One of the farms does quite a bit of hay for his local customers, so with the rest of the land waiting for the combine he text a couple of fields had been rowed up waiting for the bailer.
A small meadow from times past with the usual wet patch, too small for modern farming but perfect for hay, I would eat my hat if a muntjac never turned up, a number of partridges get a living on this ground so foxes are on zee list as well.
I pinged some marks with my eye ball range finder :rolleyes...
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5am this morning saw me sat up a high seat thinking "nothing has shown up so far so why not try the Buttolo?". Possibly a trifle impatient on my part after only about 45 minutes but hey ho. I usually regard pulling out the Buttolo as a final act of desperation with questionable results.
Sat where I was at a cross ride I had visibility along a ride ahead and along rides either side with a ride behind me. I have never seen or shot anything on the ride behind so was not bothered about not...
Out in Hampshire today first light. Thunder and lightening. Stayed in vehicle until lightning stopped. Some reaction to calls with odd early sightings, bit of chasing.
1. Shot an adolescent roe buck in the head off sticks at 5.20am at 50 yards in small paddock feeding. Thunder clearing/rain faded… out came the midges.
2. Walked through big wood to huge tall grass field, called and at 6am finally buck sprinted through the field across us. Call had no real impact, but the buck stopped at...
Out with BASC last night on the Hockwold scheme. Spent a good portion on the range zeroing the new rifle (2nd hand but new to me) ahead of DSC1 next month.
We got to the stalking ground with about an hour of light left, the foliage was high with the rides trimmed so stalking along the rides looking for glimpses of activity.
In the first ride a little muntjac doe appeared but was meandering left to right so kick the sticks out and wait, only didn't realise I wasn't on the sticks correctly...
Hey
Out in Surrey this morning, first light. Super-hot, sultry.
Arrived at the plot 1 at around 4:30 am and started stalking towards a decent buck in long dry grass. Not coming into the call, but it held him. Off the viper-flex, shot high in the neck, 4.45am and one in the motor.
Off to the second patch, buck and doe standing at 90 yards, neither buck nor doe coming into the call… waiting patiently for the animal to turn broadside… 👎🏼 Off they both went. Win some, lose some.
Plot 3...
13th July 2021
It was an early start to be in Dorset for sunrise a 01:45 alarm was set.
I arrived at the farm at 04:33, so by the time I got the rifle ready I must of left the car about 04:40. There was a slight NW breeze so I was heading to the first high seat looking onto the wood, as soon as I was in position I spotted a buck heading to my left, he stopped at around 120yards, a high shoulder shot dropping him on the spot.
A nice 7 point buck, not a heavy body and would estimate to be...
I headed up after work on Monday am to some land I have in Scotland along with SGC with the view to try for an early red or a roe.With travelling back from London sunday night I wasn't home till 11pm so first light was out the question.I collected my pal at 4am and we made good time arriving at the ground for around 7am.We dropped our bags at the caravan and headed out.The weather tbh wasn't ideal hot and still overgrown with the only easy access being the forestry access roads.SCC went to...
I haven’t been up to visit my son in Scotland since September, so when the opportunity came up we trotted. First light saw us kitting up and making our way up through a couple of fields to a gateway into a plantation. Cover was high but as we reached the gate the curse of the thermal hit us. Both of us could see a clearly defined head between some slim birch trees, no more than fifty yards away, but no amount of manoeuvring could get us a clear look at it through the cover. It was staring...
Productive trip out through stalking this morning in Sussex. Small amounts of rain, warm, sultry conditions. Lots of really thick wet grass in the open fields with odd does and fawns seen. Fawn call working with does ex bucks. Bucks often sitting on the tree/field margin.
Had an incredible experience with three separate roe bucks all barking at once. Roe bucks starting to get really territorial, but buttolu call only working to briefly check departure, not bring the decent bucks in… as yet...
Over the past two years I’ve been trying to start and complete my DSC2, CV19 has done its level best to stop me. With the restrictions that come with Covid, permissions, invitations and bookings have all been affected one way or another. I was booked into one large estate in England twice and it has been either postponed or cancelled, in the end they have sadly stopped doing witnessed stalks altogether, one can only assume because of the huge increase in the number of walkers on the estate...
Just coming to the end of a great week in Northumberland: stalking, doing the tourist thing and eating some great local food!
The stalking has been courtesy of David who has several lovely permissions between Alnwick and Berwick with considerable populations of roe: the largest is a huge wood of mixed replanted clear-fell and old growth in wonderful hilly topography with deep valleys, tumbling streams and quiet glades with a rocky crag running through the middle. The other permission we...
It is very rare for me to offer a write up about shooting a deer but today was a hunt of patience and more patience with a lot of excitement,nerves on edge even for this old time deer hunter.
I do see quite a few deer that "could be" but as generally I`m solo i do leave them alone and jump on any that are 'good to go'
Today was the chosen day to take this fresh out of velvet sambar spikey. I had actually seen him a couple of times previously but he had given me the slip quite easily...
Some of you who have been around here for a while may have
read my previous posts on my GSP X GWP for those who haven't a short history firstly let me say he was actually my wife's dog
but due to circumstance working him fell largely to me.
At six years of age he developed Hunting Hypoglycemia eventually resulting in having to retire him, he later developed testicular cancer unfortunately it had spread resulting in a much
bigger operation than first envisaged at the same time they...
The previous haylage cut was top dressed and is racing away skywards, the previous deer were seen @ 7.30 pm but as I had explained to my friend who looked with his thermal a couple of days ago they are gone with them all have a different time.
A doe was on the list as only bucks have been showing, saw glimpses of white hot muntjac behind me but what breeze there was in the wrong direction.
Eventually a pair came out on the right side for wind but time was ticking, I could see the heat in...
I had a few weeks with family down in Wiltshire and set up an outing with Fonthill Estate. Met Gary early on Saturday and shot the estate rifle at the target (as well as from the sticks). With that part taken care of we headed out in search of a buck. Got out of the truck into field field and within 20 steps we had a full buck 100 yards in front of us!! I think we both thought the same thing…. This is too good to be true. As it turns out this buck did not give us a safe shot, which turned...
I have just returned from two days stalking roe bucks on the huge Graythwaite estate which runs down the west side of Lake Windermere in Cumbria. Although I was ultimately unsuccessful in culling a buck, it was a wonderful two days stalking under the guidance of Steven Campbell, the keeper and George Sandys, a member of the landowning family who manages the shooting and stalking.
I had two morning stalks with Steven and two evening stalks with George in very un-Cumbrian weather: very warm...
Fri 02/07/2021
So the alarm went off at 1am this morning to get ready for the drive up to Birdslip with HMS Deer stalking. Having been 12 years since last going out after a Roe I was full of anticipation and excitement of what we might find on this beautiful Morning. 2 hour drive done and arrive at Hazel Manor set In Gloucester ready for the de-brief with Ross, quick wet and and chat about health and safety, cull plans and a ground overview and we are out on the ground for 4.30. This is...
Today had been a rough day, the forecast for the next ten days was looking dubious and I had a load of jobs to do that I’d been putting off so spirits weren’t exactly high. I’d seen a half decent buck at a local bit of ground recently when I had a friend down but it was too good to shoot and I felt like a bit of a dick telling him to pass it up, he understood but still, it’s not nice to put friends in that position. Anyway I was confident a cull buck would be about there somewhere and...
Back in January, a friend’s father kindly said that if I built a high seat for their fields, I could shoot the roe at my leisure. It’s a 40-50 acre patch of river meadows. Dead flat and therefore essential that any shooting is from an elevated position.
I busily set to and built a free standing seat nestled in front of a big oak tree, with a fallen but still live bough in front for cover, giving me safe shooting out to the front and round to the side with my back to the boundary...
I am now heading into my second year being a member of the A1 Decoy syndicate, last year being tough for everyone (especially non shooting related) being able to head out, but I was lucky enough to have some time on the Dorset leases plus two trips with a Stalker in Gloucestershire, with success on my last outing before lockdown again.
At the time of writing we have four leases (with more being added around the country) in Dorset with Roe and Sika, plus rough shooting/ vermin control, and...
