Posted: 5/20/2010 12:12:14 PM EDT
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they are wily little boogers aren't they?
He has evaded my live (box) traps from tractor supply for weeks. I see his eyes at night. He thinks he sees me but it is pitch black. His suspicions are confirmed when the .22 cracks....but the last two opportunities I had to shoot, his body was obscured and I could only see the shine of his eyes. So yea, I missed. Last night was the last time. I need to ramp up my trapping for this little guy. Can anyone please post helpful tips on eradicating vulpes vulpes? This is actually the eastern gray fox. WE have overlapping grays and red foxes but this guy is a gray. |
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Last fox I got I tipped over with a 44 at about 40 yards. He had a mouth full of chicken and stopped to look back just as he was entering the treeline. The one before that I got from the bedroom window with a 308. The reds around here have no problem coming out in daylight if the hens are locked up securely at night.
Coons were my biggest problem. My pen has chain link walls and chicken wire over the top. The house is wood with hardware cloth windows. I had to run barbed wire on insulators around the chain link, one about 6 inches off the ground, the other near the top of the fence, and electrify it... first with a fence charger, and later with 110 volts. We lost power for a week and the second night the coons chewed thru the chicken wire and killed 15 birds. I have trapped foxes and coons with foothold traps if they have been digging around the perimeter fence. Set one trap sort of obvious, and follow full scent protocol and good dirt sifting methods on the second trap. While Mr Varmit is scoping out the obvious trap he steps in the other one. All I ever seem to catch in the Havaheart traps is skunks!  At least they are pretty much gone now.....
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Last fox I got I tipped over with a 44 at about 40 yards. He had a mouth full of chicken and stopped to look back just as he was entering the treeline. The one before that I got from the bedroom window with a 308. The reds around here have no problem coming out in daylight if the hens are locked up securely at night. Coons were my biggest problem. My pen has chain link walls and chicken wire over the top. The house is wood with hardware cloth windows. I had to run barbed wire on insulators around the chain link, one about 6 inches off the ground, the other near the top of the fence, and electrify it... first with a fence charger, and later with 110 volts. We lost power for a week and the second night the coons chewed thru the chicken wire and killed 15 birds. I have trapped foxes and coons with foothold traps if they have been digging around the perimeter fence. Set one trap sort of obvious, and follow full scent protocol and good dirt sifting methods on the second trap. While Mr Varmit is scoping out the obvious trap he steps in the other one. All I ever seem to catch in the Havaheart traps is skunks! At least they are pretty much gone now.....40 yards with a pistol, man nice shooting! thanks for the advice....I have one foot hold/leg hold type live trap and I wll get more. |
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I haven't ever trapped a fox in a cage so I don't think I can be of much help. The first thing I'd do is go to Trapperman.com, sign up for an account, and post your duck story and question there. Someone there will probably fix you right up and you might find someone local who'll cure your problem. I think it usually takes a day or so to get approval to post there. Of course, you don't have to have an account to browse there and I see a couple of threads in their archives about Grey Fox Tips and Grey Fox Tips and Tricks.
I didn't find anything about using cage traps for foxes but I'm sure it is there somewhere. I've heard trappers talk about gray fox being more like a cat than a dog. They can climb trees just like a cat. Maybe a cage set like they use for bobcats would work for a gray fox. I KNOW I've seen pictorials of cages for bobcat sets on that site. One thing I remember about the bobcat cages is that they build a "cubbie" of brush around the cage to make it seem like a natural hiding place. If you are just putting your cage out in the open and expect him to stupidly go right in, that may be your problem. Also, I've heard that some animals don't like to step on the wire mesh. You might try sprinkling enough dirt on the floor of your cage to cover up the wires. If I think of anything more I'll certainly let you know ASAP. |
| You can check out trapperman.com and get some ideas. Go to the "Trapper Talk" section, at the top of the page click on the "strictly trapping" link. That's where I found this thread: Gray Fox, and ONLY Gray Fox |
| Good thoughts on both the brush and the dirt floor Skunk! I know if a red thinks it can squeeze thru an area to get somewhere usefull it will, and that is how I tried to make my box traps look... a little bait, and making it look like it might get them inside the wire.... but they never would go for it. |
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I have one foot hold/leg hold type live trap and I wll get more. You should be able to get all the info you need from the Trapperman site, then. Everything from which kinds/brands to buy, how to tune them, how to prep them, where to place them, how to skin them, how to sell them. Many states have trapper's associations and many of them have training clinics and other gatherings. Seldom do the trappers get together without someone giving some kind of demonstration showing what works for them. Attend one if you get the chance. Find them on the internet. I have one foot hold/leg hold type live trap
Is it like the one in Feral's raccoon picture? Older or new-ish? Bigger or smaller? Is it all rusty or has it been properly prepped? One experienced fox trapper here in Arkansas walked into a clearing in the forest about an acre in size and pointed out a hump or high spot towards the middle as the best location for a trap. It was elevated 10-12 inches, just enough to give a fox a view of the field, he said. He also said that when you place your trap on the hump to make sure that the top of the trap (after it has been covered) is still slightly lower (no more than an inch) than the dirt around it, like it is down in a cereal bowl, that the fox would always place its' foot into the lowest place available. That lowest spot is where you want the pan of the trap to be. |
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Are you trying to trap him, or shoot him? Get an inexpensive distress hand call from Cabelas or Bass Pro, you can find a good one for 10 bucks or so. Then you can lure him in with the call. Learn a distressed rabbit, greys are really dumb and may even come right up to you. Get a red spotlight and use it to illuminate his eyes.
Check out Outdoors/Small Game and Trapping and find Rizzo, he'll give you all the scoop you ever could want. |
| As funny as this will sound, it actually happened. Just this past Saturday a guy threw his gun at a fox and hit him, stunning him. He went over and picked up his pistol and shot the fox point blank. This fox had chased his children, bitten his wife, and kept coming back this fine, sunny Saturday. I could not have believed the story had the person who actually did the throwing not tell the story the same way the kid across the street did. Funny stuff... |
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I gleaned a little more info that might help.
The Greys seem top go right in the cage for me. but that could be that there isn't much else to do I leave the door open on the cage so they can look straight in and go in in a hurry, I also sometime wrap some meat, liver etc, in feathers and toss it all the way to the back, as close in the corner of the cage as I can get it, and under the piece of fur hanging in the back of the cage, I don't know if that encourages them and they jump at the chance to kill something, or Steal something. also cover the cage good on both sides, the back, and the top. also cover the bottom of the cage so the critter don't have to walk on the wire. Yancy
and a pic or two 
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have you tried a connibera 330 or 220 bucket set? work wonderful, just be careful you may get the neighbors cat. PLEASE be careful using 220 or 330s on dryland, even IF legal in your area. We don't need any more negative press when Fluffy accidentally gets whacked. I have caught a couple foxes in box traps, but never intentionally. I use 1.5s and 1.75s for them. |
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PLEASE be careful using 220 or 330s on dryland, even IF legal in your area. +1,000. Because those devices are designed to kill whatever sets it off, it is irresponsible to use them on dry land indiscriminately. Please make sure that you are following the rules and regulations of your state. Trapping season is probably closed. You are probably required to have a license. Don't forget to tag your traps according to your state's regulations. There are probably exemptions for landowners protecting their own property and for control of nuisance animals. You should determine what they are. Because trapping gets such a bad PR/media rap, any little error on your part can result in serious legal consequences. |
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Try some prebaiting. Since yo uknow the area he is active in.
Use a good fresh bait like fresh chicken legs, or rabbit, or maybe a few fresh killed baby chickens. Don't use alot, just enough to give the fox a small meal. Then each night or every few nights bait the same area with some more. Then set the trap, using rubber gloves, boots, and as much scent control as possible. Use a zip tie to wire the door open. And set the trap with a dirt or natural material floor. Keep lightly baiting the trap over several nights. Allow the fox to take the bait. What your doing is getting it used to feeding in your trap and comfortable with the area. After a week -10 days go ahead and cut the zip tie and set the trap for the catch. Try to only bait in the middle of the afternoon to reduce the possibility of the fox seeing you. I have used this method for a number of predators who are trap shy or who have been shot at or trapped before. BTW.... I am a licensed nuisance wildlife trapper for the state of Georgia. |
| Something else for you to consider re: missing when shooting at the fox. Most foxes do not have a very large body, they aren't much bigger than a large cat. In the dark, it probably held its' head up high while looking into the light. You were probably aiming too high for a good body shot. |
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Quoted: I gleaned a little more info that might help. The Greys seem top go right in the cage for me. but that could be that there isn't much else to do I leave the door open on the cage so they can look straight in and go in in a hurry, I also sometime wrap some meat, liver etc, in feathers and toss it all the way to the back, as close in the corner of the cage as I can get it, and under the piece of fur hanging in the back of the cage, I don't know if that encourages them and they jump at the chance to kill something, or Steal something. also cover the cage good on both sides, the back, and the top. also cover the bottom of the cage so the critter don't have to walk on the wire. Yancy and a pic or two http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v463/Yancy/DSC_0015.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v463/Yancy/DSC_0223.jpg beautiful animal. shame its a pest. |
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As funny as this will sound, it actually happened. Just this past Saturday a guy threw his gun at a fox and hit him, stunning him. He went over and picked up his pistol and shot the fox point blank. This fox had chased his children, bitten his wife, and kept coming back this fine, sunny Saturday. I could not have believed the story had the person who actually did the throwing not tell the story the same way the kid across the street did. Funny stuff... I see rabis shoots in someones future! |
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Set your baited trap close to a short stump. Set another trap on the stump. The fox will steal the bait out of the first trap and hop onto the stump to eat it. Boil all your traps in pine needles and handle them with rubber gloves. Catch some muskrats, cut them up, put in mason jars and let them rot in the sun for bait. If you don't puke when you open the jar, then it's not ripe enough. I used to trap fox with an older guy when I was a young kid. |
We would bait them for about a week and the following weekend stuff some tannerite inside a dead chicken/bait. When the fox or Raccoon take off with it.....BOOOM. no more fox/coon and a whole lot more satisfying that simply shooting it. If they wouldn't take the bait we would hit one of the soda cans on the perimeter right next to the trails to take them out as they came in/ran away. 
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+1 our own trapping/hunting forums are pretty good. make sure you read rizzo's thread on eating coyote, bobcat and fox. won't help you catch anything, but it's good for some lulz. after 3.5 years here, we finally had a fox in the hen house. except it wasn't a fox and he wasn't in the hen house. a coyote managed to get himself into small pasture (1/3rd of an acre) where our goats overnight. we had a spot light on him, but my wife wasn't awake enough to hold it still. it's damn hard to hit anything when you can't see the iron sights. it's time to do some coyote hunting. |
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Catch some muskrats, cut them up, put in mason jars and let them rot in the sun for bait. If you don't puke when you open the jar, then it's not ripe enough. I had that memory out of my mind... Not anymore.  Didn't take me long before I figured out that eating breakfast before running the trap line wasn't such a good idea. 
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Catch some muskrats, cut them up, put in mason jars and let them rot in the sun for bait. If you don't puke when you open the jar, then it's not ripe enough. I never really caught the trapping bug as a kid. Dabbled with it, but not much more––found that a paper route was more lucrative. Anyway, my best friend ran a long trap line......I used to help him load mason jars with sunfish that we caught. He'd leave them out in the sun for a few weeks and then use the....product....as bait.
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Just out of curiosity –– why do you want to catch/shoot the fox? Maybe I missed that part. http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=10&f=17&t=635742&light= |
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Catch some muskrats, cut them up, put in mason jars and let them rot in the sun for bait. If you don't puke when you open the jar, then it's not ripe enough. I had that memory out of my mind... Not anymore. Didn't take me long before I figured out that eating breakfast before running the trap line wasn't such a good idea. LOL, I tried all those concoctions years ago. Now, I use mostly just gland lures and urine for most canine sets. And wind up with a whole lot less grinners and stinkers. 
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they are wily little boogers aren't they? He has evaded my live (box) traps from tractor supply for weeks. I see his eyes at night. He thinks he sees me but it is pitch black. His suspicions are confirmed when the .22 cracks....but the last two opportunities I had to shoot, his body was obscured and I could only see the shine of his eyes. So yea, I missed. Last night was the last time. I need to ramp up my trapping for this little guy. Can anyone please post helpful tips on eradicating vulpes vulpes? This is actually the eastern gray fox. WE have overlapping grays and red foxes but this guy is a gray. I think a claymore is in order. LOL...Only kidding. I got about 100 geese and duck crapping everywhere.....but since this is their home...they keep coming back, keep having more I figure...I might need to eat one day....so keep coming back....y'all... |