Foxes: The Return

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

Foxes: The Return

Post by NTSOG » 12 Apr 2021, 7:33 am

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.
NTSOG
Sergeant
Sergeant
 
Posts: 555
Victoria

Re: Foxes: The Return

Post by Oldbloke » 12 Apr 2021, 10:27 am

I'm puzzled too. Last 6 months hardly seen any, maybe 5 sightings, only shot 1. :roll: :thumbsdown: 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.
The greatest invention in the history of man is beer.
https://youtu.be/2v3QrUvYj-Y
Member. SFFP, Shooters Union.
SSAA, the powerful gun lobby. :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
Hunt safe.
User avatar
Oldbloke
Field Marshal
Field Marshal
 
Posts: 11192
Victoria

Re: Foxes: The Return

Post by on_one_wheel » 12 Apr 2021, 11:41 am

They'll be busy breading soon, should hear the bitches calling out at night in the next couple of months.
I haven't heard any yet and haven't been seeing any for a while my way.
With all the mice around they probably don't need to make an effort to search for food
Gun control requires concentration and a steady hand
User avatar
on_one_wheel
Colonel
Colonel
 
Posts: 3561
South Australia

Re: Foxes: The Return

Post by brinny » 12 Apr 2021, 11:56 am

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.....
A day without a hunt, is a day lost.....
User avatar
brinny
Corporal
Corporal
 
Posts: 302
Victoria

Re: Foxes: The Return

Post by on_one_wheel » 12 Apr 2021, 1:06 pm

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.....


Foxes in the freezer?
Gun control requires concentration and a steady hand
User avatar
on_one_wheel
Colonel
Colonel
 
Posts: 3561
South Australia

Re: Foxes: The Return

Post by Oldbloke » 12 Apr 2021, 1:18 pm

"Foxes in the freezer?

He is refering to fox scalps i think.
The greatest invention in the history of man is beer.
https://youtu.be/2v3QrUvYj-Y
Member. SFFP, Shooters Union.
SSAA, the powerful gun lobby. :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
Hunt safe.
User avatar
Oldbloke
Field Marshal
Field Marshal
 
Posts: 11192
Victoria

Re: Foxes: The Return

Post by on_one_wheel » 12 Apr 2021, 1:33 pm

Was going to say... must be getting desperate if his eating those buggers
Gun control requires concentration and a steady hand
User avatar
on_one_wheel
Colonel
Colonel
 
Posts: 3561
South Australia

Re: Foxes: The Return

Post by brinny » 12 Apr 2021, 1:39 pm

Oldbloke wrote:"Foxes in the freezer?

He is refering to fox scalps i think.


Correct......
A day without a hunt, is a day lost.....
User avatar
brinny
Corporal
Corporal
 
Posts: 302
Victoria

Re: Foxes: The Return

Post by NTSOG » 12 Apr 2021, 5:37 pm

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
NTSOG
Sergeant
Sergeant
 
Posts: 555
Victoria

Re: Foxes: The Return

Post by bigrich » 12 Apr 2021, 6:32 pm

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 :D
User avatar
bigrich
Brigadier
Brigadier
 
Posts: 4483
Queensland

Re: Foxes: The Return

Post by Oldbloke » 12 Apr 2021, 6:36 pm

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


I also spotted a fox in that area last week. But just couldn't get a shot at it. Bugger came in from behind me.
No mice to speak of down my way. I thought that mouse plague was mainly NSW and QLD?
The greatest invention in the history of man is beer.
https://youtu.be/2v3QrUvYj-Y
Member. SFFP, Shooters Union.
SSAA, the powerful gun lobby. :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
Hunt safe.
User avatar
Oldbloke
Field Marshal
Field Marshal
 
Posts: 11192
Victoria

Re: Foxes: The Return

Post by Oldbloke » 12 Apr 2021, 6:42 pm

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 :D


Big spit.jpg
Big spit.jpg (269.94 KiB) Viewed 6074 times
The greatest invention in the history of man is beer.
https://youtu.be/2v3QrUvYj-Y
Member. SFFP, Shooters Union.
SSAA, the powerful gun lobby. :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
Hunt safe.
User avatar
Oldbloke
Field Marshal
Field Marshal
 
Posts: 11192
Victoria

Re: Foxes: The Return

Post by NTSOG » 12 Apr 2021, 6:51 pm

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
Sergeant
Sergeant
 
Posts: 555
Victoria

Re: Foxes: The Return

Post by Oldbloke » 12 Apr 2021, 6:56 pm

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


Might explain it.
The greatest invention in the history of man is beer.
https://youtu.be/2v3QrUvYj-Y
Member. SFFP, Shooters Union.
SSAA, the powerful gun lobby. :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
Hunt safe.
User avatar
Oldbloke
Field Marshal
Field Marshal
 
Posts: 11192
Victoria

Re: Foxes: The Return

Post by NTSOG » 13 Apr 2021, 6:57 am

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
NTSOG
Sergeant
Sergeant
 
Posts: 555
Victoria

Re: Foxes: The Return

Post by NTSOG » 18 Apr 2021, 12:53 pm

Since I started this topic on 12th. April I've shot four foxes just on the back 23 acres of my small property, seen another 4 too far out and too fast for me and had a number more visit my bait stations. Last night I put out bait and turned on the cameras at about 5:50, the first fox arrived at 6:47, stayed for moment and left. The next came at 7:17 and stayed to 7:29. I came out to sit up the hill from one bait station at 8:05 - about 90 yards range - and shot a dog that came out of the bush to the south at about 8:45. After I left for bed another blighter turned up at 10:26 and stayed to 10:30. At the same time another fox was at my other bait station. Action ceased until 6:04 this morning when another one came and stayed to 6:16 AM looking for left-overs.

I have been out and about most evenings through summer on my place and other properties and had the cameras set 90% of the time with bait out yet there were few foxes seen by me or caught on camera until 11th. April. [Brinny obviously has some good hunting spots to be able to get so many, but I can't shoot what I can't see.]

As an aside a shooter who lives 6 miles or so south of me and who was often seeing and shooting foxes on his farm now sees none. The managers of the pine plantations around his area laid baits in the pines and foxes, as my acquaintance said, 'disappeared over night'.

Jim
NTSOG
Sergeant
Sergeant
 
Posts: 555
Victoria

Re: Foxes: The Return

Post by Stu222 » 23 May 2021, 2:26 pm

Hi Gents,

If anyone could be bothered to strip them off I’d appreciate a few fox tails to tan.

I’m in Sunbury and can travel to collect.

Pic attached of one stretched out I shot outside Bendigo on the weekend with the ravenswood crew. The next ones I’ll try soaking in metho instead of salting.

Thanks and cheers,

Stu
Stu222
Recruit
Recruit
 
Posts: 21
Victoria

Re: Foxes: The Return

Post by ZaineB » 23 May 2021, 7:54 pm

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.


I havent even been that proactive, havent ventured off of three properties and I have shot dozens of them since end of feb, early feb I went to a mates farm where they lamb all year and shot 9 in one paddock and there were 4 more that got away as I shot the others.

vic must be having a drought on the sods, which isnt all too bad, but with mouse plagues taking place there are sure to be a spike with breeding season upon us.
ZaineB
Corporal
Corporal
 
Posts: 463
Other

Re: Foxes: The Return

Post by ZaineB » 23 May 2021, 7:57 pm

Oldbloke wrote:I'm puzzled too. Last 6 months hardly seen any, maybe 5 sightings, only shot 1. :roll: :thumbsdown: 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.



I dont find they go off the whistle here, they are already mated up here and I already dispatched a pair that had dug a den across the road, Ive noticed that you lads are always talking about cubs around xmas and jan, we see them here around sept.

maybe try some different predator calls, Ive found button whistles are almost completely useless here all year.
ZaineB
Corporal
Corporal
 
Posts: 463
Other

Re: Foxes: The Return

Post by ZaineB » 23 May 2021, 7:58 pm

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.....



are you getting the bounty? keeping pelts? why the heck would you freeze the stinking things?

edit: nvm noticed above,

on the subject of baits, we have thrown them around plenty here but never stops the flow of foxes coming in, once all the baits are gone its less than a week and all the usual hidey spots are occupied by them again, its got so routine that I have at least 30 places I can go weekly and get a minimum of 20 foxes, sometimes no one is home but usually there is sign that they are or have been there very recently.
ZaineB
Corporal
Corporal
 
Posts: 463
Other

Re: Foxes: The Return

Post by Tiger650 » 23 May 2021, 10:00 pm

Last Wednesday on the Coach Rd between Morven and Gerogery I saw eight hanging off a boundary fence, pretty sure they had help getting there.
Tiger650
Corporal
Corporal
 
Posts: 451
Victoria

Re: Foxes: The Return

Post by Skinna » 24 May 2021, 6:43 pm

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. :drinks:
Skinna
Lance Corporal
Lance Corporal
 
Posts: 240
South Australia

Re: Foxes: The Return

Post by ZaineB » 24 May 2021, 7:33 pm

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. :drinks:



oh they die alright, but my experience for over 30 years tells me that all the media represented scientists on the matter of foxes are completely incorrect. they move around, have much smaller territories, are not likely to move on other foxes nearby (within couple hundred meters), do not ward off others (avoiding a buildup of foxes in one area).

foxes are real simple, is there cover? is there food? these are the only two things they give a crap about, if there is a lot of both, there are a lot of foxes, that simple.

I kill dozens here regularly as does my cousin 30km away, he has shot 512 this year alone on his property and the one adjacent (total 5000 acres). He is more proactive than me, this year in total I might have shot 120+ on around the same amount of ground but have not been out spotlighting nearly as much as he has.

foxes breed well in cover, fallen trees, logs, creeks, bullrushes, disused hay bale stacks, old sheds, burrows, dens, under houses, in drainage culverts, etc etc etc, they dont need some perfect storm of habitat, they dont need a specific food source and they dont need vacant territory.

so many times I have seen "scientists" in articles and newspieces and soundbites and full feature length shows, crapping on about foxes needing KM's worth of unoccupied territory, no competition, specific ground to dig/burrow/den in. right down to weather and everything.

you can shoot them out, but my experience, thru baiting and shooting enthusiastically and rigorously, is that as soon as you cease the battle they immediately return.
ZaineB
Corporal
Corporal
 
Posts: 463
Other

Re: Foxes: The Return

Post by Die Judicii » 24 May 2021, 8:21 pm

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


No,,,,, but I did,,, in Qld,,,, with my .308.
Had little bits of glowing white in about a 3" diameter circle. :lol:
I do not fear death itself... Only its inopportune timing!
I've come to realize that,,,,, the two most loving, loyal, and trustworthy females in my entire life were both canines.
User avatar
Die Judicii
Colonel
Colonel
 
Posts: 3706
Queensland

Re: Foxes: The Return

Post by Die Judicii » 24 May 2021, 8:29 pm

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. :drinks:


Well, what a profound statement,,,,,,,,,,,, I nearly laughed I did,,, :sarcasm:
I do not fear death itself... Only its inopportune timing!
I've come to realize that,,,,, the two most loving, loyal, and trustworthy females in my entire life were both canines.
User avatar
Die Judicii
Colonel
Colonel
 
Posts: 3706
Queensland

Re: Foxes: The Return

Post by brinny » 25 May 2021, 7:27 pm

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.....



are you getting the bounty? keeping pelts? why the heck would you freeze the stinking things?


I have shot over 300 so far this year....and at $10 per scalp....thats over $3,000.....thats why i bother to freeze them.....And they are in the same freezer as my sambar and red capes....as well as some 9 pound yellow belly that i caught and waiting to get mounted....and not to mention the wild dog strips i have in there as well.....so i am running the freezer anyway....in case you were going to ask why i just dont peg them to dry....
A day without a hunt, is a day lost.....
User avatar
brinny
Corporal
Corporal
 
Posts: 302
Victoria

Re: Foxes: The Return

Post by Blr243 » 25 May 2021, 8:21 pm

That sort of freezer sounds like a very dedicated man fridge that a woman would never ever think about going anywhere near it ......
Blr243
Brigadier
Brigadier
 
Posts: 4479
Queensland

Re: Foxes: The Return

Post by NTSOG » 02 Jun 2021, 7:16 am

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.

Returning to my original subject of 'foxes returning' I have noticed that as the number of mice around the house and sheds and seen in the paddocks with the thermal viewer has dropped with the onset of really cold, even freezing weather, the number of foxes coming to my bait stations on my property has increased greatly even though I am knocking off a couple a week. Generally my trail cameras are capturing multiple series of photos of foxes from 6:00 PM through to 6:00 AM. How many are of the same fox returning multiple times of a night I can't tell, but more keep coming even as I shoot them. We had more mice than normal over summer, though not to plague proportions like up north.

Jim
NTSOG
Sergeant
Sergeant
 
Posts: 555
Victoria

Re: Foxes: The Return

Post by brinny » 02 Jun 2021, 8:13 pm

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



I feel your pain and have had a similar experience Jim.....
Some years ago, before i retired, i was an earthmoving contractor....and had quite a staff working for me.....
In quieter times like winter, now and again to keep my operators going through the quiet times, those that wanted to, i would bring home to my place and they would do odd jobs around the place....
and those that really stuffed up, would have to clean my shed out as punishment..... :D :D
This particular year i missed the last bounty collection date, and had just over 100 scalps in the freezer.....
Somehow, for reasons only known to them, whoever was cleaning the shed out, switched the freezer off....and it must have been off for quite some time....as when i went to add scalps to it....when i lifted the lid, the smell near knocked me off my feet...was the worst i have come across.....
A bloke was on his hands and knees barking at the ground.....
As a result, i lost over a thousand dollars in scalps, plus what i had for breakfast that morning.....
No one did ever own up to turning it off either..... :thumbsdown: :thumbsdown:
A day without a hunt, is a day lost.....
User avatar
brinny
Corporal
Corporal
 
Posts: 302
Victoria

Re: Foxes: The Return

Post by animalpest » 03 Jun 2021, 9:08 pm

I have successfully kept an area of 900 square km fox free for 6 years. It can be done
Professional shooter and trapper
Trainer and consultant
animalpest
Warrant Officer C2
Warrant Officer C2
 
Posts: 1025
Western Australia

Next

Back to top
 
Return to Hunting - Varminting and vertebrate pest control