brinny wrote:Depends on where you are and how much effort you want to put in on them....
Iv just come back from the Mansfield area and shot 22 in three nights on 3 properties up there....
At home at Bacchus Marsh i have shot 45 off my back deck of my house on my 60 acres from the start of the year....and iv well over 100 in the freezer from this year alone.....
They are there if you want to find them.....but they also need a food source, as well as cover to keep them there as well.....
Oldbloke wrote:"Foxes in the freezer?
He is refering to fox scalps i think.
on_one_wheel wrote:Was going to say... must be getting desperate if his eating those buggers
NTSOG wrote:G'day,
I spoke to a couple of local [Ballarat region] shooters today who confirmed that they have started to see foxes on the move locally after not seeing much action for a while. One also wondered if the recent glut of mice was coming to an end with the change of season and the blighters are having to actually hunt for tucker.
JIm
bigrich wrote:on_one_wheel wrote:Was going to say... must be getting desperate if his eating those buggers
how would you go about cooking them....fox burgers
NTSOG wrote:G'day OB,
We haven't had a plague of mice, just a higher number than normal of the little buggers coming into the house so that we've been trapping two or three a day in the house and the same number in the feed shed.
Jim
NTSOG wrote:G'day,
Being relatively new to the seasonal antics/habits of foxes I have been quite frustrated since before Christmas in trying to find any of the blighters. In fact until this week I had only seen eight or so and shot three on my or other properties. I've had very few at my bait stations where I have trail cameras and then usually at very late hours - for me. However since Wednesday I have seen seven and shot three [and a hare] just out back on my place. Perhaps it's the shorter days as winter approaches so they are moving relatively earlier in the evening or is it that they are short of tucker? I shot one the other evening only 200 yards behind the house, then went after a hare up in my far back paddock. While searching for the dead hare using a [white] torch I turned to scan the paddock down hill from me with my thermal viewer and there was another fox scavenging around my bait station about 350 yards away. I walked down and tried to sneak up on it, but it must have heard me and came out from behind a windbreak to sit 50 yards away looking at me. I managed to shoot it - more luck than good management as I haven't practised shooting from standing. Last night I got another, again just 200 yards or so behind the house: I walked out back, sat down for five minutes and along it came.
Do the blighters start moving about this time or is it just coincidence?
Jim
PS: I've just checked my cameras and another blighter turned up to eat at 5:06 this morning.
Oldbloke wrote:I'm puzzled too. Last 6 months hardly seen any, maybe 5 sightings, only shot 1. But Im only daytime whistling.
The usual excuse is they are all wised up. But I'm not so sure that's right. Perhaps the cooler weather drives them to eat more? Or putting on weight for mating. In a couple of months they will be mateing again, so will be off the whistle.
brinny wrote:Depends on where you are and how much effort you want to put in on them....
Iv just come back from the Mansfield area and shot 22 in three nights on 3 properties up there....
At home at Bacchus Marsh i have shot 45 off my back deck of my house on my 60 acres from the start of the year....and iv well over 100 in the freezer from this year alone.....
They are there if you want to find them.....but they also need a food source, as well as cover to keep them there as well.....
Skinna wrote:People seem to think that foxes are some mythical creature that never die.
It is actually possible to wipe them out in a given area, & the best way is shooting along with baiting.
Jim, you are onto them like a hawk. If they are around, they will likely continue to come into your area for finding a mate & new territory up to June, maybe July depending on your season & local nearby numbers.
From memory with you, you are onto them as soon as they enter your area, & that is after youve shot out all the territory holders, so unless you let more move in & breed, you'll have none to shoot. And if locals are baiting & ground shooting & not a lot of cover for them (like forest or untouched thick mallee scrub), or heavily baiting as well, you might have to start travelling.
I think you'll find if you let them come in & settle the territory, fire a shot or 2 over their heads at the bait stations, instead of nailing them on their first visit, or before they are educated on the dangers around feeding on NTSOG's territory, youll have a few to shoot this time next year.
NTSOG wrote:On the subject of ambulant fox food .i.e. mice, it just occurred to me that when sitting out near a reedy creek few weeks back I was perplexed by certain small objects in tussocks 60 feet or so in front of me glowing red through my thermal viewer. After viewing a hunting video [Edge of the Outback???] on YouTube in which an abundance of mice was seen I realised the little glowing things were mice clinging to the tall tussocks. Unlike the fellow in the video in NSW[??] I didn't shoot a mouse off a branch with my centre-fire.
Jim
Skinna wrote:
I think you'll find if you let them come in & settle the territory, fire a shot or 2 over their heads at the bait stations, instead of nailing them on their first visit, or before they are educated on the dangers around feeding on NTSOG's territory, youll have a few to shoot this time next year.
ZaineB wrote:brinny wrote:Depends on where you are and how much effort you want to put in on them....
Iv just come back from the Mansfield area and shot 22 in three nights on 3 properties up there....
At home at Bacchus Marsh i have shot 45 off my back deck of my house on my 60 acres from the start of the year....and iv well over 100 in the freezer from this year alone.....
They are there if you want to find them.....but they also need a food source, as well as cover to keep them there as well.....
NTSOG wrote:G'day,
We had an old fridge like Brinny's freezer. It was kept in the bungalow at a holiday house we had when I was in my teens. It was used for keeping 'necessaries': beer and other beverages as well as the bait for our daily fishing expeditions including white bait, squid and so on. After a prolonged stay over the summer holidays we packed up and returned to Melbourne. Unfortunately someone, never identified, turned off the power to the fridge when we left. On our return for a weekend stay after two weeks - remember it was early February - I opened the fridge and was gassed. Talk about gagging a maggot! The stink lingered in the fridge which was emptied, removed out to under the car-port and washed repeatedly.
Jim