Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Predators and Varmints Calling grey foxes

If intentionally targeting greys , is there locations and or calls that tend to produce more foxes and fewer yotes ?

I have the best luck at night, using rodent sounds.

I would second that motion , baby cottontail works good too but calls in everything else. Foxpro has one called " platinum Gray" that has been a real good noise for us...and oddly enough bird sounds, we've done well with a yellowhammer woodpecker sound..at night....

A sample...

If there is a lot of coyotes, on average fox will be call shy as coyotes eat the hell outta fox...

It all depends on locations. Out west fox inhabit rough rocky stuff where coyotes are too lazy to den in.
Out east, different.

Fox vocals are very very effective regardless of locale ...

If prey calling, birds and rodents are best. .

Hmmmmm . Interesting thoughts !

Thank you !

I’ve had good luck with the yellowhammer woodpecker call too.

Bird sounds. To start grey's eat a lot of birds, both ground nesting and tree nesting. I always start with soft bird sounds in tight cover and have a fast guy on a shotgun5-10 minutes and nothing shows turn up the volume or switch calls platinum Grey is a terrific sound

And don't get too worked up over light color. I've seen no noticeable difference in animal reaction between scanning with a red, Green or white light. We typically scan with a red lens because it's what we have but our "kill light" is a bright as the sun white spotlight. We use that because we have found that we pick up scope reticles and shotgun red dots alot faster on target with it

My experiences with greys, they like thick cover and often times den in larger brush piles. I have found them to be cat like, responding to soft calls and very curious.

Grey fox pup in distress works really well.

Grey fox pup in distress works really well.

Ran into one the yesterday morning on the way up the mountain to hunt deer. Didn't know what it was in the dark, just two eyeballs on the hillside above me in the flashlite. Used pursed lips to squeak him right in, even with an LED light above him. Really went for the rodent sounds.

Greg nailed it, at least for out west fox calling. If I go anywhere in southern Arizona that has rocky, cut up terrain and sand washes, a few minutes with any call that has fox vocals, fighting sounds, I can damn near be guaranteed a fox or foxes will show up. I seldom go calling for them, but the couple times a winter I go out specifically for fox, I leave wondering why I don't do more of it, beautiful animal and fun to call, lots of close action with fox.

Baby cottontail and bird in distress sounds have worked best for me

Any non-electronic calls? I figure I would try cottontail. Any specific recommendations?

I call them all the time with hand calls. It's usually cottontail, squirrel distress or woodpecker. Wherever I am there are fox, bobcat and coyote. If there is a fox around he will be there quick. They are aggressive little dudes, come on quick and hang around longer than a coyote will.

Grey fox pup in distress and get ready to shoot. They like thick brushy areas here, same places you would hunt rabbits.

My son has killed over 50 since September 1st. He uses mostly fox sounds. Biggest problem we have is finding a load that will kill them and not blow them up. So far only shotgun guys that bill

The .17 Rem with 20 gr. Vmax slowed down to about 3500 fps is the shizz....

ingwe, that is a pile of foxes!!! Pretty little devils!!

Yeah, and that was just the first night...

Holy bejesus ! That's a pile of foxes ! 👍

A good night

Heres the second night....these all came off a 650 acre ranchette...I'd say they had a fox problem...they sure weren't overrun with rabbits or quail...

650 acres ? That's amazing !

SW/central Texas baby!

We've killed 40 greys within 100 yards of my parents house this past year between me and my bros (mostly bros but I killed a triple)...lmao...😅.

They live on 20 acres....

crazy

Seems like Ive killed a bunch of grays with your brother too!

Texas and fox my friend as you know don't get much better. Beautiful haul of greys BTW. Them things at times are hard to kill. They hold still for half a second at a time and are about 6" tall ...grin ..

swifts are even smaller, and just as shifty.....

The 17 still blows holes if the hit isn't perfect.

Huntsman , is that a Hawkeye Predator your holding ? Looking to acquire one in .204 .

No sir, it is the 77/17 Hornet. But with the green lam stock, it looks like the RHP. I do have a Hawkeye Predator in 6.5 creed, and it's a dandy. I don't have the pred in 204, but do have the VT and an ultralite in 204. My advice is to grab it, as it has the same great 2-stage trigger as the VT and the mag barrel contour is lighter than the bull and the sporter stock don't have that crappy beavertail. A whole lot easier to pack around and hunt with......

Ahhh I see ! Thank you for the info !


Chris

I hated the fat, clunky, beavertailed abortion of a stock that came on the VT. So, I swapped it out for a walnut sporter. Now it feels more like the predator...

And I've since re-scoped the whoregnat.

Oh man , good looking rifles ! Need any help shooting them ? 😁

Whoa!! I like that huntsman22.

k22., Here's the ultralite 204 I got from you a few years back. You may not recognize (or like) it anymore.... I stuffed it into a chassis

Holy Cow!!!
Are you sure that was the one I sold you? LOL
I am more of a traditionalist, but that is nice.

yeah, I'm sure.... It now wears a LRTS 3-12, but I don't have kill pics with that combo.

Been a number of years, but there was a time I was a fairly avid predator caller here in the east and we had a good grey fox population. The 12 gauge with number twos was pretty effective and the .22 magnum was extremely effective out to 100 yards ish on the fox sized critters.. Manageable exit (you could sew it easily) wounds. We didn't have many coyotes back then, so it wasnt' too much of a handicap.. FWIW..