, what with getting married, going on honeymoons, parents building a new house and me being a joiner having to work at it for them for free at nights, this week finally saw me with some free time to get out shooting as i had 2 days off work for halloween.I started off yesterday with just going out and shooting some targets to make sure I was up to speed and that the rifles were zeroed ok. After that I headed up to a farm way up on the mountain side near the Mountains of Mourne, this farm is heaven, no houses and loads of foxes only problem is its hard ground to work over but last year it was hit real hard with no less that nine lambs killed so I have to do my best, I already cleared 2 dens of cubs and there parents here in the summer but the place is still hiving.
Saw my first fox within about 5 mins of getting into the first field, only problem was he was running away from me, he got through the next hedge and just sat looking through the wire at me at about 80 yards. Easy shot only problem was he was slightly uphill and while there was plenty of mountain side behind him for a backstop I couldnt make out if there was any livestock grazing on the the mountain side as there sometimes is. So I had to leave the shot, I didnt bother calling him as I had his type pretty well sussed, he was the type that always stays 100 yards or so in front of you so I just slowly moved up to the hedge line where he had been looking at me from and got settled in with the rifle leaning over a very loose bit of wire fence, flicked on the lamp and sure enough there he was out in the middle of the field about 60 yards away, I lifted the rifle to take the shot but couldnt see anyhting, took me a moment to realise I hadnt flicked up the lens cap
, he ran on abit but stopped again at about 120 yards and while the losse wire wasnt the best rest I made sure of it with a shot to the upper front chest 
. On inspection he was a resonable size dog fox maybe 3 years old.I moved on then and went down onto lower ground, I had only just got down when I spotted a fox sitting watching me at about 90 yards up on the hill side, no need for calling this one, straight down on the bipod and and a 40g v-max cut its way through the young vixens chest.
By the time I dragged this fox back to the jeep I was beat and ready for home but couldnt resist a last shine across the side of the mountian, sure enough it lit up a pair of eyes about 300 yards away in a field with cattle, I could have shot it from where i was but wanted to get closer. It took a while to get in a better position but when I finally did there was no sign of the fox, I gave a quick sueak on the colt wooden caller and a pair of eyes lit up about 180 yards away, I was finding it hard to keep this ones attention though and had to keep calling to get it to look around while it was walking up the field, in the end I got it stopped long enough to get the shot and it folded straight up with another clean kill. Another vixen in good condition probably this years cub.
All in all a good nites work and the farmer was happy though there are still plenty of them left, this one was one part of the higher ground farm, thre is still another lower part that needs attention. It felt great to be back out, I recently also bought a jeep which is a great help in getting me a bit closer to where I need to be.
The bag (the big dog fox is in the middle)
I got out this morning also for some corvid control, it didnt go as well as planned (I was after maggies) but managed this greyback crow at 80 yards with the .22lr (a greyback is worth 3 maggies in my eyes anyhow :blush: ) even though I didnt get much I enjoyed msyelf and didnt realise how much I missed being out and about.
