Fox up a Tree?

[Pippin pup]

Last night (xmas eve) while feeding the sheep, flicked the Red lamp round the field and spotted the usual collection of rabbits digging for grass in the snow, then a pair of eyes brighter than bright came back but looked to be above the ground?. lamp off, retrieved the rifle from my truck, loaded up and got my Daughter Meg to put the lamp on when I was ready. Lamp on, and again pair of eyes about 2 meters high 100 meters away. I thought it must be a Fox or maybe a cat but when I looked carefully through the scope it was the biggest Barn owl Ive seen in ages say on a low branch in a bush!!!. Well we did smile and could not belive how its eyes just looked like a Mr Fox.

 

Carefull shooting Guys

 

Regards

 

Pippin Pup

[Bleeh]

Another good reason not to point your gun at things, when you've got no idea what they are (Even more so when your point at a target over 2m off the ground, proberbly negating backstops)

[maddog546]

Had a similar thing recently with all the snow on the ground,went out to reduce the bunnies on a local farm,whilst coming over the brow of a field and looking down to the bottom of the meadow,picked up a pair of eyes in the lamp,definetly fox but a good 6 to 7 feet above the hedge,a quick squeak and up the hillside it came to meet its fate.

We then wandered down to the hedge and there up in the fork of the tree you could see where the fox had been lying as there was no snow or frost,must of been getting cold feet I suppose.

 

More justification in these posts that you shouldnt fire at eyes until you are certain what they belong to,I will not pull the trigger until I'm certain of what I'm looking at,its meant in the past I have had to return a few times on problem foxes but at least I got what I was there for.

Mind you one evening whilst out on a mate permission we drove into a fresh cut maize harish field and as my mate swung around the field with his lights he announced that the eyes we had just seen in the lights were a cats,now as I was at a slightly different angle I thought the looked more fox like!!

Telling him to swing around so that I could get the rifle sighted out of the window ,I was met with a strange sight,sure enough there was a dead cat hanging out of the mouth of a mange ridden fox,the 223 put an end to his suffering and pet thieving.

[Yonic]

A fair few years ago myself and a friend were out for a walk around in some woodland near his house, both of us had been trainee keepers and decided to one would walk the wood through to the other to see if we could push a fox through. I got to be standing gun and waited to see what happened. As I was stood there I caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of my eye. Turned to have a look and there 10 foot off the ground was a fox sat at the top of a part fallen tree, I did manage to get close enough to shoot it. It was quiet a surprise to see it up in the tree though..

 

Cheers Jon