Shooting Times & Country Magazine
Unlock your potential
Having snatched lambs, a fox books itself an appointment with a long-range bullet — but would you take the shot, asks Mark Ripley
Isipped the last of the coffee from my flask in an attempt to return some warmth to my fingers, as well as the rest of my body. I was sitting — and shivering — on the side of the steep bank that overlooked the lambing field. The sun was just beginning to rise and would soon take the chill out of the cold
April morning.
From where I sat, I could see the entire lambing field. For the past two hours, the ewes had lain close to their lambs in the corner nearest to me, tucked into the bottom of the bank out of any wind.
All had remained calm until a pair of magpies began to chatter on the edge of a patch of thick gorse bushes below me. I noticed the ewe closest to the cover stand up and stare intently at the bushes. A pair of rabbits feeding near the fence line quickly dashed a few yards into the field and stood on their hind legs, alert and looking for danger.
I was already watching the area after I noticed the blackbirds starting to give their ‘pink, pink, pink’ alarm call a couple of minutes earlier. By the reactions of the rabbits, the ewe and the magpies, I knew that a predator was on the edge of the cover below me.
As always on these open downland hills, I had my rangefinding binoculars with me and took a range with their built-in laser to the standing ewe —
230 yards.
Looking for lambs
As a couple more ewes stood up nearby and called for their lambs to huddle in close, I knew this had to be the fox I’d been waiting for, the one that had taken two other healthy lambs over the past few days and always from this large field. Suddenly it was there among the ewes, trotting purposefully through the flock, its head turning with each lamb that ducked behind its mother.
This wasn’t a big dog fox as
I’d imagined but a small scragglylooking animal that I assumed would be a vixen. I desperately hoped it would come toward me but instead it trotted further out across the field.
When it was finally clear of the tightly grouped ewes, it stopped and sat watching them, waiting for the opportunity of an easy meal. I ranged the fox at 335 yards and knew that if I moved down the bank towards it, it would either see me or the sheep would panic and run away from me. This would either scare the fox or separate the ewes from their young, leaving them vulnerable.
Foxes have an uncanny knack of sitting out of range where they feel comfortable and this one clearly felt safe — but it wasn’t.
I adjusted the scope for elevation, checked the wind, levelled the scope, adjusted the small rear bag beneath the butt of the custom-built rifle and leaned into the bipod as I’d done thousands of times at the range.
With a squeeze of the trigger
I sent a hand-loaded 143-gr 6.5mm
bullet on its way and watched it impact squarely in the centre of the fox’s chest, knocking it backwards in a heap.
The killing of what proved to be a small mangy dog fox marked an end to the lamb losses, but it hadn’t been the first and it won’t be the last.
Opportunist
Every spring, with large flocks of sheep on open hillsides giving birth, the inevitable will happen and the opportunist fox will strike. Once this happens, a fox will quickly catch on to this new, easy, all-you-can-eat buffet until it’s stopped.
It’s from situations like this, and on the type of ground I shoot over, that I have adapted my shooting as well as my kit. This means I can take shots like that and beyond.
The subject of long-range shooting, particularly of live game, is one that will always be met with mixed opinions. For some it will be a fascinating dark art, while to others it will be quickly frowned upon as ‘cruel potshots’.
In truth, the rifle is a longrange tool designed for that
purpose, unlike a shotgun, which is designed for close range. Yet I always find it bemusing why a high bird at the extremes of a shotgun’s range is considered sporting, while anything over 100 yards with a rifle is considered unsporting. A rifle is capable of humane kills many times that when used correctly.
Trajectory
Like the lead on a shotgun’s swing, the trajectory of a rifle bullet also needs to be correctly plotted to connect with a target, which is more about correct data than skill.
If you have done your homework correctly, the trajectory of a bullet can be easily and accurately predicted.
The biggest variable is the wind.
This is where skill comes in and is something that you never master but can only get better at.
Like any type of shooting of live quarry, only you can decide what is realistically likely to result in a humane shot. You should always take shots that are in your own capabilities. A shot at perhaps 300 yards could be a fairly straightforward humane shot on a nice calm day when you have time to prepare. However, one at 70 yards resting on a gate post in a howling gale could result in an injured animal. Only you know what your capabilities are.
The key to consistently accurate shots at longer ranges is good equipment and ammunition, good shooting technique and practice.
Close range
It doesn’t take much to shoot accurately with a good set-up at long range — it’s no different to shooting accurately at close range. I recently took two people out shooting, one an experienced shooter who only shoots within about 200m, the other a young lad who had only shot a few times before.
We set up a target at 500m with a 13mph crosswind. I dialled the adjustments into the scope then let each of the two shooters try for the target. With a little prior instruction on the basics of long-range shots, both of them connected with the target on their second shots.
Long-range shooting is based on a scientific calculation — rather than merely a wild guess. I’m sure there are those shooters who will “have a go at it” or “just aim a little higher”. But these are the shots that are likely to at best miss or at worst cause injury to an animal.
Comfort zone
If you are going to shoot beyond your comfort zone, that’s fine, but do your homework on ballistics and finetune your skills on the range before considering shooting anything live.
The internet and Youtube have a wealth of information on long-range and precision rifle shooting. You can amass a good deal of knowledge and skill through research on ballistics, wind reading and shooting technique, as well as finding the best rifles and equipment for the purpose.
For hands-on practice and tuition, there are a couple of venues in Wales offering long-range shooting practice days on reactive steel targets, which are extremely fun and informative.
This is a great way to find out what your foxing or stalking rifle is really capable of and to see exactly what your capabilities are. One thing I would suggest to anyone going on these courses is to take plenty of ammunition — 100 rounds can quickly disappear once you get into it.
Even if you have no real intention of frequently taking long shots, it’s always nice to have the experience
“A fox will quickly catch on to a new allyou-can-eat buffet until it’s stopped”
and the knowledge there, just in case you need it.
A friend of mine was shooting in Scotland and shot a red hind at around 150 yards. For some reason, the shot didn’t have the desired effect and the injured animal ran some distance before it finally stopped.
My mate confidently took a followup shot on it at just short of 400 yards and despatched it. Though this wasn’t a shot he would usually take, he did have the ability to take it when the situation required.
Shooting at longer ranges also has the advantage of boosting your skills and confidence on closerrange targets. So why not unlock the potential of your rifle by booking a day at the range and improving your shooting skills?