Hi all,
Have just had Tikka.308 ( Andy ) down for a stalk and as some of you will know he has yet to shoot a wild deer. Well , as i write this he is driving up th M5 with a big smile on his face and something bigger in the back of his truck
Andy arrived lunchtime yesterday (friday ) and after the intro's to my family and a quick brew we were off to my shoot.
When we got there the wind was howling which was going to make it difficult as the wood is in a steep valley and our scent being blown all over the place.
We stalked for a couple of hours but my ace in the hole turned into a joker but we did manae to see 2 pale rumps dissapearing through the trees.
Back home for dinner then out for a quick walk with the lamp, our luck continued and saw veryfew bunnies but Andy did get a fox.
Up at 6.15 this morning (saturday) and on the moors by 7.30 where i decided not to stalk into the wind as normal but to try and ambush the deer on their way back to the forest ( hoping that they would be feeding on a kale field) .
We made our way to a point where we had a good vantage point over the plataeu in the bottom of the valley and Andy set up his sticks and got comfortable.
To our left was a stone wall running down the hill to the stream and beyond the wall is scrub with a few wizend oaks.
We were sat between 2 gorse bushes ut could not see the wall only a well used track below us. Andy ranged the clearing at 74 yards, i poured a coffee from the flask and glassed the area. Seeing nothing i had just said to Andy we could be sat here a while when he tapped my leg and said there's a stag down there, it had appeared like a ghost from nowhere but was now standing in front of a gorse bush unaware of our presence.
Andy confirmed it was a stag and said , what shall i do ? I replied shoot it and Andy wasted no time in lining him up and squeezing one off. The stag shuddered at the impact of the .308 hitting him in the engine room, then 2 more which had been behind the wall and unseen ran past him. Andy asked for conformation that he had hit him as the stag took off after his mates but he need not of worried as thirty yards later he stopped and keeled over dead.
There was a silence as we watched the other 2 go out of sight then all smiles and handshakes before walking down to where the beast had fallen and checking he was dead.
Took a few pics before gralloching then cleaned up in the stream before starting the daunting drag out of the valley. As luck would have it Andy
could get a signal on his phone ( I cant there ) so after a short distance of dragging i used Andy's phone and called the farmer :idea: who promptly turned up on his quad and transported the stag back to the truck ( happy days )and saved one of us a heart attack.
Hopefully Andy can put up some better pics.
Well done mate
Tony
Have just had Tikka.308 ( Andy ) down for a stalk and as some of you will know he has yet to shoot a wild deer. Well , as i write this he is driving up th M5 with a big smile on his face and something bigger in the back of his truck
Andy arrived lunchtime yesterday (friday ) and after the intro's to my family and a quick brew we were off to my shoot.
When we got there the wind was howling which was going to make it difficult as the wood is in a steep valley and our scent being blown all over the place.
We stalked for a couple of hours but my ace in the hole turned into a joker but we did manae to see 2 pale rumps dissapearing through the trees.
Back home for dinner then out for a quick walk with the lamp, our luck continued and saw veryfew bunnies but Andy did get a fox.
Up at 6.15 this morning (saturday) and on the moors by 7.30 where i decided not to stalk into the wind as normal but to try and ambush the deer on their way back to the forest ( hoping that they would be feeding on a kale field) .
We made our way to a point where we had a good vantage point over the plataeu in the bottom of the valley and Andy set up his sticks and got comfortable.
To our left was a stone wall running down the hill to the stream and beyond the wall is scrub with a few wizend oaks.
We were sat between 2 gorse bushes ut could not see the wall only a well used track below us. Andy ranged the clearing at 74 yards, i poured a coffee from the flask and glassed the area. Seeing nothing i had just said to Andy we could be sat here a while when he tapped my leg and said there's a stag down there, it had appeared like a ghost from nowhere but was now standing in front of a gorse bush unaware of our presence.
Andy confirmed it was a stag and said , what shall i do ? I replied shoot it and Andy wasted no time in lining him up and squeezing one off. The stag shuddered at the impact of the .308 hitting him in the engine room, then 2 more which had been behind the wall and unseen ran past him. Andy asked for conformation that he had hit him as the stag took off after his mates but he need not of worried as thirty yards later he stopped and keeled over dead.
There was a silence as we watched the other 2 go out of sight then all smiles and handshakes before walking down to where the beast had fallen and checking he was dead.
Took a few pics before gralloching then cleaned up in the stream before starting the daunting drag out of the valley. As luck would have it Andy
could get a signal on his phone ( I cant there ) so after a short distance of dragging i used Andy's phone and called the farmer :idea: who promptly turned up on his quad and transported the stag back to the truck ( happy days )and saved one of us a heart attack.
Hopefully Andy can put up some better pics.
Well done mate
Tony