Frenchieboy Posted January 23, 2012 Report Share Posted January 23, 2012 I got a phone call at lunchtime today from a lady who I do the vermin control for. Her bit of land is only small, about 50 acres or so, of which about 15 acres is woodland which she is trying to make it more "wildlife freindly" by having me eliminate as much of the vermin, corvids etc (Especially magpies, she hates them) and foxes to give the song birds and ground nesting birds a better chance of survival. By all accounts she had spotted a fox going through one of the paddocks twice recently at after eight each morning and wanted me to go up and try to deal with it. I told her that I would be up tomorrow morning and get myself in place just before dawn. However after looking at the weather forecast for tomorrow which showed that we have a good chance of some snow in the morning I decided to phone her up and a visit with the .243 and lamp tonight as the weather was reasonable at the time. I got there at about 7:30 and was on my way across to where I felt the best vantage point was with safe backstops in most directions and a style to sit on while I was calling. I had just got to where I wanted and felt what I thought was a bit of drizzle and straight away thought "just my luck, I'm in for a soaking"! Anyway when I turned the lamp on for a quick shine I saw that it was not drizzle but was in fact a light snow flurry - Fortunately it only lasted for a couple of minutes. Nothing was showing so I started doing a bit of calling and then gave it a few minutes and had another look around with the lamp. Nothing except a couple of rabbits about 150 yards out downhill to my left. This pattern followeed for about half an hour with a few squeeks - leave it for half a minute and then a quick shine. I was a little disapointed but that's life, you can't win them all, so I decided I might as well move on to another area but decided I was going to have another quick shine before moving on, and boy was I glad that I did have a quick shine all round. There trying to sneak in behind me was a large dog fox only about 60 yards away and not the slightest bit phased by the lamp. Fortunately it was coming in to me from upwind so I was able to quietly swivel myself around on the style that I was sitting on so that I was facing the fox and sitting with the wind in my face. I switched the lamp back on and took aim (using a fence post at the corner of the style to rest on) with the crosshairs on the eyes. The fox was now within 50 yards of me so I just gave one quick cough, waited for him to stop and lift his head to look straight at me and gently squeezed the trigger. I saw the flash from the barrel and the fox immediately dropping on the spot with both his eyes bulging as the shot 75g BT head had connected just above one eye expanded and exited out of the back of the head straight between the ears. On examination he was quite old and extremely heavy with a good coat on him, he looked like he certainly knew how to take care of himself! The time on my watch was now 8:10 so it was just a matter of putting my pair of rubber gloves on and dragging the carcass back to the farm house to be disposed of. I boned the brush for the lady and then threw the carcass on the dung heap to be covered over and left to rot down. All in all a successful but quick nights work, leaving home at about 7:15 and back home for 8:45 with a very happy landowner and one big dog fox less for her to worry about, and hopefully a bit of a lie-in for me tomorrow - Very satisfying! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sako751sg Posted January 24, 2012 Report Share Posted January 24, 2012 Nice read fella and a top job on the fox.Great when it all comes together sharpish and theres minimal waiting around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
camokid Posted January 24, 2012 Report Share Posted January 24, 2012 well done pete good read. and a bonus dog hows the fags treating ya or is it a sore subject Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BangBangNik Posted January 24, 2012 Report Share Posted January 24, 2012 Nice one Pete. Good write up aswell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frenchieboy Posted January 25, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 25, 2012 well done pete good read. and a bonus dog hows the fags treating ya or is it a sore subject Thanks for the reply Andy! I am happy with the way the quitting smoking is going, in fact I am ahead of shedule. I have not smoked at all for near enough 3 days now even though my quit date was set for today. Mind you I'm getting through an awful lot of Halls Mentholiptus! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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