I've lost quite a few of my young trees to a roe buck recently. I've seen him on the trail camera and in person. Not too bothered about the naturally seeded trees coming up but the ones I've paid for really annoyed me.
Decided to go out this afternoon for some target shooting. Before I went into my top field I shot an old solidified bag of cement from 100 yards. Shattered satisfyingly but obviously made a big noise. Not to worry, I wasn't really planning on doing much but plinking. I knew the .308 was pretty well zeroed anyway.
Climbed up into my high seat, which isn't an elegant manoeuvre, and settled down with the rifle held securely in the rowlocks I've installed for that purpose. Imagine my surprise to see the offending roe (or at least, a roe buck) sitting quite happily at the other end of the field, about 150 yards away. Wasn't in a suitable position to shoot as it was very close to the fence between us and one of the neighbours and lying down it wasn't presenting a huge target.
Watched it for quite some time and eventually he got up and strolled away behind a clump of young trees (because some are making it!) and I lost sight of him. A couple of rabbits gambolling in the sunshine made for a beautifully pastoral scene. I decided to wait to see if he'd move to a more convenient spot.
Not sure how they do it, but they seem to teleport from one place to another and he presented side on in a fairly safe spot, albeit about 135 yards away. I hesitated and missed my opportunity. He appeared further over and although I had him in the sights with the safety catch off, I wasn't 100% happy that he wouldn't move and as keen as I was to grass him and end the carnage in my prototype woodland, I was very cautious of injuring him.
After an hour or so, he finally started walking up the other side of the field. Although the house/barn was in the background, I was shooting well downhill and eventually plucked up the courage to take the shot at almost exactly 100 yards.
It was a good hit to the shoulder and he dropped on the spot (150gr Hornady SST reload). I was shaking like anything but so glad that he hadn't run off and he didn't twitch for long. By the time I got there he was well dead and after I'd poked his eye with the muzzle I unloaded the rifle and set to work:
Exit wound was large enough and the flies didn't hang around:
With some help over the 'phone from nunhunter and thinking back to a recent YouTube video tutorial, I gralloched him on the ground (I'd left my gambrel in the house and the wife doesn't want me to shoot deer here...
). Don't think I did too bad a job and having a cold meant that I didn't smell anything. Grass looked like there'd been a massacre and what I could see of the innards, he looked pretty healthy:
Didn't have a bone saw so had to improvise with a Leatherman serrated blade - was hard work and I had to lift it by the hind legs to drop the pluck out. I'd recently bought a Mora Roe knife and it was superb. Razor sharp and tiny blade made it really controllable. The ball on the point meant that the gut contents remained where they should. I was using the disposable gloves you get from a petrol station when filling with diesel - they're useless (although fine on rabbits), I'll be putting my surgical gloves back in the bag for next time.
Managed to sneak the corpse back to the barn where there is a beer fridge. Beer emptied into my workshop (I'll reward myself with one later!) and deer chucked in - don't have somewhere to hang it at the moment. Will see if I can knock something up tomorrow as wife is out most of the day, assuming I survive the dentist in the morning:
Considering my last deer cost about £250 (stalking cost plus carcass cost), this one cost about 60p! Wife texted me to see if I'd stopped target shooting so she could bring the dogs out. I was on my way in by then fortunately so took the dogs out once I'd put the rifle back in the cabinet. Emptied the bin bag full of guts over the fence so it's the neighbour's problem now (joke). Dog wasn't terribly interested in the murder scene funnily enough.
Decided to go out this afternoon for some target shooting. Before I went into my top field I shot an old solidified bag of cement from 100 yards. Shattered satisfyingly but obviously made a big noise. Not to worry, I wasn't really planning on doing much but plinking. I knew the .308 was pretty well zeroed anyway.
Climbed up into my high seat, which isn't an elegant manoeuvre, and settled down with the rifle held securely in the rowlocks I've installed for that purpose. Imagine my surprise to see the offending roe (or at least, a roe buck) sitting quite happily at the other end of the field, about 150 yards away. Wasn't in a suitable position to shoot as it was very close to the fence between us and one of the neighbours and lying down it wasn't presenting a huge target.
Watched it for quite some time and eventually he got up and strolled away behind a clump of young trees (because some are making it!) and I lost sight of him. A couple of rabbits gambolling in the sunshine made for a beautifully pastoral scene. I decided to wait to see if he'd move to a more convenient spot.
Not sure how they do it, but they seem to teleport from one place to another and he presented side on in a fairly safe spot, albeit about 135 yards away. I hesitated and missed my opportunity. He appeared further over and although I had him in the sights with the safety catch off, I wasn't 100% happy that he wouldn't move and as keen as I was to grass him and end the carnage in my prototype woodland, I was very cautious of injuring him.
After an hour or so, he finally started walking up the other side of the field. Although the house/barn was in the background, I was shooting well downhill and eventually plucked up the courage to take the shot at almost exactly 100 yards.
It was a good hit to the shoulder and he dropped on the spot (150gr Hornady SST reload). I was shaking like anything but so glad that he hadn't run off and he didn't twitch for long. By the time I got there he was well dead and after I'd poked his eye with the muzzle I unloaded the rifle and set to work:
Exit wound was large enough and the flies didn't hang around:
With some help over the 'phone from nunhunter and thinking back to a recent YouTube video tutorial, I gralloched him on the ground (I'd left my gambrel in the house and the wife doesn't want me to shoot deer here...
). Don't think I did too bad a job and having a cold meant that I didn't smell anything. Grass looked like there'd been a massacre and what I could see of the innards, he looked pretty healthy:
Didn't have a bone saw so had to improvise with a Leatherman serrated blade - was hard work and I had to lift it by the hind legs to drop the pluck out. I'd recently bought a Mora Roe knife and it was superb. Razor sharp and tiny blade made it really controllable. The ball on the point meant that the gut contents remained where they should. I was using the disposable gloves you get from a petrol station when filling with diesel - they're useless (although fine on rabbits), I'll be putting my surgical gloves back in the bag for next time.
Managed to sneak the corpse back to the barn where there is a beer fridge. Beer emptied into my workshop (I'll reward myself with one later!) and deer chucked in - don't have somewhere to hang it at the moment. Will see if I can knock something up tomorrow as wife is out most of the day, assuming I survive the dentist in the morning:
Considering my last deer cost about £250 (stalking cost plus carcass cost), this one cost about 60p! Wife texted me to see if I'd stopped target shooting so she could bring the dogs out. I was on my way in by then fortunately so took the dogs out once I'd put the rifle back in the cabinet. Emptied the bin bag full of guts over the fence so it's the neighbour's problem now (joke). Dog wasn't terribly interested in the murder scene funnily enough.
