I have only been out a couple of times so far due to problems with the truck and other commitments and those trips had proved fruitless, seeing only 1 hind. This particular day the weather was much improved ( no mist ) and the wind had turned to the northwest. I had my mate Stuart with me who i am mentoring and this was to be his first encounter with a red.
We arrived about 6.40am and after checking we had the essentials we started off towards a plateau that the deer cross to get back to the forest, the lay of the land tends to act as a funnel channelling the deer across the plateau.
As we made our way down the hill through the gorse and bracken, glassing every few steps , we spotted a few wild ponies but nothing else. We stopped about 40 feet from the bottom of the hill above a Hawthorn bush and settled in position amongst the bracken where we could cover the area. As our eyes grew accustomed to the light we could just make out 3 hinds and a dark stag making there way back to the forest but apart from only just being able to see them the were on a mission and no shot was on.
The light improved fast and it was only about 5 minutes before we saw 3 more hinds appear on the plateau and they were about half way across when a stag appeared. He had a trot on as if trying to catch them up but stopped when i gave him a call but was not in the ideal position for a shot ( quartering towards me at about 95 yards ), he looked for a few seconds then set off after the hinds again. I gave him another call and he stopped and looked presenting a perfect broadside target, i squeezed the trigger and the stag threw back his head and collapsed on the spot. Stuart said he's down mate and was in a hurry to get to him but after a few seconds he got up staggered a few yards to his left then went down again, gave a few kicks got up briefly then down for good.
We made our way to where he laid and took a second to admire a beautiful creature, a nice wide head with 8 points. Performing the gralloch showed the shot had missed the heart but destroyed both lungs . The extraction was a bit of a circus due to the fact the quad we borrowed had very little air in the front tyres but we got him out in the end.
We arrived about 6.40am and after checking we had the essentials we started off towards a plateau that the deer cross to get back to the forest, the lay of the land tends to act as a funnel channelling the deer across the plateau.
As we made our way down the hill through the gorse and bracken, glassing every few steps , we spotted a few wild ponies but nothing else. We stopped about 40 feet from the bottom of the hill above a Hawthorn bush and settled in position amongst the bracken where we could cover the area. As our eyes grew accustomed to the light we could just make out 3 hinds and a dark stag making there way back to the forest but apart from only just being able to see them the were on a mission and no shot was on.
The light improved fast and it was only about 5 minutes before we saw 3 more hinds appear on the plateau and they were about half way across when a stag appeared. He had a trot on as if trying to catch them up but stopped when i gave him a call but was not in the ideal position for a shot ( quartering towards me at about 95 yards ), he looked for a few seconds then set off after the hinds again. I gave him another call and he stopped and looked presenting a perfect broadside target, i squeezed the trigger and the stag threw back his head and collapsed on the spot. Stuart said he's down mate and was in a hurry to get to him but after a few seconds he got up staggered a few yards to his left then went down again, gave a few kicks got up briefly then down for good.
We made our way to where he laid and took a second to admire a beautiful creature, a nice wide head with 8 points. Performing the gralloch showed the shot had missed the heart but destroyed both lungs . The extraction was a bit of a circus due to the fact the quad we borrowed had very little air in the front tyres but we got him out in the end.