Time to start — but on bunnies
To give yourself the best chance with foxes, set your sights and practice on the rabbits in daylight first before trying to shoot in darkness, advises Patrick Hook Patrick’s Top Tips
We’ve now got the rifle set up but the stage between this and shooting your first foxes must not be rushed — which it commonly is. The problem is that getting this important step wrong risks either wounding your quarry or missing it and adversely educating it. Now is the time to take stock and do things properly.
Hopefully, it’s obvious that for ethical reasons an inadequately prepared gun should never be used on live quarry. While our intention here is to get you on the foxes as soon as possible, I suggest that you start out by shooting a few rabbits. This is not because they are any less deserving of our respect but because they tend to sit nice and still, whereas few foxes stop moving for very long. You can take your time and make sure that everything is right before squeezing the trigger.
Shoulder arms
By all means, do this in daylight — the point is to practise all the simple things such as making sure the scope magnification is at the right level when you bring the rifle up to your shoulder.
Another factor that is often overlooked is having your rest at the right height. Regardless of whether you use sticks, a bipod, a bag, or whatever to settle the gun on, the cross- hairs must still be at the right
“Make sure that everything is right before squeezing the trigger”
• If you don’t like to remove the bolt from your rifle when it goes into the cabinet, leave it open. It is impossible to accidentally shoot yourself or anyone else when putting it away when it’s in this state. • Though you may have plenty of time when ambushing a fox on bait, it can be a different matter using a caller. Your quarry may come rushing in at speed from a totally unexpected direction and, while town foxes won’t be spooked by human scent, country ones will be. You need to have everything — your stance, the scope’s magnification, its focus, the night- vision illuminator’s brightness, and so on — ready. The procedure should be: see the fox, get your reticle on it and squeeze the trigger. Endless adjustments will cost you the fox. • If the foxes are troubling your pheasant pen and you want to put a stop to it, before you go wading in with your new rifle, step back for a moment to ensure that you have the best chance of success. • Since they tend to sit still more than foxes and there are more of them, it’s a good idea to practice on rabbits. If you have set up your rifle properly and can shoot straight, there should be no issues. • When shooting off sticks (or any rest), getting your eye- level right is critical, especially if your quarry is a long way out. Your stance is also important – as you can see here, I like to brace the rest with my left arm. • Having your rifle slung across your back is by far the best way to carry it any distance. Getting it into position is potentially hazardous though, especially in the dark, as it’s only too easy to swing the muzzle past those accompanying you without realising it. Practice makes perfect — another reason to spend some time on the rabbits.