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someone has shot my fox


Guest stevo
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right , now i know some may laugh at this , some wont bat an eyelid , but try to give me the benifit of the doubt ,

 

i have this one shoot that i have shot for years , the land owners are good mates of mine and the son is also one of my shooting partners when the pigeons or crows are about , but the rest of the pest control is just left down to me and i can do as i please as long as the job is done ,

now call me old fashioned but i have never had the mind set to just got out and shoot something for the sake of it , there has to be a reason , for instance the pigeons/ crows are hitting the crop , I go and sort them out , the muntjacs/roe are being a pain , I go and thin them out a bit . the bunny's are chewing off the headlands yep you get the idea , the land owners like myself do like to see a good amount of wildlife bobbing about so we just try to manage them , not wipe them out

 

now when it comes to fox I have shot over the years more than I care to remember , and ive always had and unwritten rule that as long as there not being a pain i'll leave them be within reason on this particular permission as we or the next-door farms do not release game , so unless there on a hedgerow killing spree and as long as the numbers are low that's fine ,

now one this one shoot I have had a great big old dog fox , I reckon he must be about 6 maybe 7yrs old now and to be fair hes been no bother , if I'm out lamping he will follow behind about 150 yrds as I always leave him a bunny or two , or a few pigeons under the hedgerows , and over the yrs hes got rather tame towards me and in the summer evening while I'm shooting the bunnys he will layout in the sun about 100 yrds away just waiting for his dinner ,

 

I have to admit he's rather grown on me over the years , well this morning landowners son phoned me to say hes just seen him hobbling around the yard ( he has never come around the farm house or yard ) and can I come up and have a look as he looks hurt , so this evening I went up there and found the old fella , and he did look in a bad way , it was his front quarter he was having problems with and could not put any weight on his leg , he also looked like he had not eaten for a good week ,

I made the call to put him out of his misery , and on closer inspection it was a shotgun wound to the front right leg/shoulder/foot .

 

driving home I was gutted and I know I'm going to miss him

 

how daft am I !

Edited by stevo
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I think it is an age thing stevo, i presume you are the wrong side of 40?

 

As we get a bit older we become a bit softer i reckon. The fact you also don't feel the need to kill everything in sight suggests there is proper countryman and sportsman within you.

 

Fair play.

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Don't like, shotguns for foxes. I know plenty are dispatched that way, but often a wound like you have descibed. They are tough critters.

Similarly don't like shotguns for dogs. Rifle is clean and effective most of the time.

I shoot on land where foxes are specifically not to be touched and regularly see a couple of fox. Saw the old boy see off a youngan 20 yards from where I was sat with my back to a tree, just as dawn broke. They had no idea I was there. Magical time to watch wildlife while you wait for, your chosen quarry.

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yeah i know what you mean , i have spent many hours sitting out in the feild just watching the world go by , even what we call vermin when you and if you can get close enough to just sit and wacth them go about there day to day bits and bobs is really quite amazing , just cos its there sometimes is not reason to kill it , after all it only knows what mother nature taught it .

Edited by stevo
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nothing wrong with getting attached to something that does you no harm, good on you for admitting your feelings.

I get the same with our livestock, always had pet sheep in the past now i have a pet cow who lives with all the others but if i go into the collecting yard she will come and find me! i return the compliment with a good full body rub!!

 

I really do dread every T.B test!!

Edited by stoxs
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Don't get me wrong I don't feel like I've just had to put my dog down. Far from it. I'm just a bit gutted as too me there was no real gain in someone having a pop shot shot at him i spose.

Still it wont be long before another moves up the ranks and takes his place.

Edited by stevo
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This is why I hate all the talk of "tree rats", "flying rats" and "blasting" this and that.

 

Respect for quarry and wildlife is to be respected.

 

This. +1.

Must admit that I cringe when reading some of the posts on PW. Other sites are MUCH worse.

Have respect for quarry. Only shoot vermin and what you can eat. Vermin control not eradication.

I call myself a hunter rather than a shooter.

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Seems perfectly acceptable to me. I do wonder if in terms of overall management it's better to have a dominant fox.

Personally I've always been taught if something is causing no bother like fox leave it be, if you shoot it 'a few more will turn up to its funeral' and most likely become a nuisance. Sad story, I used to have a badger where I used to work that would get fish left out for it. It would run from the top of the hill, under 1 fence, across the track and under another to where I used to put the fish for it. 1 day it stopped coming down and I noticed the fish hadn't been eaten to get told it was hit by a car (can only presume it's the same 1 as I never saw it again). Some times its better to sit and watch, relaxes the soul and all.

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I can understand the position of the OP, of the thousands of pigeons I have processed into the food chain I have the satisfaction that I decoyed them to their demise. At the end of the day's shooting I have a satisfaction that I've achieved my objective. It is a family joke that I have no problem with killing animals be it a cat hit by a car in the road or a rabbit at the stables with mixey . I shoot close to a abattoir and see large wagons with three layers of sheep entering the yard and have a twinge of conscious as they are offloaded . When I've been asked to shoot crows I leave them for the foxes rather than just dumping them. I personally think it is healthy that we have some remorse with killing . The OP obviously enjoyed the company of his friendly fox as long as he was not a concern.

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I understand the point of OP but the permissions I shoot on and the nature of the farmers (who have a zero tolerance for foxes) any fox that I get the chance to shoot is shot.

 

A fox that isnt currently causing issues may well do in future or may have cubs that dont follow the same rules. On the chicken farms a change in the foxes behaviour can lead to a massive loss of livestock.

 

I am of the opinion that a dead fox is not going to cause issues. Whilst there are plenty who will disagree there are plenty who will also agree. Like most things if you are happy with what you are doing (and it is legal of course) then thats what counts.

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To be honest i dont think you should be allowed to use shotgun for fox, seen so many people take a shot well out of range of a shotgun & the fox will be wandering around with some shot lodged.If you need to control fox then get FAC or get someone in with FAC.

Bad shooting isn't weapon dependant though - you can wound with any gun, but I guess it's more likely with a shotgun

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