I Fed A Red Fox Today :)

[Cholo]

I have a Remington 581 .22 I bought in '76. I had the barrel cut to 18", and a trigger job, right after I bought it. It's been a killing machine! Since I moved into my house in Jan. of '81, it's been by my back door alongside CCI CB Longs. I always gave squirrels a pass even though they ruined a high $ bird feeder and even found a way into my roof. When my middle daughter lived here she put a large potted plant of strawberries on the rail of the back porch that she got from her Mom. We never got more than 2 because the squirrels were always in them, I mean literally sitting in the pot! Enough! :x

Now, I've never had this many strawberries!

I also have a large Hickory tree in the backyard that I hang my bird feeders from. Since Nov. I've killed about 35 of those tree rats. I didn't even bother picking them up and throwing them in the woods. They always just disappeared in a day or 2. One squirrel had escaped 2 assassination attempts. At 12:00 today he didn't fare so well Unfortunately, he didn't expire in my yard but limped into my neighbor's yard. Great! They weren't home so I went over and threw it into the woods behind my house.

I looked out about 30 min. later and saw a scrawny as hell small red fox in my grass backyard on the path of the rats demise. I love seeing fox! It lost the trail where it scurried from my yard into the neighbor's. I'm thinking: No wonder you're starving to death when a meal is less than 10' away. The fox hung a left and went behind some honeysuckle. I decided to wait, and he comes back and snatches his lunch. It happened too quickly to take a pic. He must have been new to the area. I've kept the critters well fed these last 7 months :mrgreen:

My kitchen sniper bench, where an eating table would be for a married man

 

[Bear Paw Jack]

Excellent story. Thanks for sharing. I'm sure you have a new friend in the fox.

 

[kmoore]

Just me but, I will not kill a fox or bobcat. I am not against those that do. Just seeing them is cool and for me rarely happens. Up til around 30 years ago the local wildlife area had many fox's, now just coyotes. Those I do kill when possible.

 

[pisgah]

Just me but, I will not kill a fox or bobcat. I am not against those that do. Just seeing them is cool and for me rarely happens. Up til around 30 years ago the local wildlife area had many fox's, now just coyotes. Those I do kill when possible.

Interesting to note -- the red fox is an imported invasive species, while the coyote is native to North America. Around here, both are extremely common, although most folks never see either one.

 

[375supermag]

Just me but, I will not kill a fox or bobcat. I am not against those that do. Just seeing them is cool and for me rarely happens. Up til around 30 years ago the local wildlife area had many fox's, now just coyotes. Those I do kill when possible.

Interesting to note -- the red fox is an imported invasive species, while the coyote is native to North America. Around here, both are extremely common, although most folks never see either one.

My understanding is that the red fox has been in North America for about 400,000 years.
I doubt that qualifies as an invasive species.

 

[gramps]

Good going Cholo!
gramps

 

[pisgah]

Just me but, I will not kill a fox or bobcat. I am not against those that do. Just seeing them is cool and for me rarely happens. Up til around 30 years ago the local wildlife area had many fox's, now just coyotes. Those I do kill when possible.

Interesting to note -- the red fox is an imported invasive species, while the coyote is native to North America. Around here, both are extremely common, although most folks never see either one.

My understanding is that the red fox has been in North America for about 400,000 years.
I doubt that qualifies as an invasive species.

There's disagreement. The recent suggestion is that some of their forbears migrated early, but genetic evidence shows that the red foxes of today are mainly of European origin and come from animals imported in the early colonial period. The for-sure native fox is the gray, having shown up roughly 3.5 million years ago.

 

[Colonialgirl]

I use my Ruger 0.177 air rifle to clear out the tree rats; Reckon my count so far is about 10 of them. The cats next door do steal them away when they hit the ground. I do hate the Doves; just greedy pigs in feathers like vacuum cleaners on the deck railing where I put out the bird seed.

 

[kmoore]

I did not know the history of Red fox. We have both Red and Gray and both listed with trapping seasons. We have a bunch of creatures on invasive lists. I doubled checked ODFW and it lists 3 subspecies of red fox in Oregon of which 2 are native. Anyway I have only seen 1 red fox in the wild.

 

[gregs45auto]

You have a great rifle. I have a Remington 582 (tube feed) that is very accurate. Used it on rock chucks in Idaho. Switched to a 223 to extend my range. greg

 

[Mus408]

Great work helping the food chain! We see a fox or two around our place too.

 

[Taterman]

Nice job feeding him Cholo. I fed two red foxes fresh chipmunks most of last year. I love see them around and they help keep the mouse population down.
One of the foxes (the male) only had one eye, so I was happy seeing him eat the chipmunks since he probably had a rough life and tough time catching meals. Here's a few picks, they come right on our back porch. It's an 8'x8' slab.

 

[Cholo]

Yup, I like that 581 so much I bought another with the 24" bbl. It barely goes pip out of that one. I have to scope it then take it to the range. I get them all inside an inch at 25 yds. with my old 581. I hope the 24" does as well. It's been a feast year for all the night time critters.

I'm down to 15 of my old CB longs. I've heard the new ones aren't as consistent, I'll see. The 40 gr. Quiets look promising. Another one that shoot about the same as my old CB Longs is the Winchester CB-Match LRN's Longs at 770 fps compared to 710 for all the current low powered CCI's. I love a .22; so many option :mrgreen:

PS: Taterman, the one yesterday was all skin and bones, poor hunter. I think it's the one I saw with the mama about 3 weeks ago at dusk. What a meal that freshly killed bore must have been!

 

[Taterman]

Cool! We've fed them leftover fish, steak, chicken, some scallops that got freezer burnt, fruit... they even eat bread. Haven't seen one in months though. I think the coyotes and coy wolves got them.

 

[Tom W]

I've had two,at different times, run up to me. Once while I was hunting, once when I
Had a yard full of guests. Neither survived.