OK, I was wrong.
It is legal to use a shot gun as follows...



Otherwise you can trap them or snare them or shoot them with a firearm as follows...




Above are details of what you should generally use and not use to shoot foxes in England, as I already said.
In addition, as I already said local police forces have differing rules and stipulate minimum calibre and rifle power to be used for shooting foxes in their area.
To quantify the difference we are talking about the .22 WMR rimfire mentioned above as acceptable to shoot foxes with at close range. The .22 WMR typically produces around 320 foot pounds energy. An air rifle held without a firarms certificate has a MAXIMUM of 12 foot pounds energy. Higher powered Air rifles held with a fire arms certificate typically have up to 30 foot pounds energy.
The .22-250 suggested as ideal for fox control has 1,600 foot pounds energy.

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Mike

If you 'own' an air rifle or have one stashed away in your house or perhaps in the attic you would do well to familiarise yourselves with the law which has changed a LOT regarding air rifles in the last 10 years or 20 years. For example if someone reports someone 'shooting' in a field or even their own back garden more often than not it is armed response that turns up and points a gun at YOU, not the local bobbie. OK, thats not a change in the law exactly but...
Are you for example aware that as of last year you have to 'take reasonable measures' to prevent access to air rifles by minors (people under 18 years of age) (whereas 20 years or so ago persons aged 14 years could buy air guns and pellets which were often sold at pet shops and even in home shopping catalogues. Has to be a licenced firearms dealer now) Whilst an air gun does not have to be kept in a gun cabinet a 'reasonable measure would be to keep it in a locked cupboard with a trigger lock fitted if you have children under 18 or they EVER visit your home (with friends or reletives for example).
If you are shooting in your back garden and a pellet leaves the boundary of your property (becuase it ricocheyed or because you shot at say a pidgeon in a tree or on your house roof and missed or it passed straight through it) you have committed an offense punishable by (If I remember correctly) up to 4 years in jail and a fine of several thousand pounds and confiscation of the air rifle and a ban of at least 5 years from owning one.
The law regards offenses comitted with air guns the same as fire arms offenses. These are absoulute offenses rediculus as that is (there is no I was only slightly breaking the law - 1 foot over the boundary of the property I have permission to shoot on or only 0.1 ft/lb over the power limit as with for example speeding. An offense comitted with an air gun is treated in exactly the same way as an offense comitted with any firearm. Posession of an air rifle with 12.1 ft/lb power (without a fire arms licence listing said weapon) is exactly the same offense as posession of an AK47 the fines and jail terms are exactly the same!
Most responsible air gun owners now own a chronograph (for measuring the speed of a pellet as it leaves the barrel) so that they can be reasonably confident that their gun is shooting below 12 ft/lb and they are within the law.
The list of changes goes on. If you own one you would do well spending an hour doing some research as to what the current laws are.

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Mike

Our current 'laws' (legislation) are only designed to generate income for the government. It's f-all to do with 'control' or keeping order. I could almost guarantee anyone breaking an airgun 'law' will be stiffed for cash rather than any hokey time.

Fcuking government make money from everything.

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This post may contain nuts

I used to go rabbit shooting with a friend. One day we shot loads of rabbits and I assumed that we would take them home for eating and/or freezing as usual but the landowner asked us to leave the bodies about the hedgerow so the foxes would have something to eat. I must have looked confused because he went on to explain that they wanted the foxes to eat well so they would be healthy and breed well so the hunt would have something to chase when the season came back in. I gave up shooting shortly after because I considered the landowner to be a tosser.

Slightly off topic but last week my friend and I were chopping down a few trees in the garden and a local walker popped to mine to tell me he had spotted three chickens that had been dumped at the side of the road and since mine had been eaten by foxes they would be good replacements.

When we got there it turns out they were cockerals. I said to my mate "fancy a BBQ tonight" and off we were trying to catch the damn things - if someone had filmed us we would have had more than £250 that Harry Hill pays out for You've Been Framed - at one point I couldn't walk because I was laughing so much!

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Mike
http://rebuildingatimberbungalow.blogspot.com/
any advice welcome