Thank you

Big thanks to Roedenator.
We met up at Pete's place, had a cuppa and introductions, then went out, dropped a few on the way to the patch I would be stalking.
Started slowly walking up in the woods scanning around for deer, five then flushed out from near the high seat, as we got a little closer, a roe doe was spotted 140 yds away grazing, so we slowly made our way to, and up the high seat, got into position, and watched her, waiting for her to be so decent as to move herself into a better position, 20 mins or so later had her moved into a clearing, and standing broadside, I took aim, slipped the trigger, and she dropped right there to a 150gr from my .308, 93 yards, I reloaded and made ready for either a follow up shot or another possible flushed deer, we then went over to her and she was slumped right where shot, textbook shot placement, and textbook wound channel, we then hauled her off to gralloch.
This was my first ever stalk and all went great, and I was the only one to bag a beast, so to say I'm happy, that's an understatement. And to then top off the night, back to Petes for a fab stew and a drink.

Cheers Pete, another time hopefully :)

Pete
 
Well done in getting your first deer. I've stalked with Pete a few times; he's got some good ground, and the offer of a free stalk is a typical example of his generosity. I meant to pm you beforehand though, just to warn you to try and keep him off the subject of Blasers :rolleyes:
 
Pete has his moments sometimes. I'm amazed you only had the 1 between you knowing the ground there! Also amazed you saw Pete do a gralloch, I've stalked with him for 3 years and never seen him do one yet, he always has a truck to fetch or some other lame excuse, I thought he was squeamish...
 
Well done in getting your first deer. I've stalked with Pete a few times; he's got some good ground, and the offer of a free stalk is a typical example of his generosity. I meant to pm you beforehand though, just to warn you to try and keep him off the subject of Blasers :rolleyes:
Blasers. Yep, your warning came too late ;)
Unfortunatly, there was also a lot of shotgun activity going on around that had probably upset the deer, as for the gralloch moonraker, he definatly did it, and it was good to watch, I've done a few 'road kill' carcasses as meat for the dogs, but was good to see it done properly, and it was also pleasing to see I had done them 95% right :)
if there was a downside to the whole thing, it was looking through some Swarovski bins, and handling some other top kit, I'm going to have less money to live on now I 'must have' some :)
Again, many thanks to Pete

Pete
 
Never stalked with Pete, but seen him shoot, most impressive. One of the nicest most genuine and generous guys you are likely to come across. Good on you both, glad you got your first with such a nice guy.
 
Pete

Many congratulations on your first deer - it sounds like the whole stalk was in textbook fashion.

I've been lucky enough to stalk and shoot with Pete and he's one of life's real gentlemen. As if proof were needed, he uses a Blaser :tiphat:

willie_gunn
 
A big thank you Pete, from me for yet another very enjoyable afternoon sorry I had to leave early & miss the BLASER debate/ get the 3006 ready for a night on the boar see you soon Steve
 
A very big thank you to Pete and Mrs Roedinator from me too for once again providing an excellent weekend’s sport and most of all such pleasurable company. Pete and his wife really do spoil their guests. It was also nice to meet up with a couple of the guys from the site who I have met previously and to spend some time in their company once again. It was also nice to meet The Tramp who Pete so kindly provided the opportunity to stalk his first deer. My cap is most definitely doffed to Pete for introducing a new stalker to the sport in such a grand manner. :tiphat:



While Pete was able to guide The Tramp on to a deer on Saturday evening the deer were not so obliging for the rest of us and conspired along with the dreaded dog walkers to elude us all. However this morning between us we probably saw at least 30 deer and I thoroughly enjoyed at least three lengthy approaches accompanied by Pete and Elle (GWP) over open ground only for deer to show us their backsides disappearing into the distance at the last moment. On the one occasion we were all set up waiting for the doe to turn slightly when she suddenly spooked and we could only think that the rising sun had glinted off something or had silhouetted us, but there was nothing that we could have done to have prevented this.


The final stalk was challenging and once again we were trying to shorten the distance to three seen deer 250 yards off when suddenly a doe appeared in a slight depression not 70 yards in front of us. She was unaware of our presence and presented a perfect broadside shot which I took off the sticks. Everything about the shot seemed good and while she ran off in a curve up the field we both expected her to drop but she didn’t. After waiting 10 – 15 minutes we went to the site where she had been standing and found pins but no paint whatsoever in spite of searching the area carefully. We then proceeded to where she had entered the bushes at the top of the field with me rifle at the ready in a gateway ready to cover both sides of the hedge. A large doe emerged and ran at full pelt down over the field apparently totally uninjured. A further search revealed a very small amount of blood but with no other matter in the blood. With the help of Elle we followed an intermittent blood trail with just odd spots for nearly 400 yards in totally the opposite direction to that the departing doe had taken and finally lost it where she had gone through a far hedge despite checking the area the other side of the hedge and a wide area around the bolt hole. Eventually we had to resign ourselves to loosing this deer. I will have to put my hands up and say in spite of it being “a sitter” it must have been bad shooting on my part though everything had appeared absolutely perfect and I was confident the shot was spot on. As an excuse I did find that later when returning the rifle to my security cabinet I found the front Leupold QR scope ring was found to be completely loose, I am at a total loss as to when this became loose. I am not saying that this was the reason rather than my poor shooting but I had checked the zero of the rifle on Friday night and four of the five shots were touching (Sako 85 varmint) and the fifth shot which I pulled was a fraction of an inch away from the remainder of the group. When this scope ring came loose I don’t know but I no longer have confidence in the QR system and now wish I had stuck with the Optilocs that were once on this rifle. I think I will be making a few changes just in case it wasn’t operator error after all.


Pete later went back to check the site with BenC and his dog another GWP that has a bit of a reputation for being a very capable dog. I am told that they managed to pick up the trail again and that the doe had doubled back to the original lying up point. It was therefore concluded that the apparently unharmed doe that ran off down the field was probably the one that I had shot and bearing in mind the colour of the pins and small amount of blood that I had raked the bottom of the chest.


Thanks Ben and Pete for checking the area once again, sorry that I put you to so much trouble. I owe you both a drink sometime. Thanks again Mr & Mrs Roedinator for your superb hospitality I can’t thank you enough. You are a real gent and a wonderful ambassador for the sport, just a pity that you have this hang up and inferiority complex about Blasers.
 
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mike a pleasure to have you over an excellent write up i must say with some very kinds words
As for the stalking i dont think she was badly injured just a flesh wound hopefully
Even i miss sometimes mike i think it was when i owened a sako ;)
regards pete
 
mike a pleasure to have you over an excellent write up i must say with some very kinds words
As for the stalking i dont think she was badly injured just a flesh wound hopefully
Even i miss sometimes mike i think it was when i owened a sako ;)
regards pete
Nowt wrong with a Sako bud ;) I proved that on sat. Lol

Pete
 
No problem ever coming out chaps, always worth a look. Unfortunately we were unsuccessful this time which is a shame as the dog has had a very good run. As soon as we saw the strike spot I wasn't too hopeful with the meat and chest pins but lack of paint. We had a good look but I think the doe will be shot again this week as the blood we followed over several hundred metres wouldn't have filled an eggcup. A long week for him again this week as out every morning at the least and that's 4 weeks on the trot now. Also he had his hip scores back this week which were low so he has now had his restriction lifted and is available at stud to hip scored and vwd free bitches. Happy days for him.
 
A fine dog like your's Ben should have the bitches lined up and waiting for his affections.
 
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