Remember Last Season??

[Timmyj1959@yahoo.com]

Been pretty slow around here lately,, Im looking forward to "Good Ole" huntin season!!Man I cant wait,,, postiing pics. from last year is cheating for shure,, just had to bring one up from the "Archives" To try & keep up with my Buddys!!LOL!! I am a hunter,, always have been,, For the most part,, "Good people" dont change,,, so be it,,,,,,, I hope to get another Fox this year,, maybee I will use more than 14 ft.lbs.,, maybee extend the range beond 15 yrds,????? Time will tell.,,,,,,,, Tim.

[Big_Bill]

Nice going Tim,

That's one nice Red Fox !!!

Good Shootin and very nice photo of your trophy :-)

Bill

[Progun]

Hey Tim, I can relate. In fact I think I know just how you feel. When I was a youngster I grew up in an environment where every adult male I knew was a hunter. My father,grandfather, uncles etc. were all small game hunters. Quail,Doves,rabbits and especially squirrels were the focus of our attention and conversation from September thru February.This was before we had huntable numbers of whitetail deer which we have now in abundance. Back in the early to mid sixties the only deer stories I had available came from Field and Stream, Outdoor Life and Sports Afield.Well all of that exposure fueled my dreams and I wanted to grow up fast so I could accompany the older men  on "THE HUNT".I had plenty of mentors and the lessons took. It's been forty one years since I used my first gun a Mossberg 20 ga. bolt action to kill my first squirrel. The first deer didn't come until I was a sophomore in college in '74. If I live to be 300 years old I expect I will still (Lord willing) be a hunter.Just like you air gun bud.That is a nice fox pic I want you to know.If you can kill one with an air rifle you are in high cotton! If you can get a winter kill when the pelt is prime it would sure make a nice taxidermy speciman especially with no pelt damage  from an air rifle pellet. I have a Red and Grey mounted that I took in my shotgun years that sits among the eight mounted deer shoulder mounts and 30 fish mounts in my office. (Becoming a hunter also inspired me to become a taxidermist).Tim, you just keep right on sharing your pic's and stories. I am with you in spirit.I guess we both eagerly await the beginning of hunting season.

[shadow]

That's a nice fox for sure Tim, shooter too. I'm hoping to atlast get out of town and head up to the stick's myself but everytime something comes up.:( I still have all my camp gear packed lol. Ed

[longislandhunter]

That pic certainly got my hunting blood flowing Tim  !!  Beautiful animal and an air gun kill to be proud of for sure  !!  :)

Some of my best memories as a boy are of me and my dad slowly walking through the squirrel woods, shotguns in hand, scanning the trees for signs of movement.  Some days we'd do well, some days we'd get skunked  but it never mattered.  Those hunting trips and the many that followed as I grew up are priceless to me.  My dad is confined to a wheel chair now due to poor health and can't hunt anymore, but he often talks about all the times we spent in the woods hunting and how much he enjoyed it.  

Anyway, I got off topic, sorry,,,   Beautiful pic Tim,,,,  I"m lookin forward to the pics I know you'll be postin once hunting season arrives  !!!   :)

Jeff

[fatback]

Very impressive Timmy!!! A trophy to be proud of especially with an air gun. what caliber did you take him with?

[gamo2hammerli]

Coooool.....I never thought an air gun would be powerful enough to take out a fox. Very good head shot.

[only1harry]

Great shot Tim!!  What a nice trophy!  I 'm drewling..  :)  

Yeppers, that's a .177 there folks.  As long as the range is reasonable the 14fpe 34 Panther has the power to do it.  All you probably need is 1.5" or so of penetration, 2" at the very most.  Once it's passed the skull bone, it's all vitals in the head after that.  The fox skull is probably similar to a racoon's, except it has a longer nose.  The big difference with a fox is the thick neck - the neck muscles so it can grab and hold on to its prey while it's fighting to get loose, similar to a wolf's neck.  I 'd refrain from shooting them there.  I 've seen a g-hog maniacally fight and twist and turn like something is attacking it after getting hit with a pellet (one that obviously didn't hit the brain directly), so I can see why foxes, which are the g-hog's main predator after man, would have such a strong neck structure, so it doesn't snap its neck from the violent movements of such "large" small game prey like a 12+lb g-hog or a big feral or house cat.    

I wonder why a fox would come so close to your house?  Do you have a lot of rodents around Tim or did you leave some meat out?  Perhaps it was after your cat or small dog that it had spotted running around your yard.  

I see 2 foxes (male/female) always together at night about 1/4-1/2mi. from here all the time crossing the road and heading for woods or coming out of them.  I also saw one run into a farm a couple of miles down the road in the neighboring rural town.  They look pretty :)  Similar size to yours with nice bushy tails.  I was thinking of leaving some meat out to bait them last year during hunting season, but I decided against it because I didn't want to attract skunks.  I had a few of those.  I figure the foxes do their part by going after the rodents and other undesireable critters.. but if I caught any of them eye-balling my g-hogs, then that would be competition for the same prey, and I 'd attempt to take them out :-)

Speaking of skunks, all my skunks are gone!  I haven't seen one in over a year.  There used to be 2 different pairs of skunks crossing my lawn every night at 9pm.  One of them even got trapped in my garage by accident when I closed the door one night.  Found him in the morning after I heard some noises in the garage.  Scared the crap out of me.  He was trying to get into the house everytime I opened the hallway door to try to reach the garage button!  I eventually got to the electric button and opened the door and he got out.  Thank god he didn't spray inside the garage!  But they are all gone now!  They always hung out near my spruce and I 'd see them going under my cars in the driveway when I pulled up at night.  I wonder if that pair of foxes got to them.  The skunks used to have a litter of young ones every year with them.  OH well I 'm glad they are gone but this tells me the foxes probably had something to do with it, or a coyote perhaps, which is fine by me.