Favourite Shooting/Stalking memory?

Moonraker68

Well-Known Member
Work's a bit quiet at the moment, so I've been recalling the sporting memories built up over 40+ years. There have been lots of good times, and some that weren't enjoyable but taught me a lot (the first keeper I beat for was an ex-RSM!). Shooting my first rabbit with an air rifle was a real mile stone. My first driven pheasant (on a snowy day in the early '80's) and woodcock (stuffed and still on my book case) both shot with a BSA folding single barrel also loom large. Stalking favourites include my first fallow buck and a sika stag within an hour of each other, and a good long stalk for a nice 11 pointer stag on the hill in Perthshire. The one that will probably sustain me most though is a cock pheasant I shot with an air rifle when I was 12 years old - not terribly sporting, and maybe not even advisable, but I remember every detail!
 
My first two bucks very near to you, a few weeks after my DSC1.

I remember carrying them out too.
 
my most enjoyable exsperience now days is helping somebody new to reloading and getting them to their first kill or bull with thier own made ammo

great satisfaction

apart from that learning something from speaking to other like minded people i.e. muir, danpd etc
 
I honed my rifle shooting a the age of 9 i had the action and barrel of an airsporter with no stock and is was so heavy i had to rest it on posts or fences to shoot. My main quarry was water voles that as a kid i thought were water rats,its only years later now the vole is in decline that i wish i hadent shot so many but i will remember those day forever
 
So many memories......but some of the ones with extra zing are-

- first pheasant which was also the first retrieve for my first gundog a golden retriever
- first time my son and I shot game together
- first roe after many blank stalks
- first red
- first salmon
- first goose
- first left & right (it was two teal)
- my son's first roe closely followed by his second two minutes later. He was shaking with adrenalin for ages afterwards.
- the time I shot three roe within 4 minutes of each other.

There is more but these are the ones that come back so easily from my memory.

Mulac
 
Being County Full-bore open champion at 500 yards with a borrowed .303 rifle in 1956 and rapid fire champion at 300 yards the following year.
Also winning the Class A, 100 bird D.T.L. English Championship in 1969 with 99/100 plus 24/25 in a shoot-off to secure the trophy. [ I shot for the England Team in 1970 and 1971 ]
HWH.

Here is that trophy `The Referee Cup`.
th_hubert2010-1.jpg
 
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Shooting the first rabbit by my self when I was 8. It was busy digging away under a willow tree by my grans house when I shot it with my older brothers BSA meteor S, I was so excited I grabbed it by the rear legs, ditched the rifle and run straight home to show my dad. Thing was I'd shot it in the ass and the little bugger was still kicking when I got it home, then I got shown how to bump them on the head...
 
Favourite shooting memory:

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One of my favourite Stalking memories:

Photo154.jpg



The other 4 were down the hill a bit more ;)
 
Lots of memories but a couple stand out. A customer of mine now a very good friend asked me to come and shoot a 'couple' of Foxes as they had not been shot for two years and what with the weather that year the farm had little to no game left to shoot. Shot 13 on the Monday night from the back of his landy with my 223 Tikka....the guys at work would not talk to me for 2 days :oops: then on the Thursday i was invited back to his other farm and next door neighbors and shot 5 more! Checked my old records and this doubled my lifetimes Foxes! Another time i did not even look through the scope when sat out for a problem Fox that did not turn up as expected but on the way back to the car i spoted a Barn Owl flying circuits in the next field. I just stood and watched it for a good ten minuets through the binos before the call of hunger got the better of me and had to move. Just goes to show you don't need to take a shot to have a memorable time :)
 
As lots of people have suggested there is first rabbit, woodcock, buck etc but above all that was the other day. Taking my 9 year old daughter out for her stalking outing. It lashed with rain but we were rewarded with a young fallow doe. She was facinated to watch not only the deer and wildlife but to feel the emotions of adrenalin excitment respect and slight sadness that comes with stalking. After a biology lesson of a gralloch we got the. 22 out and she made short work of some bad apples we took.
 
All of my hunting trips with my dad who passed away April 29 of this year.The first time I was alone and close to a grizzly(we both walked away, and I learned what humility meant)And this October as my brother and I watched his son stalk his first mule-deer for the better part of 300 yrds to make a perfect 200 yrd shot....with his Grandfathers Lee Enfield No.4 in 303 Brit
AB
 
Has to be my first Stag. My uncle was the stalker for the scottish waterboard. Every year we went down there for the last week of the stags and the first week of the hinds. When i was nine years old my uncle and old boy took me along the loch side for a shot of the rifle. I was told if i could hit a 10" slate ten times in a row they would take me out for a stag. Well i guess i done ok as the next day i was on the hill. After what seemed like hours of climbing we got into a stag that was lying down below his hinds. I got set up with my uncle by my side. He told me the plan was for him to whistle and if the stag stood up i was to take him broadside in behind the front leg. He did and so did i, he never even moved. He just rolled over side ways and i sat there and watched his hinds head up and over the sky line.

My second best memory was early this year when i took my 10 year old son out for his first Buck. We spied him maybe 500 yards back. Stalked in on foot then crawled the last 150 yards. At 75 yards he set the rifle up on his own and waited patiently. After a few minutes he went broadside and he wispered to me "now dad". I replied if your happy and bang. The buck ran maybe 20 yards in a circle and fell over. I Gralloched him and the wee man dragged him back to the motor. poor lad was pooped that evening but for me (and him) the best memory.

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My favourite time out shooting was on a golf course. Naturally I could only go on it when the lights went out but 2 years ago the snow fell so heavy people couldn't golf. I work outside and we can't work when it gets too cold as the water freezes. We put the guns in the boot and set off to work in -7 and of course we didn't even pull on site.

Well I expected to see a few early rabbits say out but didn't see a one. We did however see squirrels everywhere. Between us we got 7. Five were on the ground and fell to the .22lr and two in the trees got shot out by the .177.

It was the only time I have been out hunting with my dad and we both loved it. I thought I would of reignited his passion but he's too scared if he enjoys it, shooting may take over his fishing.
 
I remember shooting most of my deer , especialy when i stalk past the spot . But for me it the things i see whilst stalking . The sunrises , the sun sets , The time i saw a large mink chasing a rabbit , the time i saw a sparrow hawk catch a woodpecker , the time a badger almost walked in to me , the time i saw two large Fallow bucks doing battle , the time i saw a woodcock washing itself in a puddle. But most of all its the people i have shot and stalked with over the years , with out them ,it would not have been such a pleasure Chill
 
One of my most memarable shooting experiances, happend one sunny morning in December on the foreshore doing some wild fouling.
I think it was about 10 or 12 years back.

Shot a duck & it eneded up about 100 yards from the shore.
The springer i had set of out after if with me thinking that she would turn back, but no out she went.
By this time the duck had startet to dive under the surface & head further out, the dog by this time was not for coming back as she had seen it diving.
She got to the area where it had been & started swimming in circles looking for it then she dived under after it last i saw was her tail disapering under the surface.
Then up she came with the duck between her jaws & swam back to the shore.

Don't know had had the bigger grin on there face me of the dog.

She in no longer with us but she will not be forgoten.:(

MACKY
 
Still my first Roe buck and it was also my first deer. Kevrem700 and Boo Boo took me out along with one of my pals. Kev ran boo boos rifle over and my mate forgot his moderator. So when a nice buck walked out Kev being the guy he is gave me the chance to shoot it. I lay down and took it out with a frontal chest shot. What a great day and it started my passion for stalking. Cheers again Kevrem700 and Boo Boo for getting me hooked. Hootsman
 
When i was 14 i had my first and only outing hunting with my dad (he's not really into hunting but i bullied him into it). Out we went on a friend of his farm looking for rabbits that had been around a pond. It was wet and cold but we waited and waited sat up on a bank, after what seemed like hours without seeing a thing i turned to my left and no more than 5 yards away from me sat a rabbit. I don't know who was more shocked me or the rabbit and after a cartoon style double take i realized what it was. I never shot that rabbit but it was memorable.

Or my first pheasant when i was 15 got invited from a friend of my dads first drive, first bird up, first shot of the day, and my first shot fired in anger, down drops the pheasant and a fantastic retrieve from the guys dog. It was put to one side for me and when i got home i plucked and gutted it myself not having a real idea of what i was doing and then cooked it for the family and boy did it taste good.
 
Egyptian goose with an air rifle (this was in Botswana, so 'rules' a little less strict), age 14. Properly stalked, including 100m crawl though thorn scrub. Clean head shot at 25m. Gun was so weak, the pellet didn't penetrate - just knocked it out. Had to run forward and wring its neck.

First steenbok with a 22WMR, aged 18. Was working on a field site in the Kalahari with some English volunteers. One very arrogant and full of himself, endlessly talking about stalking on a friend's estate in the Highlands. Made himself out to be The Big Man. I just kept quiet (I was about 5 years younger, and regarded as quasi-retarded). For his leaving do, he persuaded a local farmer to lend him a rifle and some ammo, and to let him shoot two steenbok for a braai. His girlfiend realised that things were probably going to go wrong, and tactfully persuaded him to take me along (as she put it 'so he can learn something'). .22WMR is pretty undergunned for a steenbok, so I was very apprehensive. It went bad fast - he didn't even try to take a head shot, and hit the first one somewhere in the guts. It took 2 hours to track it down and another 8 shots (!) to finish it off. He was fed up by now, but had invited so many people to the braai that we had to get another one. So he casually tossed me the rifle and said - well, you know what to do now - just go get the next one. I checked the mag. One round left. Oh dear. By some fluke, I found a second steenbok quite quickly, but it was aware of us (as you might expect), and wouldn't let us get nearer that about 150m. With him and another person watching (no pressure), I took a knelt shot at the head. It dropped on the spot. Very, very satisfying - but not an experience I *ever* want to repeat.
 
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