After a very kind invitation I headed off down to East Sussex on Friday morning to meet up with Robin and sikamalc for a bit of stalking on Robin's ground and hopefully with a view to getting my last DSC2 witnessed stalk signed off.
The weather didn't make it easy for us, with Robin and Malc experiencing thick fog on Friday morning and we got onto some very twitchy deer on Friday evening (I nearly got a shot after closing the gap and scrabbling through a muddy hole under the hedge!). It didn't bode well on Saturday when we awoke to torrential rain. However, the decision to spend an extra hour in bed was a good one and we arrived shortly after the rain had stopped.
The deer were still not emerging so we opted to walk through the wood to see if anything would stir and Robin (who as acting 'Senior Guide' had nobly gone rifle-less!) found an 80 odd strong herd of fallow with some beautiful bucks, meanwhile at our end of the wood Malc and myself spotted a line of fallow coming out but instead of heading to the lower ground (where the backstop was!) they opted to u-turn and head back into the wood, never leaving the brow of the hill.
Still, for someone who doesn't stalk fallow often it was great to see a good size herd of deer amongst which were very nice animals indeed!
Moving onto the next patch of ground on Saturday it finally came together and I managed to get onto a fallow doe and Malc got a doe and a calf on the same ground. Amazingly, as we were extracting the carcasses Robin's well trained deer had come back to watch us! Tempting though it was we decided that 3 deer was enough so Robin's remaining stock was safe for another day!
I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Robin and his wife Cherry for their excellent hospitality and also to Malc for witnessing my last DSC2 stalk and all the paperwork that entails!
And a big thanks to Robin for letting us loose on his ground which truly is a deer paradise! Now he is retired (did we mention Robin is retired now? ) I dare say he'll be spending lots of time on there and I must say, I'm envious!
Cheers guys!
all the best,
Alex
The weather didn't make it easy for us, with Robin and Malc experiencing thick fog on Friday morning and we got onto some very twitchy deer on Friday evening (I nearly got a shot after closing the gap and scrabbling through a muddy hole under the hedge!). It didn't bode well on Saturday when we awoke to torrential rain. However, the decision to spend an extra hour in bed was a good one and we arrived shortly after the rain had stopped.
The deer were still not emerging so we opted to walk through the wood to see if anything would stir and Robin (who as acting 'Senior Guide' had nobly gone rifle-less!) found an 80 odd strong herd of fallow with some beautiful bucks, meanwhile at our end of the wood Malc and myself spotted a line of fallow coming out but instead of heading to the lower ground (where the backstop was!) they opted to u-turn and head back into the wood, never leaving the brow of the hill.
Still, for someone who doesn't stalk fallow often it was great to see a good size herd of deer amongst which were very nice animals indeed!
Moving onto the next patch of ground on Saturday it finally came together and I managed to get onto a fallow doe and Malc got a doe and a calf on the same ground. Amazingly, as we were extracting the carcasses Robin's well trained deer had come back to watch us! Tempting though it was we decided that 3 deer was enough so Robin's remaining stock was safe for another day!
I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Robin and his wife Cherry for their excellent hospitality and also to Malc for witnessing my last DSC2 stalk and all the paperwork that entails!
And a big thanks to Robin for letting us loose on his ground which truly is a deer paradise! Now he is retired (did we mention Robin is retired now? ) I dare say he'll be spending lots of time on there and I must say, I'm envious!
Cheers guys!
all the best,
Alex
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