Is it legal to shoot a fox on your own land?

[Lefty Guns]

GingerWizard said:

NO i am not telling people to shoot foxs with an air rifle. Although its making me laugh my back side off right now, i am not suggesting that people should do this!

It does happen though. Bloody cretins

Air rifles are useful for taking woodies out of trees and short-range rabbits but that's about it.

[NobleLord]

Exige77 said:

I Had same problem.

Don't waste your time with a shot gun. Buy or borrow a fox trap. Set it up near the chicken coup. Camaflouge it well. Put some herring or frozen chicken inside and just wait.

The Fox knows there is a chicken there and he will be back.

Tried camping out overnight with a gun. He knows you are there.

Trap the fker and then shoot it ! Forget letting it go in a "safe place".

Once they get in to a henhouse they will kill them all.

You are quite within your rights to shoot a Fox on your land.

Good luck with it.

Ex77

NobleLord said:

I live in rural Wiltshire and have a small farm. Amongst other things, we keep hens for eggs. Two weeks ago a fox got under the electric fence (God knows how!) and killed every one of them bar a broody that was in a separate hen house with her 3 chicks.

At 6am this morning I heard the hen making a very odd noise. I looked out of the window and there was the fking fox again trying to dig under the hen house! I shouted at it and it just looked up briefly then carried on. When I went charging out there it buggered off up the fields at a leisurely pace. I suspect that, unless I take drastic action, this sodding fox will be back every day and we'll never be able to keep hens again.

So, I have a number of 12 bores (legally!) and was wondering if I'd be within my rights to hide out one morning and shoot the bloody thing as it approaches the hen house? Any legal eagles on here that might be able to help?

I have a pain in the arse neighbour (ex-copper) who'll be down on me like a ton of bricks if I do break the law!!!

Cheers,
NL

The problem is that I have 2 dogs and 2 cats that wander round the garden and will have access to the area that I place the fox trap in.

We're planning to replenish our stock of hens very soon, but don't want to do it until I've dealt with this little st.

For the record, when he came and killed them all he took 1 away and left the other 14 in the fenced area with their throats torn out. Worst of all, my 5 year old daughter was the first to see it and she treated them like pets. This is why I have very little respect for foxes any more

NL

[GingerWizard]

Lefty Guns said:

GingerWizard said:

NO i am not telling people to shoot foxs with an air rifle. Although its making me laugh my back side off right now, i am not suggesting that people should do this!

It does happen though. Bloody cretins

Air rifles are useful for taking woodies out of trees and short-range rabbits but that's about it.

Rats too, i got a fair few this weekend, need different pellets to take a woodie down properly. Bloody things are huge locally!

Shirly someone would not shoota fox with an air rifle, maybe in the eye!?

[Don]

GingerWizard said:

Shirly someone would not shoota fox with an air rifle, maybe in the eye!?

Too small a target to be reliably humane. No one (surely! I agree!) would attempt it if they knew anything at all about guns.

For a fox you need a proper rifle that requires a firearms certificate etc. That and a suitable location to take a shot with land behind the target for a miss to bury itself in etc etc. Not so easy to arrange.

[Hyperion]

You could always use a wire noose looped round where the fox enters the property.

[Sisyphus]

Go to a fancy dress shop, hire a chicken outfit & wait in the coop.
Then it's just you & the fox, mano a mano.

[Lefty Guns]

GingerWizard said:

Shirly someone would not shoota fox with an air rifle, maybe in the eye!?

You might be surprised. I was speaking to the local dog warden the other day and apparently there have been a few foxes near me shot (but not killed obviously) with air rifles recently.

I used to be a member of a shooting forum and some tts used to reckons that shooting a fox with an air rifle was OK as long as you got a headshot. Not even an FAC-rated air gun, just a 12ft/lb'er.

I wouldn't shoot anything at a fox other than a CF. I wouldn't even trust a rimfire to do it. (Although the .17 HMR is rumoured to be a decent enough round for foxing, better than .22 anyway). I suppose a shotgun with a tight choke would be OK but still, I wouldn't.

I don't own a CF, wouldn't mind though. A nice AR15 in .223 maybe

[Mr Trophy]

Get Bear Grylls round. He will catch it with his bare hands!

[Mattygooner]

Shoot him, break a window, drag him in the house and claim he broke in and tried to steal your child/dog/microwave.

[tonyvid]

Hyperion said:

You could always use a wire noose looped round where the fox enters the property.

Isn't that illegal these days? Maybe ok for rabbits but a foxsnare?

[markh1]

Lefty Guns said:

GingerWizard said:

Shirly someone would not shoota fox with an air rifle, maybe in the eye!?

You might be surprised. I was speaking to the local dog warden the other day and apparently there have been a few foxes near me shot (but not killed obviously) with air rifles recently.

I used to be a member of a shooting forum and some tts used to reckons that shooting a fox with an air rifle was OK as long as you got a headshot. Not even an FAC-rated air gun, just a 12ft/lb'er.

I wouldn't shoot anything at a fox other than a CF. I wouldn't even trust a rimfire to do it. (Although the .17 HMR is rumoured to be a decent enough round for foxing, better than .22 anyway). I suppose a shotgun with a tight choke would be OK but still, I wouldn't.

I don't own a CF, wouldn't mind though. A nice AR15 in .223 maybe

You can kill a fox with an air rifle.....

N.B. footage of fox being shot

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLwX9DxICR8

The legal limit of an air rifle is 12ft/lbs which you can use to kill a fox, however you would have to be pretty close to it. I was in a gun shop on saturday and was asking about higher power air rifles. (Which you need a fire arms liscence for) Apparently any higher than 12ft/lbs will give you greater range but not greater killing power.

[Lefty Guns]

markh1 said:

Lefty Guns said:

GingerWizard said:

Shirly someone would not shoota fox with an air rifle, maybe in the eye!?

You might be surprised. I was speaking to the local dog warden the other day and apparently there have been a few foxes near me shot (but not killed obviously) with air rifles recently.

I used to be a member of a shooting forum and some tts used to reckons that shooting a fox with an air rifle was OK as long as you got a headshot. Not even an FAC-rated air gun, just a 12ft/lb'er.

I wouldn't shoot anything at a fox other than a CF. I wouldn't even trust a rimfire to do it. (Although the .17 HMR is rumoured to be a decent enough round for foxing, better than .22 anyway). I suppose a shotgun with a tight choke would be OK but still, I wouldn't.

I don't own a CF, wouldn't mind though. A nice AR15 in .223 maybe

You can kill a fox with an air rifle.....

N.B. footage of fox being shot

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLwX9DxICR8

The legal limit of an air rifle is 12ft/lbs which you can use to kill a fox, however you would have to be pretty close to it. I was in a gun shop on saturday and was asking about higher power air rifles. (Which you need a fire arms liscence for) Apparently any higher than 12ft/lbs will give you greater range but not greater killing power.

There's no way I'd use a 12ft/lb air rifle on a fox.

I suppose you could maybe justify a .22 or .25 if it were running at around 30lb/ft but you would still want a clean headshot to guarantee a kill.

12ft/lb with .22 or .25 isn't going to give you the range you need (and it'll have a bastid of a trajectory) and .177 at 12lb/ft isn't going to have the stopping power.

[markh1]

Lefty Guns said:

markh1 said:

Lefty Guns said:

GingerWizard said:

Shirly someone would not shoota fox with an air rifle, maybe in the eye!?

You might be surprised. I was speaking to the local dog warden the other day and apparently there have been a few foxes near me shot (but not killed obviously) with air rifles recently.

I used to be a member of a shooting forum and some tts used to reckons that shooting a fox with an air rifle was OK as long as you got a headshot. Not even an FAC-rated air gun, just a 12ft/lb'er.

I wouldn't shoot anything at a fox other than a CF. I wouldn't even trust a rimfire to do it. (Although the .17 HMR is rumoured to be a decent enough round for foxing, better than .22 anyway). I suppose a shotgun with a tight choke would be OK but still, I wouldn't.

I don't own a CF, wouldn't mind though. A nice AR15 in .223 maybe

You can kill a fox with an air rifle.....

N.B. footage of fox being shot

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLwX9DxICR8

The legal limit of an air rifle is 12ft/lbs which you can use to kill a fox, however you would have to be pretty close to it. I was in a gun shop on saturday and was asking about higher power air rifles. (Which you need a fire arms liscence for) Apparently any higher than 12ft/lbs will give you greater range but not greater killing power.

There's no way I'd use a 12ft/lb air rifle on a fox.

I suppose you could maybe justify a .22 or .25 if it were running at around 30lb/ft but you would still want a clean headshot to guarantee a kill.

12ft/lb with .22 or .25 isn't going to give you the range you need (and it'll have a bastid of a trajectory) and .177 at 12lb/ft isn't going to have the stopping power.

I would personnaly not use an air rifle on a fox either. I think a smallish calibre rifle would be the ideal thing. The trouble is if you are discharging a fire arm you need usually at least 10 acres of land with no footpaths nearby. It is very difficult to get a fire arms licence.

[Ayahuasca]

Ring your local hunt, tell them you own all the land for miles around, with any luck they will turn up in full cry and charge over your neighbour's flower-beds.

[Lefty Guns]

It's not difficult to get an FAC if you can demonstrate a genuine reason for having one.

I have a rimfire as well as a fair few shotguns and I only own 6 acres. That was all the land I was cleared for when I got my FAC. True, for CF you'll need cleared for much more. I'm cleared for about 1500 acres now but don't really have need for CF.

I'd be interested in historic fullbore shooting though.

[mechsympathy]

Hyperion said:

You could always use a wire noose looped round where the fox enters the property.

The kids'll be overjoyed when he kills the cat too.










If you're not joking -->

[Ayahuasca]

A high-powered bow is the way forward, none of those inconvenient gunshot sounds.

[otolith]

Ayahuasca said:

A high-powered bow is the way forward, none of those inconvenient gunshot sounds.

Bow hunting is illegal in the UK.

[samdale]

Lefty Guns said:

markh1 said:

Lefty Guns said:

GingerWizard said:

Shirly someone would not shoota fox with an air rifle, maybe in the eye!?

You might be surprised. I was speaking to the local dog warden the other day and apparently there have been a few foxes near me shot (but not killed obviously) with air rifles recently.

I used to be a member of a shooting forum and some tts used to reckons that shooting a fox with an air rifle was OK as long as you got a headshot. Not even an FAC-rated air gun, just a 12ft/lb'er.

I wouldn't shoot anything at a fox other than a CF. I wouldn't even trust a rimfire to do it. (Although the .17 HMR is rumoured to be a decent enough round for foxing, better than .22 anyway). I suppose a shotgun with a tight choke would be OK but still, I wouldn't.

I don't own a CF, wouldn't mind though. A nice AR15 in .223 maybe

You can kill a fox with an air rifle.....

N.B. footage of fox being shot

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLwX9DxICR8

The legal limit of an air rifle is 12ft/lbs which you can use to kill a fox, however you would have to be pretty close to it. I was in a gun shop on saturday and was asking about higher power air rifles. (Which you need a fire arms liscence for) Apparently any higher than 12ft/lbs will give you greater range but not greater killing power.

There's no way I'd use a 12ft/lb air rifle on a fox.

I suppose you could maybe justify a .22 or .25 if it were running at around 30lb/ft but you would still want a clean headshot to guarantee a kill.

12ft/lb with .22 or .25 isn't going to give you the range you need (and it'll have a bastid of a trajectory) and .177 at 12lb/ft isn't going to have the stopping power.

first comment on the video he explains he's using a 32lb/ft gun....


oh and ayahuasca, do you know the legalities of using a bow?
i was under the impression that bow hunting was illegal in britain?
or is this another one of those "on your own land" things?

or where you just joking

[southendpier]

A friend had a young headless and tailless fox's corpse thrown into their garden. This was found by my 4 yr old (who thought it quite cute) and his friend (who thought it was a bird).

Is it common to top and tail foxs then? Some odd country way?