WARRENER SPORTING RIFLE SEPT 07

Shot in the dark Here's a chance to take a lamp-shy fox and do a gamekeeper friend a favour. As part of his 20-year quest for the perfect night vision set-up, the Warrener brings along the Starlight Archer with its new high-powered infra-red illuminator. A month or two back, I wrote about my pleasure at having and using a Starlight Longbow night vision (NV) day and night scope.

In my opinion, there has not been a better night vision set-up, ever. The only problem is the price...around £5,000. I have also written about having a Starlight Archer which attaches to the back of most parrllax adjustable scopes. The Archer I have is a bottom of the range E grade. I spoke to Julian at Starlight and explained that I wanted to be able to use the Archer on my fox rifle,my air rifle and rimfire to shoot rabbits at night. He recommended I try out a B grade sight fitted with Starlight's new high-powered long-range infra-red, which he designed and which Starlight manufactures itself in the UK. The scope needs to have a focus ring to adjust for parallax error.

Julian recommended one of the Leupold VX-III range of scopes. I called Mike and Andy at Ladds Guns & Sports of Crediton in Devon(www.laddsguns.com). I went up to see them and Andy recommended the new Leupold MK4 LRT Range scope in 4.5-14x50 mildot. I took my Tikka M595 .223 to the shop and Andy fitted and boresighted it for me. I came home and zeroed it 1/2 inch high at 100 yards. That night, when it got dark (and stopped raining), I fitted the new Archer with Starlight's new laser IR. I looked through it and was delighted. What a bit of kit. For seeing foxes out to 300 yards I rate it on a par with the Longbow- and it makes them easily shootable at 150-200 yards, depending on conditions.

Next up was the chance to use it. NV is especially good for lamp-shy foxes. It didn't take long before I got an opportunity to have a go at an especially wary fox who had killed plenty of poults but had never been seen. I had a phone call late on afternoon from Darren, a top keeper on a shoot near where I live on the Devon/Cornwall border. He is the headkeeper on the shoot and I have called and filmed foxes there with two of his beat keepers. Darren had taked delivery that morning of a load of fully winged pheasant poults - not clipped. They went into a pen that was half in a wood and half in a a field with gamecover in it. He said they had not settled and were being disturbed by what he reckoned was a rabbit running around in the brambles and spooking them.

When it happened, they would fly up over the pen and sit in the game cover. However, he was not so naive as to nthink that there might not be a fox around, too, so he said he planned to sit out that night by the pen with a lamp. I told him I would join him an hour before dark and, for the first parts of the night try out my night vision instaed of the lamp. As I got there, I could see Darren, his wife Angie and daughter Rosie walking the poults back towards the pen along hedgerows. I waited in my truck until they had finished. Then Darren came up to me while Angie and Rosie went home. We climbed into his truck, which he parked on a bit of hill in the gamecrops. The pen was about 150 yards between us and the wood. Just as darkness set in whooooosssh! - A cloud of pheasants took off from the pen and landed in the field where we were parked. Looking through the night vision, I could see a couple of hundred poults out in the game cover. Darren said: '' They will have to stay there. It'd do more harm than good to try to walk them in.'' By the time it got pitch dark, I gave Darren a running comentary on what I could see through the night vision, which you can use as a monocyular as well as clipping it easily to the back of a scope.

Just 15 minutes after this I, I picked up a fox coming out of the wood and into the gamecrop under us. ''We've got company, I whipered to Darre. Then the fox went back into the wood. I continued to scan the are and after another ten minutes, I whispereed that the fox was going away under us. I could see it had a poult in its mouth. I reclipped the NV to my scope and put the crosshair on it but it was still moving. ''Make a squeak'', I said to Darren. He did and the fox stopped and looked back with poult in its jaws. I squeezed the trigger and could not see the fox drop but Darren said: ''I've heard enough meaty thuds to know you've got it.'' We got out with Darrens lamp and went out to the spot where we thought we'd hit it. But we couldn't find anything. ''Wrong place'' said Darren. ''It was further down the field.'' We walked another 30 yards and Darren spotted it. It was a big, black, mangy vixen with the dead poult still in its mouth. To say I was pleased would be an understatment. We left the fox there and went back to the truck where we had a cup of coffee and a bar of chocolate.

I stayed with Darren watching with the night sight and, after a couple of hours, decided to make my way home, so I packed it carefully back in its box. He planned to stay there until daybreak. As I drove up over the field and throgh the gateway, my headlights picked out a big cub trotting towards me. It turned back and went out into a field of of cut hay. I loaded my rifle, put the headlights on full and drove into the field. There are plenty of times, especially with cubs, when you don't need any expensive night vision. I picked up the eyes of the fox, squeaked and shot it out of the car window. I use a shooting bag for this from www.shootingbags.co.uk. Darren heard the bang and the thud and drove up to see what was going on. He was pleased to find another one down. But his troubles were not over. He continued to loose poults until, a few days later, he rang to say he had picked up 68 dead poults from that gamecrop and put them into a pile.

This was the work of one of the most difficult foxes - a pheasant killer that had obviously had a run in with a man with a lamp in the past. It was only night vision that would have a chance of getting this one. The beatkeepers had, in the past built a hide. This time, we parked the cars some distance away and settled down in this hide before dark to wait...and wait...and wait. I had just switched on the n ight vision when there was another whoooosssh! and a knot of the surviving poults flipped out over the pen. Darren was using another NV monocular and we both saw it all. We both heard the low croak of a fox. I attached my NV to my scope. Darren moved his head and spotted the fox next to the pile of dead poults. It didn't like the look of the dead birds, however, so it made its way towards us along a bank. Again, Darren squeaked, the fox stopped and I shot it - a a big vixen.

Again, Darren was happy. I went home after a couple of hours, Darren stayed all night and was awarded by the sight of his poults all flapping happily out of the pen to feed in the gamecrop at dawn - a sight to gladden any keeper. I'm not saying it won't be his last fox problem this season - its night vision not witch craft after all - but he hasn't lost a poult since.