Noticing that this will be my 600th post I thought I would do something special. So having had some fresh snow this past week and with spring being "on the way"...now is the easiest time to see what sort of animals share your immediate surroundings...and with a view to helping out my farming neighbours with a bit of predator control before the lambing season starts I thought I would share some photo's I had taken over the past few days which recount what I have been up to.

My nearest neighbour "Winnie" owns the Farm just along the track from my house which is seen from the Quarry Hill nearby in this pic...



Her land covers as far as you can see here and whilst retired herself...the young Farmer/Gamekeeper "John" who Leases the land off her welcomes a bit of help controlling the foxes on the Moor and now is a good time to start on this task.

At the start of January in the South of England the mating season is at it's peak. Here in the Peak District which is the lower part of "Northern England" it is a bit later and gets later the further North you go. Mid January is about as early as it gets for us here high in the Pennines as our climate resembles that of the farther Northern Scotland/Borders area because of the height of the Moors.

At this time of year young foxes are changing territories, moving about and being chased from one area to another by dominant older foxes. Very often a pair will be found travelling together at night and even by day, especially when mating. Seeing therefore what is happening locally is far easier after a fresh snow fall than at any other time.

My house has a fair bit of garden attaching to it which is planted with a good mix of cover...



I try to keep my garden as an oasis of safety for the majority of animals and birds nearby. We have Pheasants come to roost in the trees and Wood Pidgeon and have had a family of rabbits in the garden for as long as I can remember.

Taking a walk round the garden it was easy to come across plenty of rabbit tracks and pheasant tracks...



Taking a walk further up the hill towards the Quarry there was even more evidence of a good abundant rabbit population...



The track on the left in this picture is covered in rabbit tracks...

Moving into the Quarry itself we can see a hord of rabbit activity...



and around the perimeter of the quarry are their burrows



The perimeter of the quarry has a good bit of woodland surrounding it and within this woodland are the main tracks and thoroughfares for the animals around and about. Nearly all the wild animals on my doorstep hold up here because of the cover...and if you were to check for Foxes the perimeter cover is where you would be likely to find them. Sure enough after taking a bit of time to check for where the rabbits do their ablusions I found the tracks I was looking for...

Here is a pic of the rabbit droppings and below is a pick of the foxes tracks..





If you look at the bottom photo you can see in the top half the rabbit's tracks moving from right to left with the larger indent being their two rear legs and the smaller middle one the front legs and then below that you can see a furrow in the snow interspersed with tracks....this is the fox following the scent of the rabbits moving to where they have dropped their slots...the furrow is his nose in the snow and you can tell it is a fox by the pattern of his tracks...they more or less are right in the middle of his nose furrow...where they to be a Badger who also hunts like this the marks would be either side...having smaller legs and a wider gate...domestic cats also have prints which can be narrow like a fox but they hate the snow on their nose and would not leave a furrow...so having confirmed that there is a fox patrolling the Quarry woods I checked where best to lie up and wait for him....here is a pic of the quarry from where the tracks were...



For safety I decided that if I were to come back for the fox I would need to be up on the ridge line so that I could shoot down into the earth and so it would give me the best field of view...I picked out the tree on the right which would be fairly visible even when dark silouetted against the skyline and went back up to check the angle downhill and distances of basic angles of fire so that I would not be messing about when I came out to get the fox.

I left it then for a few days as my scent was all over those trails and when the snow fall had melted off I went back up skirting round the woods and coming in from the far side of the hill where hopefully the Fox would not be travelling over before getting into the Quarry....given that it is Winter I figured that early morning would be better than late afternoon...and sure enough this morning after a couple of "no show" attempts....I got a crack at him on the grassy bank by the side of the track leading into the quarry...he must have been coming in along the line of the track/road where as I had been thinking that would be the least likely route...and here you are...



For those interested the rifle is a Sako 75 .243 synthetic stock and the scope is a Swarovski PVI-2 2.5-10 X 56 with an illuminated reticle.

Beautiful country you have there.
Thanks for the pictures and the story.
What do you do with the fox,do you use the skin for anything?
Ive never been hunting,so I have no idea...

Nice job tracking.Very nice rifle and optics. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" /> Did you use a call to get the fox ? Thanks

Sakos rifles are as good as money can buy! I'm a Gold Ring man myself but excellent optics as well.

Thanks for all the great pics and info.

Beautiful pics. Very nice rifle and scope.

Looks like you had, or can have, a good time up there.

Question on owning a rifle in England. How do you have a rifle, I thought you had to keep them locked at a hunting club? Is there a provision for people in the country to keep a rifle for pest control? I am not trying to bust your ball, I am truly interested.
Thanks

Just one? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Great story and pics, the rifle and optics are pretty sweet also!

fantastic pictures!!!!!! Lovely scope on that .243 too. Swar makes one of the best.

The Fox went into a Bin Liner Bag because incase it had any Tic's on it as Lyme's disease is a concern as is Mange...although this Fox did'nt have any Mange which indicates that t was a true hill fox...some of the Foxes we get in the area are "released" foxes ( by the RSPCA usually ) from the Manchester Urban Area and they are often badly infected. You need to be careful not to leave your scent on the carcass and I grab it with the bag inside out and roll it over the carcass. Tied off it then is carried back to my garage and has been put in an old chest freezer which I keep just for this. The scent of a dead fox is a great lure for other foxes...frozen it does not stink...but take it out the day before you want to go foxing again and let it thaw and then you can use the carcass as "bait" for other foxes in the area...this fox had no mange and was a true wild hill fox. It would therefore have a fairly big territory as it would need this to survive....the urban foxes which have "Mange" are just the opposite and exist eating out of bins in the smallest of areas...often on top of each other.

Now this territory will be up for grabs and the scent of the dead carcass will bring in a few younger foxes from the surrounding area. The brush I cut off and give to the Terrier Pack Huntsman who uses it as a lure for "drag" training with the Pack. The carcass I keep for a couple of "defrosting" lure sessions but when it starts to really go off I give it to one or other of the Gamekeepers in the area and they put them in a "stink pit" which again is a "lure" usually surrounded by "snares" to trap other foxes. I don't know of anyone these days over here who skins foxes for their fur...I guess the fur trade is pretty much "dead" in this country...but if there is any demand I think the "snared" foxes would fulfill it...shot foxes being a bit of a mess in comparison.

This fox will probably have it's next outing as a lure in a week or so when I go to another farmer I help control the "predators" for...he has Geese who keep getting "snaffled" by foxes who are usually proper "wild" ones. Killing urban foxes who feed in the bins and walk around the perimeter of towns would be very easy to do...but you need to be very careful on "line of sight" and where and how you shot them. They are'nt as much of a pest really...so I stay off them unless specifically asked. You can nail them from less than 40 feet away...usually with a subsonic .22 LR. If they have Mange I bag and bury them straight off.

Usually I call in foxes if I am using a dead rabbit as a lure but in January when they are starting to mate they are much less susceptable to calling. They have other thoughts on their mind....

This however makes them much more bolder...and you often see them out and about in much less "cover" than they usually use. If there are two of them and one keeps getting pushed by the other and sits down a lot...she is the female and this is the one to shoot first. The male will circle around and come back to her and you can take him then.

The fox I shot above was an old "male" and whilst I waited a good while he had no "mate" in tow...so I guess the females are not yet coming into season...we have had a bad cold spell here so it may be a bit later than usual this year. That's why the carcass has gone in the freezer and I will give it another week. An "old un" like him would be the first to acquire a "mate" so I guess it is not happening yet. When it begins then things will get busy on the "culling" front...

Owning guns over here is as you say quite restricted. To get a Firearms Certificate you need to be either a member of a Gun Club or have permission to shoot over land for either Deer Stalking or Vermin Control. Then depending on what you want to shoot with you either have the rifles/shotguns at home kept in secure cabinets or if pistols are wanted to be used...there are a number of clubs designated as "Heritage" centres where you keep the pistol on "site" and go there to shoot. These Heritage Centres as the name implies enable you to keep pistols which are deemed to be of historical value and fall within a calibre which is not a prohibited calibre...these are basically "modern" calibres like 9mm or .45 or .40 or .380 etc. The sort of pistols you see here are things like Broomhandle Mausers in 7.63 or my favourite is a 1911 chambered in .455 Webley made under contract for our Royal Navy for WWI. Other exotics abound and you can have some interesting pieces in a Heritage centre...

Black Powder pistols are able to be owned at home and shot at a Gun Club and don't have to be kept on site...so there are Pistols still which can be kept by owners and this is quite a popular sport.

Equally you can keep at home pistols which are deignated as collectors peices...but you cannot keep the ammunition. I know one guy who has a .455 1911 at a Heritage centre where he can shoot and another .455 1911 at home.

Then you have an unusual and often unknown ability to own a pistol in a modern calibre kept at home for dispatching Deer or other animals whereby shooting them with a centre fire rifle would be dangerous. Some experienced Deer stalkers have applied for these and have them on their firearms tickets. There has been a fair bit of resistance from the Police in certain areas to granting these but in others it is reasonably well established. In Scotland and down South where you have significant numbers of Deer involved in car accidents granting these pistols for despatch is relatively straightforward for killing Deer on the road side. To do so with a centrefire rifle would leave a bit of a hole in the road. Some Police Forces insist the pistol is a single shot...so Revolvers in .38 Special which have a cylinder which has been sealed up in five chambers leaving one free to be used are common...but elsewhere there are semi-automatics being used. It depends on your local Police Force Licensing Officer or whether you are prepared to challenge a refusal and go to Court.

One guy in Scotland has taken his Force to Court a number of times and has won on all occaisions and has I believe a Glock 9mm for Deer dispatch. I think though that you tread on thin ice often if you push like this as any infingement of a rule and the Force Officer will be right on top of you.

Rifles wise...so long as they are not Semi Automatic you can own what you want for shooting at a Club so long as you have a good reason such as Target use and can also own what you want for Vermin control with restrictions existing on calibres. Usually for Fox and Vermin control most Forces try to stipulate that the calibre in centre fire should not exceed 6mm or .243. You do have an ability to shoot Vermin with larger calibre rifles however on land where you have permission to stalk Deer on and where the calibre for Deer that you have chosen is larger than 6mm. For .22 LR you can get permission for Vermin control as well as say Target use and ditto for any other rifle in centrefire calibres...so you could have say a 6ppc rifle you transfer from a Benchrest Stock for Benchrest shooting to a tactical stock say for Fox control...

The rifles which are most common are bolt actions but there are a number of lever action carbines owned by guys who shoot at clubs in a given " Carbine" set of competitions or whatever. In .22 LR you can own and keep at home a semi auto rifle...so a Ruger .22 is still allowed and is a common rifle over here.

I have a number of rifles and shotguns...no pistols. I shoot competitively with rifles so have a number of these specifically custom built and then I have a number of other rifles used for Hunting/Vermin control. Shotguns are not restricted on numbers owned so long as you have a shotgun certificate. I have one semi-auto shotgun on my firearms certificate which is classified as a firearm as it can hold more than three cartridges...it holds 8 and is a Benelli M1 Super 90 which I use for practical shotgun comps and also I like to take this with me when I am working with our Army Reserves...in this role I get to shoot Pistols, Assault Rifles, whatever...as I am working mainly now as an instructor...but mostly I am working with the new .338 LM getting guys trained and qualified with this.

So shooting is not as "dead" a sport in the UK as many might think...although I do miss being able to do practical pistol competitions.