As I drove by a farm I have coyote sets in I saw what I thought was a coyote curled up out in the snow covered corn stalks, I stopped, looked through scope, yup it's got ears.
Instead of check traps by driving into the section I walked back in there with my white coveralls on, and my Tactical.20
I thought if I used a grass strip to the high spot in the field east of the coyote I could look from high rock or dirt pile and see coyote to the west of me, wind was out of the north.
Got there, couldn't see it, decided since it was just over the hill 200 yds away I tried calling coyote to me with mouse squeaks, didn't work, tried rabbit squeals, no coyote, I thought if he's still there he would have heard it and at least looked to see what was going on.
So I crept closer to the top of hill, being careful not to kick any corn stalks.
Finally spotted it curled up with stalks blocking my view of it except where shoulder is, decided to shoot off hand from 70 yds, hit it and a fox jumped up and ran 20 yds and fell over!
Lol, I never got a good look at it til it got up.
Been five or more years since I stalked a fox.

Picture soon, nice red male.
One year before mange killed them off I shot 78 by stalking

I hope you didn't just kill the last red in northwest Iowa!

Joking of course, nicely done T.20, good looking fox too.

Nice

No, I'm seeing fox tracks in several places, we will never see high numbers of them again probably, caught two this year, all three were males
It would be fun if ia had fox like pa does

Pretty animal. Nice!

Nice looking red.

T20, that is one more beauty of a red fox. Nice stalk

Thanks, bullet hit foot, tail, chest had good hole in it, sure better to shoot with a good rest, at least I didn't miss
Thanks guys, he had more fleas than all my last 51 coyote, lol
About one in ten coyote even have a flea, never used to be like that

That's why the thrill never goes away. Never know what or how things shape up until the end. Nice work!!

Good Deal

Nice shooting!!

I was actually slightly disappointed it wasn't a coyote, a fox isn't as hard to stalk normally.
I think I shot 13 of last 15 stalks on coyote, it's fun out smarting them

Cherry Red, sweet.

Might be a few coyotes out tomorrow

Excellent, nice fox

I couldn't tell what bullet hit first, chest tail or foot

Way to go.Congrats

Thanks! Hoping for time to get out on my snow shoes

Red fox always look pretty on the snow.

I sure miss hunting them. Used to drive country roads spotting fox, it was neat to see a bright red spot out on snow covered field, half mile fence drifts another great spot. Really bites the mange wiped them out.
My best day spot-stalking I shot six singles, now probably don't see six in a season

Nice job. I’ve driven right past them curled up sleeping on hay bails. Not the smartest things in the world.

Nice.I enjoy fox hunting too.

Lol, well they are color blind! They used to den on a hill top, take over a badger digging, almost always curled up by 8am, some times you can walk straight out to them in the open, I usually stayed low, crawl a lot

We were supposed to get 4-5" couple days ago, we got a inch maybe, was hoping for enough to spot coyotes

I shot a fox today, good red color, then shot a male coyote on the way home.
There was a pair of fox in a cornfield, I think the coyote I missed at 30 yds in 4' tall weeds n grass yesterday probably hid in that field, I lost his tracks due to the wind erasing his tracks in the second section, I knew it would be a fast hard shot, his days are numbered!

Nice job! Great looking fox! Maybe I missed it, but what are you shooting for a rifle?

I had my Browning .223 made into a tactical.20, not a good gun for fox, I normally don't shoot fox because I want coyotes dead to help fox.
Should have pictures later today

My tactical.20 shoots 1.5" high at 100 yds, dead on or inch low at 300, I shot yesterday's coyote between 375-400 yds, bullet drops fast after 350 yds.
First bullet I used was a vmax 33 gr, it would blow up on the fur going in sometimes, not good for coyote, it was moving @4375 fps, I now shoot a 35 gr Berger @4100 fps

Same thing has happened around here. Used to be a lot of fox. Now, we have lots of coyotes and little or no fox.

Southern mn? Ya 25-27 years ago mange took most of our fox, coyote moved in and exploded in population, first five years here I averaged 120-125 fox, then mange hit, I used to get 4-8 coyote then, now in last 25 years I've only killed 15? Fox, 5 this year, most I caught in 25 years
Coyote I shot yesterday was #55, four years ago I got 74 on fewer farms, this year 5 of my farms I got 0-2 coyote, usually get 5-10 on those five farms

I say white death cause my truck is white, white coveralls, white facemask, white rifle, white snow shoes, on white snow

More central MN. I guess I didn't realize it was mange that killed off so many fox. Thought because there were so many coyotes they must have run off or killed most of the fox. But, mange makes more sense.

Saw dnr report from mn, they estimated over 85-89% of fox died from that mange epidemic, it hit nearly every state, except pa, only place I've heard fox are still in good numbers

Nice looking critters for the end of January. I sure do miss stalking red fox. The same years mange hit North Dakota and Minnesota must have been about the same years it hit Iowa too. It was amazing how fast it happened too. In North Dakota we saw over 100 animals in one week of hunting back in the late 90's, the next year we went back to the same area and saw only a couple. They are starting to come back, but I'm sure the influx of coyotes has hurt the recovery.

Yup, coyotes let them live on the road and in town, not good,
I never thought my fun would end like that, I lived for fox hunting, started trapping fox to add to my numbers before snow fell, I would leave before Dawn, get home after dark
Shot 78 singles one year, trapped 35 more, year before while in college I snared 131, shot 10, found one killed by car 5' from a snare in road ditch,
I was good with snaring method I came up with, but wanted to do better with footholds, so I spent 2 days and 650$ at ogormans, that really helped
Two years later I started trapping in sheep- cattle country in wy, that helped me learn more, then trapping here last 7 years I refined foothold and snare methods, so glad I took instructions, loved Mt, wy from the moment I arrived

That's a lot of fun

Was, lol, I felt bad I shot the female, I planned on shooting the dog and watch her run off, I was 10' ft from spot I could lay down n shoot, he gets up and starts walking off, I was 100 yds away, at 150yds I took unsteady shot missed, they weren't laying where I last saw them, I shot female not sure if she was male I looked at,

I think I got my revenge, shot a real good furred female, same color as big one that got away few days ago,
I was doing a grid looking for the coyote that got away, saw one up walking around at 11am, went to nw side of the section, she was walking up behind an occupied farm place, I had watched her a few minutes from about half mile ne of her, then she walked in to the groove, I drove by and revved my engine, and kept going south, she was maybe going to lay up in Grove or use it to get to the blacktop and cross to get to heavy cover,
She went back into the center of the section, taking her time, eating corn or something a few times, then after about 20 minutes, she went over a rise, I drove to west side of section, I could see her, I was lucky the ground hid my white truck in a good spot, got ready, walked out on hard snow without snowshoes,
I got halfway out there, wearing ear plugs I hear a coyote howl, I thought wth is blowing a coyote call, looked at coyote her head just came down from another howl, looked at my watch, 12 noon, she was facing Doliver, noon whistle was why she howled 3 times, first day howl in ia I heard.
I kept walking straight east to her, she's still 600 yds away or more, she goes into low area and I stop crawling and started walking carefully, I crossed bean field got a few feet into the corn field, stopped, still couldn't see her, I got coyote call out, resting rifle over a knee, yipped 3 times, nothing, couple minutes later I let out weak howl, waited couple minutes, almost went to howl again, then saw her coming, she was going west along curve of hill to smell the howler, I watched her through my scope come closer waiting for a clear shot, at 70 yds I saw clear body no stalks in the way and took my shot as she walked west looking right at me,
I think she was bedded maybe 200 yds below me in lower ground.
So cool when everything comes together, I think I killed 16 of last 20 coyotes I stalked, I had a bad streak of 3 in a row got very lucky and barely got away from me.
I'll see if Michael can post my pictures

The farm Grove the drag mark points to is the one on East side of section I bumped her back into section, I shot her from right side of picture where corn starts, she was to north of me in corn where trail points to

That farm is almost 3/4 mile east of me there

Not ALL of Pa has the High red population. That occurs in the East part of the state. In my area it's a mix of reds, greys and coyotes but not large quantities of any species.

I see, ya pa is a long state, room for things to change , maybe no trapping in Maryland helps east pa?

I believe that does help. Plus, there are a lot of horse farms with alfalfa grown for hay which keeps a healthy mouse population also.

The Midwest used to have more hay n oats, more fences, better habitat, I chose this place to go to college because I heard there were a lot of fox here, sure had a lot of fun

No trapping in Maryland???

Or is it Massachusetts? I thought one was the same year CO became that way

Massachusetts... MD is actually a pretty big trapping state... in that red fox last remaining eastern zone and a ton of marsh on the Chesapeake Bay... lot of pretty places in MD if you get "outta town" a ways...

Oh glad you set me straight, I forgot which one outlawed it , too bad

Normally I rarely see coyote when the wind is out of the south, I'm not sure if it is the direction of the wind or if the pressure is different on those days, best days are wind from nw 10-15 mph
I was glad to see her yesterday,
I saw her do something i never have seen before, right after the bullet hit her, I didn't have the picture of her as I found her on post because blood flew everywhere, some sprayed ten ft away

Good Job... persistence pays off!

Thanks, one day with a south wind I saw four in one section, ended up killing 2 and smoked a bullet through top of shoulder area a on another, I got her in a culvert with another about 2 weeks later, at dark I had 3 miles to walk back to my truck, I was so dehydrated I had to keep walking, if I stopped I would fall over from being dizzy, I did fall backwards when I stopped to hook my belt on the first coyote to drag it to truck

Looks like she had an old bullet pass through wound on her neck, heavy scar tissue there, fur messed up

Fresh snow falling today, can't wait for nw breeze

I saw one coyote today, from West side of section I saw a coyote on the big snow bank on a dredge ditch, it was going to the east , to get wind right I drove to east side, low enough there coyote would not see my truck or me unless it kept coming. I spotted the coyote when I was at half mile marker, sitting up on dredge ditch bank about where I saw it from road, just on other side of fence were two piles of snow covered dirt.
I crawled to top of first one, not a clear shot through grass, backed down and crawled up second hump, saw coyote stand up again, guessed it to be almost 300 yds, took my shot, I think it missed, coyote ran to east about 25 yds, looked to west to try and figure out where shot came from, I took her when she stood broadside at about 275 yds!
Killed 17 of last 21 stalked

I found one big male laying out in a snow covered corn field, 3/4 mile walk in from the east to get my shot, I'm pretty sure he saw me stop n look quick, but never had a clue I was there, he never raised his head in the 1/4 mile I was partially exposed, perfect stalking situation, decent fur, he had a crippled front leg, looked to be a real old injury

Good shooting...

Thanks, lol I think I over estimated wind drift and missed the first shot as he was curled up at 270 yds, he got up ran towards the fence drift I was laying on, he stopped and looked towards the road, south, and I shot him at 150 yards, maybe I can get pictures of last two up soon

Good read and good shooting T 20 !

Thanks, I was kinda heading back towards home when I spotted him, just a spot in distance, figured it was another rock or something, took a quick look with spotting scope, knew instantly it was a curled up coyote. His leg from elbow to shoulder had hardly any muscle, elbow 4x bigger than normal, leg was like froze in up position
That spot was so flat and open I wasn't sure if I could get close enough
Luckily I could completely hide truck and go 2/3 the way out without him even being able to see me, I used a half mile fence to hide my movement as much as possible

The coyotes right shoulder and upper leg had virtually no muscle at all, must have been a long time since he used that leg

They're tough buggers, aren't they!! I glad you're having fun there K but have a bottle of water with you next time on a long stalk!!

I should carry one, I'm so stubborn I won't give up unless I have to, so far I haven't had to go further than 3/4 mile from the truck.
The female I shot last week is probably not the one that got away, there are still a pair of tracks there, couldn't see any coyote around there yesterday
Took a cellphone picture of the fox I tried to get couple weeks ago, it was 150 yds from the road, saw another snowy owl, and a big hawk yesterday too

No exit on this shot, hit shoulder and didn't make it all the way through, he dropped like a rock

All I saw was a nice fox 200 yds off a blacktop this morning, eagle eating a coyote I took out