Live versus recorded game calls

[NTSOG]

G'day All,

I was out last night sitting under a tree in a paddock with an Icotec caller set out some 60 yards away. I was facing across a swampy section of paddock looking up a hill with a nature reserve behind that I know is full of foxes. I played the Icotec recording of the 'Australian Fox Whistle', but got no response. [6 days ago I did call out a very keen dog fox playing a fox distress call close to the spot I was sitting.] Anyway after a while I pulled out my Silva whistle and quickly got an enthusiastic response with a fox coming in to 35 yards or so very quickly. Unfortunately the blighter came from off to the side and I was facing the wrong way. There was a full moon last night, but it was cloudy until just before I used the Silva whistle so the fox spotted me when I tried to turn and sight on it. I'll go back in a couple of days and try for it again.

Do the blighters recognise the difference between live and recorded calls?

Jim

[xDom]

I'm not sure, I don't have enough experience. I've got an Icotec with the little spinning tail on it, actually thinking about offloading it and sticking to the whistle.
It's a pain in the arse to carry and set up, I'd rather get better at using the whistle.

[bladeracer]

It likely comes down to their experience, maybe people have been in the area with the same calls you're using and the foxes are wary of them. A neighbour uses some sort of electronic caller and says it brings them in very effectively.

[Blr243]

I have a few phone apps for calling foxes , pigs. One of the pig calling apps has a number of different pig Sounds on it. Some are genuine recordings from real live animals. The others are manufactured, unrealistic and appalling I don’t know how the manufacturer can put it out there in the market

[Oldbloke]

There must be at least a dozen variables when calling foxes.
It's a bit like fishing. Different day, different whistle

[Blr243]

I’m 50 and have never successfully whistled in a single Fox in my life. But my recent fox kills on my last trip have sparked my interest and now u could say it’s on my bucket list

[RoginaJack]

Yep, O.B. has hit it right on the head.
One day the caller works really well and the next day, different location and won't get a taker. I think the seasons play apart too, like during breeding the dog fox has other interests on his mind. When the pups have left the den and are up and around, the ol tin whistle goes well.
Just a bit like fishing, take a few different baits/lures.

[Stix]

NTSOG...
The only assumption you can make from that experience you describe above, is that you've probably help educate that particular fox on what a local 'distressed prey' animal doesnt sound like, & so if its a smart one, itll associate many environmental factors to that sound & be extra cautious next time it hears it....

But thats life...we all do it...

You cant make any assumptions about what foxes like, or can tell the difference in...

For all you know, that fox may have been motoring in from a far, & it just so happens that you blew the other whisytle at the same time it wouldve come hurtling in anyway...

Or...it may well have been sitting back cautios of the other soend, & got a confirmation with the next whistle...

Each & every encounter is different...

Ive been in one spot in daylight (from sunset to dark) & had 3 foxes---one come hurtling in to the whistle right up to my car...another pingded out the paddock like a ricochet'd 22lr off a lump of limestone, & the other had absolutely NO interest in me, my car, my whistle OR my light & carried on like it was shopping down the mall...

These were all in the same spot within an hour of each other...

I think foxes are predictable in general behaviour as a species...but each & every encounter can be different...& as OldBloke & Blade says, whether they are targeted in the area & so many differing factors to take into consideration with each attempt & setting...

Thats the fun of it--after the frustration is gone...you cant wait to get back out there & do it again...!!

Fox hunters--i guess like deer hunters, are thinkers & learn almost every time you go out--if you dont learn, youre trying to think of what you could have done different...

Then there is the fukhead retard dum arse brigade that cant hunt or shoot, that record their outings & upload the clips to yoo choob & proudly display their utter fukwitt'd-ness for all of us to see...

Things like shots so bad foxes get shot in the guts at close ranges (50 - 180 yds) & get away, with rolling text saying they couldnt find the fox...well that obvious when you see the reticle is positioned over its back half & you shoot it in the guts ya fukn dik...!!...

Or the old favourite of milking the footage of the fox for a few minutes, then when they decide to take the shot the fox moves & their lack of impulse controll & inability to think rationally with a gun in their hand comes into play & they jerk off a shot with unstable rifle & the cross-hairs weighted with hope on centre of mass & prey for just a hit--anywhere...then they laugh & expres how good a shot i am cos i wounded an animal at 100 yds & cant find it ...
Fukn retards...!!!

I could go on---there's a few on there that i cant believe havnt been to court--im gobsmacked that some people loose their licence for shooting targets on private property & posting it on bookface, yet these kunts have a yoo choob channel & get away with horribly wounding animals & laughing, yet still have guns...

Sorry for the digressive outburst...watched a couple of fox vids on the weekend of "local hero's"...just utter fukn wankers with too much money & time, & microscopic penis's...

[Stix]

By the way NTSOG...its coming to the time where you will be calling young dumb pups in from as little as a high pitched fart on a leather seat...

All pups are likely on the ground now, so parents will be out chasing young bunny's mice lizards & birds looking for a good tasty feed, & silly un-educated fox pups will come happily running to a squeek from a rubber boot...

A good few months ahead to practice & observe...

[NTSOG]

Thankyou for the multiple replies Gentlemen. Frankly I am finding hunting foxes a very complex process as Stix says and, as RoginaJack says ''Just a bit like fishing, take a few different baits/lures''. At the place I described no one has hunted for several years so I'm the only one doing the 'educating'. Presently the score there is Foxes: 6, i.e. they spotted me before I spotted them, and Hunter: 2. On my own property where I am using bait in specific places with trail cameras set I am well ahead to the point that I haven't seen one for nearly two weeks - and the neighbourhood dogs are quiet all night!

Many thanks,

Jim

[Oldbloke]

There have been a few threads on this subject. Just use the search option.

viewtopic.php?f=73&t=4516

viewtopic.php?f=73&t=6100


http://www.sportingshooter.com.au/hunti ... e-wily-fox

[marksman]

there's a farmer who calls me all the time to come and shoot his rabbits, he has plagues of them and I set up on a fence line shooting out to 300ish
after going a few times the foxes will come in to the shots looking for the dead rabbits I leave on the ground
the foxes do this every year but are not stupid you are lucky to get them in at 200, you get the chance for a shot and if you fluf it there gone or if you are not really on the job they will smell or hear you and close their eyes while wandering away from you
you have to learn to out-fox the fox

[flutch]

I have about the exact same success rate with both forms of caller

[Blr243]

Marksman. What do u mean close their eyes while wandering away from you?

[RoginaJack]

About the only thing predictable about foxes is they are unpredictable ...

[marksman]

Marksman. What do u mean close their eyes while wandering away from you?

they drop their heads and won't look in your direction so you cannot see there eyes glow
when they are around 200 they are nearly invisible if you cant see there eyes shine

[Blr243]

So they don’t look at the light because they don’t want to ruin their night vision as they are trying to get away ? Or they know their eye shine allows them to be seen so they intentionally don’t look into the light ? I didn’t think they were that clever Pardon my ignorance I have prob shot less that twenty foxes in my life

[Stix]

Hey BLR...there is nothing ignorant about your asking mate...bloody hell...

Im not answering for Marksman, just my own experience if its of interest...

They will look away from the light for a couple of reasons...

One...because they learn its too bright & is hard to adjust to seeing to forrage for a feed...

This can be apparent when you get them not so worried about your presence & watch them through a scope to see how they behave...evenyually they get used to you being there & cant see what they are doing--maybe chasing mice in a stubble field for example--& they will look away &/or turn their back on you so they can see what they are doing...

And yes foxes are that clever--another reason--whether its that they know their eyes shine is probably not the case...but they can & will make an association with the light & being shot at...just like pigs make an association with a loud bang when you are in their paddock... ...ya bully...
Most animals will do this...but foxes will make that association pretty quick-& from all im told, dogs even quicker-_the smart or overly weary foxes will make that association with just one miss over their head...

I have watched a fox i never shot over a couple of years, through my rangefinder one night, run from my right to left while looking the other way...when it got out of the spot & into the spray it turned its head forward...iseriously this thing was low-level flying...it knew what would happen...i respect that fox--i tried everything & never got a shot at it...!!

[Oldbloke]

Just my impression. When whistling two things most likely to give you away are scent (yours) and movement. Their eyes and brain are very switched on to movement. Move very slowly.

[Blr243]

Thank you for the replies , previously I had no desire for foxes. But now they on my wanted list. the experience I will gain from the efforts on my next trip , and my new level of interest combined with the tips you have provided , will most likely result in some very rewarding times in the paddocks. If I can get a 300 m fox to run into within fifty and then sit down thinking and looking my way I’m likely to get a buzz like when a teenager shoots his first rabbit.

[NTSOG]

Bir243 I am in complete agreement. As I wrote in my initial post I called in a fox about 10 days ago now using a distressed fox call. I saw him about 280 yards out up a steep hill and watched him through my thermal monocular zig-zag down the hill to cross a creek on the flat to where the caller was hanging in a tree about 60 yards out. [I turned the caller off before he reached the tree to keep him guessing.] I knew exactly where he was going and was sighted on/around the base of the tree when he came into view. It was very satisfying to have my 'plan' work. It's the blighters who come from behind and/or at close range that catch me out and spot me first.

Jim