One to remember!

Andy L

Well-Known Member
I have decided to post a write up of this mornings stalk. If it makes me look like a sentimental old git then blame Stone for suggesting that I post it.

My son is 9 yrs old and although very intelligent, is not a natural academic so we try to give him plenty of encouragement at school. The way that we do this is offering him a reward for a good week by letting him come stalking with me at the weekend. (My wife seems to think that this should be a punishment not a reward! But still...) Anyway, the last 4 outings have been blanks and yet, when I went out on Tuesday without him, I caught up with a young buck. Up till this morning, Aaron had decided that he was serious bad luck and if I wanted to grass anything, I should not take him with me. No matter how much I tried to explain that we all have lean spells, he would have none of it.
Anyway, we left the house at 5.20am and arrived at the farm for 5.45. The conditions were perfect. The signs on the ground had been great mid week, the rain had cleared and the breeze in the perfect direction to enable us to cover the most ground. This was the first time that just the two of us had been out. Previously, we had always had company and so this was a completely new experience for both of us.
We stalked around the farm for 40 minutes or so and had not seen any sign of either fallow or roe. The pheasants seemed to be on the ball and very ready to voice the concerns over our presence. Aaron was starting to lag behind and you could see in his face that he had written off the morning already. This made me want a result even more than normal.
We came along the side of a wood and I stole a glimpse around the corner. The relief that hit me when I immediately saw 2 fallow grazing contentedly was amazing. I motioned to Aaron to drop low and peep around the corner to take a look. It turned out that there was a herd of a dozen or so bucks feeding and we were able to take a good look at them. There was 4 good bucks in the group and I decided to take one of them. He was not the biggest but was a good cull animal. One of his antlers was a bit fish tailed and he looked to have a few years under his belt. The herd were grazing at about 220 yds so decided not to attempt to stalk closer and to just set the sticks up slightly out from the corner of the wood and hope that the bucks did not notice me move into the open to take the shot.
Aaron moved back behind the corner tree and I opened the sticks out and stood up to take the shot. As I relaxed behind the scope the weight of my arm and the rifle on the sticks caused the telescopic leg to collapse about 10" and made a shot impossible. I quietly cursed and eased myself back behnd the trees again. I sorted myself out, locked the two sticks again and repeated the exercise. The bucks did not notice me and my beast moved very obligingly to give me a broadside shot while he chewed the cud. The 95 grain ballistic tip found its mark, the buck ran 15 yards and then toppled. The other bucks ran on for another 100 yards and then turned back to find out what the comotion was all about.
From behind me I heard a quiet but definite "Yessssssss!!!!!" I think for the first time in the few years that I have been stalking, there was someone happier than me that I had cleanly grassed a fine deer on a beautifull spring morning.
The only downside of the morning was that, due to the amount of rain we had had the previous night, I had to drag the buck to the truck. I wish I had taken a picture of Aaron carrying my sticks, sweatshirt, Coat and my rifle on his back while his old man huffed and puffed through the field. I am defnitely built for comfort not for speed!
Anyway, this mornings stalk will always remain in my memory as one of those special times and I think that it felt the same for Aaron. Precious moments indeed.

AaronFallowBuck1.jpg


One happy lad!! He has now admitted that maybe he is not bad luck after all!

FallowBuckElphicks.jpg


Not a bad buck either really!
 
Priceless Andy mate! Thank you for sharing your experience. Your lad will always remember this day and will hopefully tell his children about it when they are stalking with him! :D
 
Cheers boys.
Grant, I am sorry to hear that you boy is not interested. Unfortunately I don't think it is something that you can persuade them to like. Aaron has always been keen as mustard since he could walk and is either beating, working the spaniel or out stalking with me every weekend.
 
Great story Andy. My boy is still waiting for me to grass a beast in his presence. Fair play to him, he keeps on dragging round after me in the rain!
 
you do realise that it's only a matter of time now until you'll be forking out for his first rifle, binos, etc? I still have my first rifle - an ancient old BSA Monarch that i can't bare to be without.

Well done mate.
 
Having three daughters I was never ever going to get a stalking partner, although one of my grandsons has potential ;) and the other one who is 11 soon, is also able to handle my quad (just).

AndyL, what a wonderful memory for you, you should be very proud of your son, and the fact that he wants to follow you into the sport must be every stalking man's dream desire. I am sure it will be the beggining of many adventures for him and you, well done ;)
 
you sentimental old git,
this is what life is about your lad will tell this tale for ever and even your grandchildren will ask about this moment mind you the story will hav changed a bit by then as the buck will be bigger and the drag will be about 5 mile but all the same, introducing the younger generation to this sort of life style is always a bonus but your own child , that has to be priceless good luck in the future andy and start saving as scotsgun as already told what you are saving for,
best wishes
stone
ps are you realy an elvis fanatic :lol:
 
Oh, now I see! No, I am more of a Bowie fan.
Aaron was the second name in the alphabetic name book. Aardvark did not have the same ring to it! :lol:
 
What a wonderful tale, I would say more but I am filling up, can't type have to run.
 
ardvark L
just does not hav the same ring to it
time Aaron joined the stalking directory if you ask me, sure he would hav a few stories to tell i'm sure :lol:
 
I don't think so. He has to be old enough to understand the legal implications of a 'gagging order' before I can let him on this site! :confused:
 
Its good to see the younger generation getting involved after all the future of our great sport is going to be in their hands, well done Andy seems like you have a young stalker in the making there.

My daughter often joins me stalking and loves it although she is yet to shoot a fullbore rifle she has shot the rimmi and took her first rabbit with it at 9, my son is still a bit young but he does come out with us when we go bunnie bashing but generally ends up falling asleep in the back of the 4x4 so time will tell if he will take after the ol man.

Nice buck Andy the look on your sons face says it all :D .
 
hi monynut
i thinks the saying goes like this
daddy's little girl, and mummy's boy ,
i think you are going to need a bigger freezer :lol: when they both get their first fullbore
ATB
stone
 
Yes stone l think your right and with the other half who also stalks l am not sure l can get a freezer big enough :D
 
hi andy
today i had one to remember
a friend from up manchester way came down to see me this morning and we met at mine at 4:45 am
this was his first ever stalk so as we started on this piece of ground a munty buck stood and watched us but my mate could not see it through the scope so it moved, on so did we, an hour into the stalk i spotted about 30 fallow in a spinney/thicket but on seeing them his excitement alerted them to our presence so another chance was lost just about 30 yards on stood a munty buck but a nervous one at that so again another chance passed us by, time was getting on so we moved to another piece of ground to my surprise there were 5 roe sat and stood on a hedgerow with out a care in the world ,after a long stalk with lots of crawling a shot was on , an old roe doe was chose out of the bunch and on my command and tuition a high heart and lung shot was acheived with no suffering to the beast in question
the smile on his face and spring in his step as we neared the dead deer said it all
 
Well done Stone,
Nice to get a result when the odds are stacked against you!!
Good man.
Cheers
Andy
 
Back
Top