All things Foxes

Thermal is the king of detection also being totally passive at night in all conditions. But it’s still a 2d image and your basically going off a shape of a animal, the further the animal is away the less pixels it takes up in the sensor.


Image intensified optics, my belief still king of longer range positive ID you get more detail then a thermal like the colour of the coat, sex, etc etc

With traditional NV IIT quality cost money, photonis tubes are amongst the best we can obtain outside the US most tubes available are mostly out of Belarus. Photonis “Gen2” xd4 and 5 tubes compete very well agains Gen3 + filmless US Omni spec tubes. In some cases better.

But your looking at $5000+ for a commercial tube. Then the cost of housings etc like the Dipol 720-760 or a PVS or MUM housing etc

With tubes optics you want a high score in LPmm and SN and FOM higher the score on a data sheet the more it cost. Every tube is different as all have unique characteristics upon manufacturing. Mil spec tubes and if you can obtain even aviation spec tubes are far better then commercial spec tubes. But again comes at a nice price tag even hold there value.

Thermal is getting cheaper and can be used all the time without fear of damage, specs to commercial side are getting better also as time goes on. ( shit thermal today was the hot rod of the day 10-20 years ago ) IIT optics can damage if used incorrectly etc.

I’m a convert the Thermal, I still believe Tubed optics have there place. But unless you know how to use and look after them and there limitations you can quickly destroy a expensive tube. Thus Thermal is more accident proof.

Digital NV I believe will be the new version of NV as traditional NV is as far as they can come really in the 100 years of development that has become of it.

Digital NV esp what is available to the military is doing things tubed NV wish it could do. Give it another 10-20 years and see where it all goes too. That’s the thing about technology, it’s advances at a fast rate that what’s released as new tech today is just as obsolete come the next day.

Like anything things can fail, be it Thermal or Digital or NV. You invest a lot of money on one or many, look after them.

NV don’t really hold there value, so if your investing into it you best to be wanting to keep it or accept the hit when it comes to resale or upgrades

With the right stuff the answer to your question is yes. Some depends on your experience.

Good explanations Proshooter and Skip.
Ain’t there a topic on Thermal somewhere?

Let’s get back to the red coat vermin......

sparta i have found pigs rather easy to id as they put of so much heat that they the hottest critter i have seen in my thermals. and for the foxs man its bad for them once after packing it in for the night the spotlight off and heading back to the camp i was a passenger so i was looking through the thermal scope and spot a fox just sitting there watching us go by called out to the driver he stops and one last fox hits the dirt for the night. i have also sat in the car watching one when a car on a road close by drove by the fox just stopped to watch it go by once he got a bit closer that was it for his night.
hope thats of some help

Whistled this fox in from 400m to about 80m - hit him with the 300 win mag 178grain amax from him Tac3




Put him on the fence for the farmer to admire and as a warning to the other foxes

Note for Sparta when you are back on line. Check for a PM

Here I see another from from a couple of weeks back - the 178grain amax from the 300!win mag rips this one right up!!!

I had plans to go for a wander with the whistle on Sunday afternoon but with the mercury tipping 40 decided it was too hot. My mate and I opted instead to find a shady vantage point overlooking a few lucern paddocks and try to catch a few foxes out mousing in the late afternoon sun. The walk in was horrendous but the spot was shady with a decent breeze. I had my video camera but unfortunately forgot to pop the SD card back in. All in all though, an enjoyable afternoon

well i finely got go for a shot tonight after my getting crook in mid november which had me in the ER with intermittent paralysis of all my limbs for 4 days then tremors in my arms and my balance was shot got the balance right now and the tremor in only in my right arm now and only if i get cold well i did alright 4 out of 4 fox's and 3 rabbit's and only missed 2 rabbit's cause i got abit cocky.

got this male last night was the only one i saw this one took 2 shot to get. spotted him with the thermal monocular and called him in the the Styrofoam on glass trick and in he came by the time i had swapped to the rifle he was about 25m out facing me so i lined him up and aimed low and fired well he was off with a bit of a limp but kept looking for what bit him at i was watching with the thermal on the rifle he got out to about 100m and stopped still trying to see what bit him well the next shot was into the chest side on and that dropped him on the spot. i went out to make sure and to see there the 1st shot hit well wasn't too hard to see that as the shot went between his front legs but hit the along the inside of a back leg taking a chunk out and then shaved a strip off the low side of his tail.
my uncle was glad to know the sod was gone oh and i did check that the electric fence was working when i waked into the bloody thing, i forgot that he runs dubble fences with trees between them i could see the other fence but not the one i walked into got to see the flash and hear the crack and a sure as hell felt it just glad i wasn't a half foot shorter i would of coped it where no bloke EVER wants to get zapped but man did it wake me up!

I took my youngest bloke for a wander this morning, doing some recon on some fallow and pigs. We set up on a dam that happens to be the only one nestled in around 3000 acres of iron bark and pine scrub. It overlooks a lovely little clear valley and I'm sure it'll be a favourite coming into the rut. I also thought there'd be a good chance of spotting a fox so we sat for a good hour before first light under a well lit moon. Sure enough as day started to break we spotted one while listening to what I presume was a stag thrashing a tree not too far into the scrub across the valley. We were able to watch the fox mousing in the clear for around ten minutes before it made a move to enter the timber. A quick squeak had him prop at 150 and the little 222 delivered a 50 grain Vmax with pin point precision. The second fell after sunrise at 20 yards after succumbing to the Silva Fox whistle....

Bloody gold right there!!

just got back from a trip to the w.a. wheatbelt after fox's was myself and a mate started off well with one fox baged before we had even finished unpacking we where staying in a shearing shed and my mate heard a sound under the slat floor of the sheep pens went and got a torch and there was a fox looking back went and got the 22lr the fox just sat there as the muzzle was placed at the gap in the slats one shot and the first fox down lifted a slat to get it out well over the 3 nights we got 32 fox's and 3 cats.
here are a few pics of most of them.
first night.

second night

cat i got on second night

group photo

grevo, you are Royalty mate.

Hunting Foxes is the sport of KINGS, and you guys did very well.

A few pics from this week. The first from Sunday afternoon where I managed to double up on a stand, the adult vixen charged in to around 15m where I promptly gave her a face full of BBs before coaxing the young one in from around 60m to give her the second barrel at around 30....



The second I took on Tuesday night while testing some new Viper Flex sticks. I shot this one at around 220 with the triple two after spooking it....

A couple of stands from last week...

First spotlighting session since New Years eve.
Was very windy but saw more than I thought I would.
Between my father and I we bagged 14 of the buggers.

Dad dropped this nice big fat fluffy dog fox at around 230 ish yards.
Was a heavy bugger.


Hard to beat the 22-250's for spotlighting.

Skip wrote:

WTF
The fox has helped in the demise of some of those animals we need to remove more foxes so our native animals can survive
Man upset the environment by the introduction of the fox so how will that work to have them in it does not make sense to me P.S. It is April the 1st

Been while since I’ve posted in here.

Some dog tucker and some Ferals dispatched on Good Friday.

New personal best with the thermal ( longest kill ) 20grn HP a tad over 4000fps @ 310 yards, whilst using the newish addition to the family 17 fireball. Spine/neck shot dropped instantly.

Screen grabs of the thermal are not in focus, had focus set for 80 yards, normally have it set for infinity, but mate had a shot on hare with it prior to me taking the shot with this fox and later on her friend in the next paddock.

Most foxes spotted and taken lately have been in pairs.