PERFECT SHOT

While out foxing one early summer evening, I was waiting for a problem fox to break cover. I’d received a call from a farmer for whom I frequently control foxes. He’d been seeing a fox around teatime in one of the fields where he has his free-range hens. The farmer had told me that as soon as the fox was aware of his presence it would take off, always heading in the same direction, disappearing into when he caught himself retrieving a cock pheasant over a barbed-wire fence.

Since then I have actively discouraged my dogs from jumping obstacles and I now ensure that I am ‘busy’ when I get invites to work my dog a thick wooded area. So at least I knew where I was going to lay in wait for Charlie to break cover. The weather on this particular evening was very unsettled. So when I was presented with this view,

I was the first to break cover and with a well-placed shot — from my camera for a change — I took this photo and well pleased I was with it too. It was the following evening that I took care of the problem fox. C A Mcclarence,

County Durham on a couple of shoots that are renowned barbed-wire black spots. I’d rather keep my dog safe for boring, mundane retrieves than risk its future health by playing to the gallery. Kerri-louise Chamberlain, by email

Better than a fox — Colin Mcclarence’s perfect shot