Beaters Day

I had a phone call on Wednesday evening from the keeper on the estate where I work my dog on pheasant days. He said that it was the beaters day on Saturday and was I coming along. There would be driven hoofed game in the morning and 3 drives for pheasant after lunch. Now I had intended to hunt my taxen on roe on Saturday but that was cancelled.
Thursday evening the leader of our hunting team rings asking if I would be coming along to hunt the moose calf we still have left on our licence this year . But that was put of till another time as well.

So 8 o’clock we met in the estate yard for coffee and buns and a reading of the hunting rules.
We could shoot red hinds and calves, fallow as they came, no wild boar sows, roe does and kids and no moose.

We were put out in our stands and the first drive began first thing I saw was a roe buck and then as the drive progressed a moose heifer came and stood about 30 mtrs in front of my stand. Why don’t they do that on moose hunting days? I could follow the hunt progress over the radio people were seeing boar and roe and the next gun down the line had seen a red stag but nothing shoot able. There was a shot from quite a distance away and one of the 3 lady guns who were with us shot a red hind.

Suddenly 8 red deer hinds appeared about 60 mtrs away from my stand. A bunch of hinds and calves. As they trot by I shoot a calf that drops to the shot. At the sound of the shot they turn round and head back the way they had come. I reload and swing through another calf and shoot and the group of deer disappear. I report to the keeper what I have shot and 10 minutes later the drive is over. The first calf is lying on the edge of the track where it fell so I go and look for the second calf. The calf had gone about 10 mtrs and lay there dead.

We gather at the designated meeting place and every gun has to tell the keeper what we have shot and what we have seen. The under keeper is dispatched with a quad and trail to collect the deer. We are given our shooting stands for the second dive. These high seats are placed on the field edge over looking large ploughed fields The wind is blowing and with the wind chill it must have been -20 sat there. A roe deer comes across the field and disappears into the wood behind us followed a couple of minutes later by a dog. 10 bloody cold minutes later I hear a shot to my right and the lady in the high seat there shot a roe doe that came from the wood behind us. Soon after the drive was over and we gathered for lunch.

So the day gave us 3 red, 1 roe and 43 pheasant. A very good days hunting.
The 2 red calves
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The days bag
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Alan
what an interesting account of a good day out
i like the way the guns all report the fact of what they have shot after each drive instead of walking off and saying nothing leaving it to others to find out what had gone on :lol:
proper mixed bag and respect for the quarry at the end
fantastic
cheers
 
243varmint said:
I wish beaters days were like that here.

A good day

Jonathon

No you don't - it would be carnage, and I don't mean amongst the fauna! :) Can you imagine some of our fellow game shooters (no names, no pack drill) dealing with driven hooved game? I'd be digging in faster than you can shout "incoming!" :lol:
 
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