Stalking with Ian & Jo.

finnbear270

Well-Known Member
Hmm, Don't know if the bandwidth is available for all I would like to say about this one,Well here goes,I decided to travel a day early giving me the chance to stalk on the last day of the Roebucks, Travel commenced at 04.30 on a very wet morning being on the tail end of a seriously bad weather system, effects were similar to being in a large vehicle wash for 4+ hours so all that muck from the underside of the Landrover was history, I arrived at the destination & did a recce then went off to nearby Axminster to bimble about for awhile & was dismayed to see that the place was turning into a tumbleweed film set just like so many back home, when daylight arrived in full I was taken by the similarity of the landscape to my home in Cheshire, just with an added pinch of steroids, really lush pastures mixed with steep sided valleys topped off with iron age forts scattered with nice blocks of what proved to be aged old English broadleaf woodland , (none of that fir stuff some people find claustrophobic). Standing next to my truck before returning to my destination I spotted a vehicle travelling through the town that looked familiar & the occupants locked gaze with me, Yup it was Mr Farrington himself!. After having a coffee in a very plush hotel in the village I was staying in I received a call to come on in! On arrival I was met with a cheery wave indicating where I should park from Jo & was then shown around a most stunning hunting lodge that would be my home for the next few days,filled with mementoes of hunts around the world both recent & long since past, I fancied I could hear the campfire chatter on the way up to the bedroom, (I will post a couple of pictures when I figure out how to do so without mucking everything up! :) to be continued, Steve.
 
Steve,

You will not be disappointed, enjoy your stay, Ian and Jo are fantastic hosts and are very genuine people. I'm saving up to go back down and can't wait!

PS. (Hope that gets me £5 off my next stalk Jo & Ian)

S
 
stalking with Ian & Jo

On exchanging handshakes & a little chat I took the opportunity to ask Ian to treat me as a complete beginner straight out of level 1, I wished to have the full benefit of his & Jo's experience, as I could see straight away things were very, very different in this part of the world (deer of all sorts everywhere!) :eek: .So off to the range to shoot in, not having used sticks before I was a bipod man up until this time,it was going to be as I had asked, listen & learn! Arriving at the range within minutes I spotted a solidly constructed double seat bench point, from this I put on three rounds 0.79" mpi above V bull centre of plate, Ian then walked me forward onto a kneeling & then sitting position from where I put on another four rounds @ 0.55" mpi to right of centre V bull, one of these I pulled as the knees were a little unused to this position :lol: I felt more confident going to sticks already.
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Well I seem to be struggling still with this copy paste thingy! Having assured Ian that the nut behind the butt was reasonably safe to enter the beats we proceeded to motor off to find some deer! :D will continue when I recover some photo's :oops: Steve.
 
stalking with Ian & Jo

I forgot to mention that Ian is a dab hand at delivering information/instruction of all kinds, it is only through his patience that I am able to get a few pics up on here.......incoming!
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Cerva taking it all in, using a really nicely decorated Mauser. I wonder if Ian could maybe do some instruction on composing photo's? :D
 
As I have made mention in another post, I do not chase trophies, not that there is anything wrong with trophies :) , I am more concerned with lining my freezer as well as my waistband, But on the last day of the Roebucks what could you expect to do?. We arrived on a well kept clean farmyard with the barest hint of light in the sky, silence descended leaving just the ticking of cooling metal,Ian had already briefed the course of play on the drive from home, Exiting the vehicle remembering to squeeze the door shut,(I have a lousy memory for noise control),Ian suggested I move forward & glass the area while the light came on a little further, my expectations were confirmed straight away as Ian said the particular beasts he was interested in, were evident on a field headland / margin against a wood on their left, with kale to their right, but straight away a problem, the wind direction was not in our favour due to this badly behaved weather system still causing havoc, so after some thought we were off! getting in closer we watched the Doe moving in & out of the wood with a Buck following back & to, her nervousness was obvious, so making very slow gains on them we came up against the last obstacle to our goal, while mentally screaming, looking at this gate we were going to climb! a few seconds & I was behind Ian after a classic rifle handover,whispered instructions to prepare sticks & then move carefully forward, I was inching on one knee hoping that our movements had been quiet enough(well mine anyway :D )The Doe had given it some thought & exited left into the wood over the wire, followed by the Buck who then as is their wont made the mistake of re appearing for a split second, I'll never forget that stare! :eek: As thought processes went into overdrive the round was already on its way, dull thud followed by a smile from Ian, one young murder Buck taken out of the breeding stock!
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As the weather system started re order itself somewhat, the middle part of the days I spent with Ian & Jo were filled with trips out to local towns as they had business to attend to, so I had some free sightseeing thrown in! One particular trip out will stick in the memory though!, A deer sanctuary that has recently been put in operation, NO!, before anyone suggests it it was definately a no shoot zone :)
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And, one for the trophy hunters! :eek:
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Now I knew what the digestives had been requested for. More later.
 
OK!OK!, I know I'm hogging the site, just a bit more to go! :rolleyes: I was given a demonstration of preparing heads during a middle of day break from the business in hand, I had commented to Ian that I should prepare & keep the head as it seemed the right thing to do, even though he was not in any way a"good one", but still unusual by his duelling equipment, within what seemed like a very short time a long nose cut was produced & made ready for mounting!
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Probably the only one that will end up on any of my walls 8) Steve.
 
Stalking in to a different property one wet afternoon with Ian in the lead, a goodly sized Roe doe made an appearance on our right slightly to higher ground, I was again passed the sticks & quickly squeezed off the round, I was instantly dismayed by the Doe taking off like a rocket!, Ian was satisfied with the initial reaction to the shot, so much so that he said that I should shoot a second Doe that had popped up fairground style just in my right hand peripheral vision, swinging sticks & rifle as one I popped this one correctly through the shoulder, I did not consciously remember reloading, so I got that bit right, so now to quarter the ground to look for the first Doe, she was found about 90 yards down range with an entry wound a couple of ribs back from the shoulder I had been trying for, not good! & this proved to be the case when gralloch commenced, so I was taking one home anyway!! :oops: Still, a pretty sharp left & right reminiscent of springing Teal! :lol:
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Jo's butchery school was to give a demonstration of invisible mending on my spoiled carcase later!
 
If that was a hint, I'll take it :D , definately the last bit here!
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, This was all mine for the complete stay!

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, I finished my stay with several hours of instruction in butchery for the table, in some fine detail, for example how to produce steaks from muscle groups where an average person would not even dream of looking, courtesy of Jo. Now I just have to magic up a decent years trading to allow me to pursue stalking with a little more gusto. Thats it!
 
Excellent post Steve and a great advert for Ian and Jo.
Sounds like you came away with a fair amount of new knowledge.
basil.
 
Just ventured onto the scales for the first time since coming home, BAH! plus five pounds! :lol: Must have something to do with Jo's sweet potato recipes :oops:
 
No - it was just the amount you shovelled down! :)

You didn't really believe her when she said they would 'go off' if not eaten within ten minutes?

Glad you enjoyed your trip - looking forward to seeing you again.

Rgds

Ian & Jo
 
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