Family Easter Holiday 2017 on the east coast with a bit of stalking on syndicate land that my stepson Ross and I are members of.
This syndicate is setup as a cull to keep muntjac and fallow numbers in check which is best achieved from high seats, however, it's nice to stalk on foot which reduces your chances of success but generally is more enjoyable and skillful.
Anyway, to my tale of the muntjac. Easter Saturday, pass outs stamped and signed, off we go for the afternoon stalk, I choose a high seat and wood, Ross chooses his area, safe lines and no go areas agreed its time to go hunting.
Rifle loaded, safety on, sticks in hand an unseen dog starts barking 100 yards in front of me, the unseen dog then runs off barking through the woods probably chasing a deer!
Keeping to the plan I stalk towards where the dog was barking and my high seat, I never saw the dog but there was a television on in one of the estate let cottages, I guess it belonged there.
I arrived at the high seat and made myself comfortable checked my lines of fire, the best and most productive ride was partially blocked by a fallen tree.This and the fact that Fenton the dog and his owner could be at large anywhere around me didn't fill me with confidence so I very soon decided that this was a good evening for stalking.
Back the way I came to the let cottage and turn right down one of the main rides, the wood on the opposite side of this ride was out of bounds to me because a stray bullet from Ross could potentially find it's way in there, very, very unlikely but not impossible.
Two hundred yards down this ride a track goes back into my wood which I take and quietly make my way down with the gentle wind perfect in my face, this track is fairly straight and doesn't offer much protection to the hunter. My tactic in this situation is to move a few yards look for a good bush or tree to stand in front of, get the rifle ready on sticks and wait dead still and silent.
I'm standing still, rifle ready and a muntjac doe pops out of the brambles, I get on the sights, safety off when her tiny fawn walks out and stands under her legs, ahh!, a lovely sight. I relax, then a follower pops out, back on the rifle cross-hairs on its shoulder, mum standing directly behind. I watch these three through the sights for a full five minutes. I could have shot two of them with one bullet for the whole time. Mum walks off into the woods opposite with her family very close by her side. I've just had a fantastic nature show.
Five minutes later a pair of antlers with a small deer attached walks out onto the track from where the doe and family had gone, I didn't need binoculars to know this was special. Same rules minimum movement get on the rifle and wait for a shot. The buck kept coming towards me without a care, I reckon he wasn't worried because, to him, this rarely stalked part of the estate was a safe place. At around 80 yards he turned right to go back into the woods, bang! I shot him through his left front shoulder blade, between heart and lungs and the remains of the bullet lodged just forward of the diaphragm. He dropped on the spot.
I stood there shaking with proper buck fever, I hadn't felt like this since shooting my first deer, a roebuck, just over six years ago.
A few moments calming down and back to my duty culling muntjac, I stand and wait. When one muntjac shows its face, very often a second or third will come out even after making a very loud bang. Five minutes later a doe pops out followed by a tiny fawn, ahh!, and a follower that still manages to stay in it's mothers shadow! Mother walks back up the track blissfully unaware of me until she comes upon the dead buck, she sniffs the deer then suddenly leaps three feet in the air apparently shocked. I've never seen behaviour like this, maybe she had just been served by the buck? I hope so! She then runs barking into the woods like Fenton earlier, stops and carries on barking for ten minutes.
I wait, the doe, fawn and follower move on walking fairly close to me through the woods. I try to move my sticks around to get a shot on the follower, mother deer gets spooked and all three will be a little more wary for the next stalker.
The light has all but gone by now and I call it a day, walking up to the buck I knew he was a good trophy but hadn't realised what a monster he was. A real old bruiser with torn ears and scars all over the place, he's been in a few scraps.
After getting him back to the larder and with Ross's help we left him whole and did the gralloch by only cutting a small incision next to his pizzle and removed all the green and as much of the pluck as we could, I was considering a full mount at first but decided to go for a head mount and later we caped him from the sternum and recovered as much meat as possible from the back straps and haunches.
I froze the cape andhead for the rest of the holiday before delivering it to SteveNewcombe of Outwoods Taxidermy for mounting.
Steve sent the antlers to Chris Rodgers for measuring, the old boy made 73.5 points CIC which is a very high gold medal.
I hope you enjoyed my tale, I'm now looking forward to catching up with his sparring partner. Thank you for reading.
_______________________________
Technical stuff – Win 270, Interlock 130 gn. 57.5 gn N160. Makes around 2850 fps. in my rifle.
This syndicate is setup as a cull to keep muntjac and fallow numbers in check which is best achieved from high seats, however, it's nice to stalk on foot which reduces your chances of success but generally is more enjoyable and skillful.
Anyway, to my tale of the muntjac. Easter Saturday, pass outs stamped and signed, off we go for the afternoon stalk, I choose a high seat and wood, Ross chooses his area, safe lines and no go areas agreed its time to go hunting.
Rifle loaded, safety on, sticks in hand an unseen dog starts barking 100 yards in front of me, the unseen dog then runs off barking through the woods probably chasing a deer!
Keeping to the plan I stalk towards where the dog was barking and my high seat, I never saw the dog but there was a television on in one of the estate let cottages, I guess it belonged there.
I arrived at the high seat and made myself comfortable checked my lines of fire, the best and most productive ride was partially blocked by a fallen tree.This and the fact that Fenton the dog and his owner could be at large anywhere around me didn't fill me with confidence so I very soon decided that this was a good evening for stalking.
Back the way I came to the let cottage and turn right down one of the main rides, the wood on the opposite side of this ride was out of bounds to me because a stray bullet from Ross could potentially find it's way in there, very, very unlikely but not impossible.
Two hundred yards down this ride a track goes back into my wood which I take and quietly make my way down with the gentle wind perfect in my face, this track is fairly straight and doesn't offer much protection to the hunter. My tactic in this situation is to move a few yards look for a good bush or tree to stand in front of, get the rifle ready on sticks and wait dead still and silent.
I'm standing still, rifle ready and a muntjac doe pops out of the brambles, I get on the sights, safety off when her tiny fawn walks out and stands under her legs, ahh!, a lovely sight. I relax, then a follower pops out, back on the rifle cross-hairs on its shoulder, mum standing directly behind. I watch these three through the sights for a full five minutes. I could have shot two of them with one bullet for the whole time. Mum walks off into the woods opposite with her family very close by her side. I've just had a fantastic nature show.
Five minutes later a pair of antlers with a small deer attached walks out onto the track from where the doe and family had gone, I didn't need binoculars to know this was special. Same rules minimum movement get on the rifle and wait for a shot. The buck kept coming towards me without a care, I reckon he wasn't worried because, to him, this rarely stalked part of the estate was a safe place. At around 80 yards he turned right to go back into the woods, bang! I shot him through his left front shoulder blade, between heart and lungs and the remains of the bullet lodged just forward of the diaphragm. He dropped on the spot.
I stood there shaking with proper buck fever, I hadn't felt like this since shooting my first deer, a roebuck, just over six years ago.
A few moments calming down and back to my duty culling muntjac, I stand and wait. When one muntjac shows its face, very often a second or third will come out even after making a very loud bang. Five minutes later a doe pops out followed by a tiny fawn, ahh!, and a follower that still manages to stay in it's mothers shadow! Mother walks back up the track blissfully unaware of me until she comes upon the dead buck, she sniffs the deer then suddenly leaps three feet in the air apparently shocked. I've never seen behaviour like this, maybe she had just been served by the buck? I hope so! She then runs barking into the woods like Fenton earlier, stops and carries on barking for ten minutes.
I wait, the doe, fawn and follower move on walking fairly close to me through the woods. I try to move my sticks around to get a shot on the follower, mother deer gets spooked and all three will be a little more wary for the next stalker.
The light has all but gone by now and I call it a day, walking up to the buck I knew he was a good trophy but hadn't realised what a monster he was. A real old bruiser with torn ears and scars all over the place, he's been in a few scraps.
After getting him back to the larder and with Ross's help we left him whole and did the gralloch by only cutting a small incision next to his pizzle and removed all the green and as much of the pluck as we could, I was considering a full mount at first but decided to go for a head mount and later we caped him from the sternum and recovered as much meat as possible from the back straps and haunches.
I froze the cape andhead for the rest of the holiday before delivering it to SteveNewcombe of Outwoods Taxidermy for mounting.
Steve sent the antlers to Chris Rodgers for measuring, the old boy made 73.5 points CIC which is a very high gold medal.
I hope you enjoyed my tale, I'm now looking forward to catching up with his sparring partner. Thank you for reading.
_______________________________
Technical stuff – Win 270, Interlock 130 gn. 57.5 gn N160. Makes around 2850 fps. in my rifle.
