Lamping: outshined but never outfoxed

While thermal imaging and night vision are inarguably efficient, there is still a place for the humble lamp, argues Robert Bucknell

- JAMES MARCHINGSTON

Fox shooting technology has come a long way since I first drove around a field in circles hoping to spot a fox in the headlights. That was in the early 1970s, and we thought we were at the cutting edge when we bolted a wooden handle onto a chrome-plated Lucas Silver Sabre car spotlamp and set off on foot looking for foxes with a car battery in a rucksack. Splashes of battery acid played havoc with our jackets and gloves but it worked, and that’s what really mattered.

We adopted new developments eagerly as they came along, from ‘no spill’ gel batteries to xenon bulbs, red filters and eventually LEDs and lithium-ion batteries. Lamps became smaller and lighter and could even be fitted onto a scope or barrel. A whole industry grew up supplying specialist lamping equipment to eager fox shooters.

There was much emphasis placed on the power of the lamp, measured in 100,000s of candlepower, and the distance at which you could spot your fox. We soon learned that all this power wasn’t necessarily a good thing, and careful use of a dimmer switch could put more foxes in the bag. I was never really convinced by the argument that foxes didn’t see red light, but the popular red filter did seem to help — perhaps because it dimmed the beam considerably, or maybe the light didn’t then look like car headlights, which many foxes had learned to avoid after a close call with a vehicle.

In recent years technology has transformed the art of foxing yet again, with the introduction of affordable, effective digital night vision and now the thermal spotters and riflescopes that so many keepers and pest controllers use today.