Arran Hind Week 1

Mate of a mate went up on the stags a few weeks back, one was a royal and an 11 pointer not sure what the third stag was like but he had a cracking week.
 
I hope whoever is out this week has webbed feet.
Arran is not too fat from me as the crow flies and its been a very wet and miserable dose of weather we've had recently, I'm sure there will be some beasts picked off but.. ooft...its been a wet one so far!
 
First week of the hinds 2013 .
The weather was wet and windy, showers on and off every day except the last day , Friday.
the wind was mainly fron the west and south. Having not been to Arran before I assumed the wetness is normal.
Got wet feet every day despite trying to carefully avoid the swampy bits. I got my first red hind on the last day.
Nine hinds were bagged over the week and everyone scored.
Fantastic experience for a first timer, especially when calculating the height of some of the beats (eg 430 metres ASL. )
 
Many thanks, it was a Great experience.
The hinds were mainly in groups of 3 to 5 animals sometimes with a single stag in attendance, although I saw a group of 18 hinds and one stag on the adjacent private estate, so over the week must have seen 40 beasts .
 
It was a good week, as Ciscokid says, we had typical Scottish weather, but all bar one gun took at least one beast. It's not easy, which I think does lead to some of the negative press, but that's just low density, hard shot, forestry reds for you.
After last year's sad incident with the death on the hill safe-stalking check-in procedures are in place, stalking is in pairs, and a GPS tracking unit is available in case of there being an odd number of stalkers.
Mike T. was co-ordinating the BASC team on the ground, an experienced professional stalker (ex-FC) he was very willing helpful and got stuck into extractions (as did Bob who's a bit of a miracle worker on a quad).

A really good opportunity- consider booking a cottage rather than staying a hotel, saves a fortune in meals, packed lunches, drinks, can get breakfast before you go and also means you have a dryer to hand (you may need it!). PM me if you want a recommendation.
Cheers BASC!

Geoff
 
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