Fox's behaviour when shot

Varminting and vertebrate pest control. Small game, hunting feral goats, foxes, dogs, cats, rabbits etc.

Re: Fox's behaviour when shot

Post by Oldbloke » 18 Feb 2021, 10:39 am

Yeh, passed up a running shot this morning. Bugger arrived to my far right. As soon as I moved he bolted.

Location indicates it was the same one that aproached from behind about a week ago.
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Re: Fox's behaviour when shot

Post by on_one_wheel » 18 Feb 2021, 5:33 pm

Oldbloke wrote:Yeh, passed up a running shot this morning. Bugger arrived to my far right. As soon as I moved he bolted.

Location indicates it was the same one that aproached from behind about a week ago.


Probably worth leaving some Scooby Snacks behind when you leave ... train the bugger that you mean food, I've been gutting all my rabbits in the same place for while to bring in the cats and foxes.
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Re: Fox's behaviour when shot

Post by Oldbloke » 18 Feb 2021, 6:25 pm

Yeh, I go to this property about once a week. For the last 3 or 4 trips I left about 1/2 a cup of dog food. Camera too now.
Never done this before but they haven't been responding to whistles. This one come into the scotch caller. But in the past I've had no success with it.

Like I say, bit like fishing. Ill set up in a different spot next visit. All part of the fun. Lol
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Re: Fox's behaviour when shot

Post by Ziege » 18 Feb 2021, 10:24 pm

the foxes, hawks, owls, crows, magpies and even a kite have learned to follow me around or arrive in my wake when dealing with the seemingly never ending horde of pest birds, one owl and hawk in particular sit literally above me until I walk off to swoop down and eat the treats that were moments before alive and well haha...

a mate came down day before yesterday and was faffing around sighting in his rifle then we had a play with his 17HMR and after a few shots a fox came barreling up to where we were (probably 20 mins later) sniffing around furiously before realizing that we were there, I had no firearm on me so couldnt take the shot and the other two blokes had just packed theirs away and were furiously trying to get onto the furry bastard.
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Re: Fox's behaviour when shot

Post by Skinna » 19 Feb 2021, 10:42 pm

NTSOG wrote:G'day,

I shot at a fox two nights ago at about 150 yards. It was eating dog food I had put out in front of my trail camera. The moment I fired I knew it was a rushed shot and I thought I had missed. The fox did not run off at the sound of the shot. It walked around in small circles for about 50 seconds and then sat down looking roughly back in my direction in the dark. It sat for a couple of minutes without moving. I whistled and it seemed to look toward the noise, but nothing more. Then it lay down completely flat. I tried a couple of different calls and it did raise its head briefly, but lay down again. It did not eat any of the dog food scattered around it. 10 minutes after the shot I decided I probably had hit it and started down the hill to finish it off if necessary. I could see its eyes in my red torch as I approached. At about 25 yards from it I unslung my rifle and I lost sight of it. When I looked for it again, it had taken off and I couldn't find it. Nor could I find it the next morning. Some months ago I shot another fox at 135 yards. It ran for about 75 yards and dropped. I watched that one for nearly eight minutes as it lay without moving. Finally I stood up and started walking to it. As I walked the fox stood up and walked slowly up around the next paddock and along it until it reached brush. In the case of both foxes there seemed no urgency as they walked around. My impression was that they were confused if anything.

I suspect I hit them both in the gut and the bullet passed clean through without causing any great shock or immediate pain. Is this the sort of reaction one might see from a gut-shot animal?

Jim


G'day Jim.
Id say you missed the fox.
I havent read everything here, but had a skim of a couiple og your posts below, & if you hit a fox in the guts with a 50gr at 150 yds, it will do one of 2 things, jump around like a monkey on a bed of coals & soon fall dead from shock, or run away.
The behavior you describe for this time of year isnt unusual, its just a comfortable fox, probably a pup (one of last springs babies), that hasnt had too much if any shooting pressure & has a good food supply.

A fox doesnt like being hurt, even if its a tiny pinch youll know it as they will react quite dramatically to being wounded from a shot--second really only to that of a cat. Once the acrobatics are over they will hit the gas & go off & die somewhere.
But a shot to the guts on a fox will more often than not kill it before it gets out of sight.Ive never had a fox get away from a gut shot-always dead within 30 seconds.
Its strange that they will run away with 2 n a half legs & an open chest cavity, but are always toast with gut shots in my experience.

Unless you were using full metal jackets for a clean pass thru, id say, with respect, you missed. :)
I cant see a 22cal 50 gr varmint bullet from any factory ammo not leaving a big hole in the guts of a fox with some entrails hanging out. :thumbsup:

A fox will never hang around once its been hurt, unless its that physically impaired that it cant get away.

The last one i gut shot i actually whistled in to about 6 metres from me & i missed... :lol: ...FFS :roll:
Naturally it took off like the Starship Enterprise going into warp mode & i missed the next 2 shots at it & it increased its speed with each shot,, but after yelling at the spot light operator to give me heaps of lead, i took my time on the last & dropped it quartering away from me at about 40 degrees.
I followed in front of it with the cross hairs until i was comfortable i was going to hit somewhere centre of mass & clobbered it right through the guts with a 32Zmax from the 204...it resembled a Chinese Olympic acrobat as it did a double summersault triple pike semi twist before coming to rest, it tried to bite the wound thinking something had hold of it, & by the time i ran the 80 odd yards to get to it, it was dead where it landed with a few feet of intestines having been sucked out of the exit wound from the pressure.
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Re: Fox's behaviour when shot

Post by Die Judicii » 21 Feb 2021, 1:27 am

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Hi Jim, In line with some other opinions, this one ran like a world class sprinter for approx 75 meters before collapsing dead.
It actually left some of its gut behind as it ran.
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