Fox Hunting Technique ?

[MikeH]

I have been hunting foxes in Maryland with a friend of mine who turned me on to the sport a couple years ago. We hunt at night by entering into the woods a few yards and set up the caller with rabbit distress, typically followed by red fox/rabbit distress. He keeps the light off until the last minute when the fox is 15 - 20yds out. Talk about an adrenaline rush! Not sure if it's been the lack of foxes on the farms we recently have been hunting, but we are no longer producing at what was fairly productive. We have tried other calls with the same results (yellow hammer, grey fox pup, rodent) We only have had luck from early to late fall. Does anyone hunt at night in the woods or just on fields? Do you keep the caller going the whole time? We turn it down at times to help us hear. We've had some hang up at 40 yds. Would keeping the light on help or hurt if we try getting them in this close? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Mike

 

[Lawhorn02]

well im pretty new to the art of night calling, but we went out last saturday and killed 2...we only use grey fox pup when calling fox....we used the light the whole time and everyone came within 20 yards and would have kept coming, but the 3 inch mag fixed that....we called fields surrounded by woods...but like i said im new to it but the guy i hunt with (keekeeyelp) has been doing it for years and im pretty sure he knows what he is doing so thats how we do it

 

[KeeKee]

You will need to run the light all the time, that way they done see you. If im calling grey fox then the grey fox pup in destress is hard to beat. But you wont get many reds to come in to it. If im calling coyotes and red or grey fox then I set up at night just like I would during the day, run the light the hole time. I will use hand calls alot and rabit or bird destress sounds if im calling for coyotes and red and grey foxs. Seems like the grey fox pup tape will bring in greys most of the time but as the season goes on you will need to start mixing it up some because of calling pressure.
I like to set up in field that have clear cuts and hard woods around them. I will set up to where I can cover all the field with the light. Just keep the light above there eyes just so you can see there eyes. Dont shine dead in there eyes. Keep them in the halo till your ready for the shot.
I hunt some in the woods at night but most of the time I try to hunt fields or growed up fields when I can. Old roads, old home places, cut crop fields, growed up fields, strip mines, all make good set ups at night. As for calls the cottontail, yellowhammer woodpecker, rodent, destress calls work well and I have better luck with high piched hand calls at night. I run the call at night just like I do during the day, start out with med volume and get louder as you call. If im useing the grey fox pup tape I let it run all the time, if its a cottontail or something, I will very the volume some. Hand calls I use in sets I will call for a while then stop and wait, then start calling again. But everone does things diffrent just find what works well for you and go for it.
If they hang up out of gun range then try to lip sqweek them in, this will work alot of the time or even switch calls will do it sometimes. Hope this helps.

 

[ravhunter]

Hey Mike, I mostly call in reds here in Southest PA. Through years of trial and error amd reading Dennis Kirk Calling books my buddy and I consistently call in four or five and kill one or two every night we go out. First of all you need to get the PROPER red light. Go to nitelite.com or use the optronics available at Cabelas. You want a nice medium to low power beam. Use the light ALL the time. By doing this you'll accomplish two things. First, when you have the light on them you're esentially blinding them and you can get away with a fair amount of movement while getting set up for the shot. Second, you'll be able to spot foxes that you would NEVER be able to see with your naked eye because those eyes will light up real nice from far away and through heavy brush. When you're driving from spot to spot use one of those smoke in a bottle wind checkers, if the wind isn't in your face or at least a cross wind don't even get out of the vehicle- move to your next spot. Good luck!