When is it a time to kill?

Whether you rear your birds or buy them in, the fox will never be far away from them so don’t lower your guard, says Robert Bucknell

- Robert Bucknell

It might sound like a Basil Brush joke: when’s the best time to shoot a fox? When it’s 70 yards away and standing still is the obvious answer. But we can’t be out foxing all day long and all year round, so we have to pick the times when we can do the most good. It’s all about ‘return on investment’ — ROI — as modern marketing jargon would have it but in this case we’re talking about investing time and effort rather than hard cash.

So, what is the ‘return’ we’re looking for? A dead fox is the glib answer, but that’s rarely the ultimate goal. Why do we want it dead? Usually to stop it doing damage, or any more than it has already, to something we value — perhaps livestock, gamebirds, or vulnerable wildlife. That’s the key to understanding when the best time is to shoot your foxes — it depends what you’re trying to achieve.

Critical period

Imagine, for example, that you’re a keeper on a grouse moor. Foxes won’t be welcome at any time of year, but nesting time is critical. You can’t simply bump up your order of poults to make up any shortfall. One lost hen bird or clutch of eggs is one too many.

So for that keeper the best time to shoot a fox is before the first egg is laid. If that means long, lonely, cold hours sitting up watching over a rocky natal den, high up in the hills, so be it. It’s an unavoidable part of the job. At least nowadays he’ll likely have the advantage of a thermal vision spotter and riflescope to make the job that bit more efficient.