.

 

Regards

SS

[dogs-n-natives 1,182]

Some excellent posts here, im just going to add another hint to help distinguish between fox and deer. And thats when you spot the fox you usually cannot see both eyes seperately, but often with deer a gap between can be seen.

[rainger 0]

Thanks to all for the insight.

The question was intended to assist in identifying fox amongst mixed quarry, to spare the time stalking up, not to avoid shooting a man, dog or any other inate object.

I think most responses have helped greatly.

To those that don't seem to be able to control their emotions in online forums, I do wonder how they're ever granted FAC's.

[Mr_Logic 5]

To those that don't seem to be able to control their emotions in online forums, I do wonder how they're ever granted FAC's.

 

I think this is a very emotive issue, mainly because if you stop and think of the consequences and how you'd feel, it's quite scary. So we tend to make a strong point about it so as to avoid all uncertainty.

 

Don't they say that true psychopaths tend to be coldly calm in such situations? IIRC, then I'll take a bit of emotion!