Fox Hunting 101

Important Information For Hunters Who Plan On Hunting Foxes At Night With A Predator Call And A Light.

There are five things you should know before you go:

1. The laws and regulations of the state you are hunting in.

2. What kind of gun you should use for foxes.

3. What kind of light should you use, and how you use it,

4. How to set up for the hunt, placement of you, the light and the caller.

5. Where to shoot the fox.

The laws and regulations of the state you are hunting in.

This is the first and most important thing you need to learn before hunting. Each state has different seasons and regulations for hunting foxes. I cannot stress enough how important it is to know all of the rules before hunting. Believe it or not, when you start firing guns off at 10 pm, lots of people become immediately concerned. To find your state's seasons and regulations go to Google and search, your state DNR (Example: "MD DNR"). Now, look for the link to their homepage and click it. (If you like hunting, press CTRL + D once you’re on their homepage and that will bookmark the site for you). I have been to 4 different DNR websites and found out that they are all unique, so I can't help you through the site. But here are a few key words to look for when navigating: Hunting/trapping, Furbearer, Seasons/ bag limits, and Regulations. Make sure you know all the rules before going out hunting!

What gun should be used to hunt fox?

We take three guns with us when we go out: a .17 HMR, a .17 Fireball, .243 Win. Sometimes we take a shotgun as well. If allowed, any rifle you are comfortable shooting will work. We try to stay with a small caliber in order to minimize the damage to the fox's fur when we shoot it. Now, if you just want to kill it because it ate your chickens, then any gun you can hit an apple with at 100 yards will work great. We kill most of our foxes with the .17 HMR because the ammo is cheap and the gun is quiet and very accurate. The .17 fireball is for the foxes that stop coming in to the call and get hung up 200 yards out. This is our 100-300 yard gun. The ammo, when compared to the HMR, is more expensive and harder to find. The gun is also louder than the HMR and needs cleaned every 5 shots, but it’s deadly accurate up to 300 yards. Now, the .243 is for coyotes. Coyotes are pretty sparse where we hunt, but we always hope to get a shot at one. There is a state park close by and we love to hunt it for fox, but you are required to use only a shotgun when hunting in this park (Again, know your regulations!). With that in mind we use a 3" cartridge with #4 buckshot- it is expensive, but it works. Many people like to use a .22 caliber rifle to hunt fox, and they work great as well.

Once you have your rifle, you need a rest for it. On our .17, we use a retractable bi-pod that mounts on the gun. The bi-pod allows the gun to be out and already pointed towards the fox when he comes in, thus minimizing your movement during the most crucial time of the hunt. It also holds the gun steady, increasing the accuracy of the gun when shooting a long distance.

What kind of light to use and how to use it.

You want the brightest red spotlight you can find that is mobile and cannot leak white light out the side of the light. In the past, we used a Light Force spotlight with a bag full of lead acid batteries. That bag weighed about 20lbs and the batteries lasted about 20 minutes. This year we switched to a lighter, smaller, slightly dimmer light. The batteries last about an hour and weigh less than a pound. I definitely recommend this light to any predator hunter. Check it out: Kill Light XLR250 "Pro Package" Gun Mounted Night Hunting Light with Charger and Batteries by Elusive Wildlife Technologies It’s a little pricey, but well worth it.

Now what to do with this light once you have it. Before entering the field you plan to hunt, you should shine it. When I say shine it I mean turn the light on and project a beam of light across the horizon (where the sky meets the ground) slowly and steadily looking for any animals that might already be in the field. Once you are set up and start calling, shine the field whenever you think there is a fox. Normally we shine every 2-5 minutes, depending how close the caller is to cover- the closer it is the more we shine it, in fear a fox will come out of the cover and make us before we even see it. Now, once you find eyes, stay on them until you can shoot them. Don’t worry about scaring the fox with the light. Shining a red light at a fox at night is like me shining a flashlight at you during the day.

Once the fox comes close enough for you to see it in the scope, you need to VERIFY YOUR TARGET before you shoot anything. This is always important, but especially at night. I cannot stress this point enough. Lots of animals are out at night and will respond to the calls; you don’t want to shoot the wrong one, like the farmer's kitty cat or a lost dog! After shooting a fox, it is important to keep the light on it until it goes down. Things to remember: you can see a fox's eyes from an extremely long distance when light is reflected off them, be sure to check the edges of the cover really well in case the fox is hiding back in the cover, VERIFY YOUR TARGET before shooting, and never shine the light on you or the people you're hunting with while shining the field.

How to set up for the hunt, placement of the shooter, the light and the caller.

Ok I had to draw a diagram for this one. Keep in mind foxes will always go down wind of their prey, this means you should always keep a close eye on the downwind side of the caller. Always set up so you are crosswind with the caller, try to keep your scent to a minimum and away from where you expect the foxes to come from. Keep the caller about 100 yards from the woods and 50 yards from the hunters, this will give you a chance to shoot the fox before it reaches the caller.

If you’re the one with the light it is important that you sit as close to the shooter as possible, remember that the foxes eyes reflect the light you are shining back at you not the shooter so if you are too far away from the shooter with the light they will never see the fox coming in.

Know where to shoot the fox.

This part is easy. Shooting a fox is like shooting a deer, you aim right behind the shoulder. Of course any other vital area will work too, but behind the shoulder does less damage to the pelt. One last thing to remember: MAKE SURE IT IS A FOX (aka VERIFY YOUR TARGET).