Start times for a morning stalk? What works for you?

[sikamalc]

I will be starting on my Roe Buck cull soon. So up at 4.30am out the door by 5am with clients. Evening out about 5pm and back if were lucky by 9pm. Weather depending. June it gets better up about 3.30am out the door at 4am. Evenings out at 6.30pm back if I am lucky 10pm. Finish in the larder by 10.30pm, in bed by 11pm up again at 3.30am.
3 to 4 days on this and I am done. Home for 2 days and then back again. Longest stint this year will be 6 days on the trot, then home for 2 nights before back again for 5 days. This is my routine for the next 2 months at the moment.

Fallow early mornings stalking, evenings usually high seats. Full moon does not bode well for good results, they will be out all night and in before light breaks. Knowing your ground, your deer and the effect of the weather comes with being on the ground, and experience over the years.

 

[Mungo]

I will be starting on my Roe Buck cull soon. So up at 4.30am out the door by 5am with clients. Evening out about 5pm and back if were lucky by 9pm. Weather depending. June it gets better up about 3.30am out the door at 4am. Evenings out at 6.30pm back if I am lucky 10pm. Finish in the larder by 10.30pm, in bed by 11pm up again at 3.30am.
3 to 4 days on this and I am done. Home for 2 days and then back again. Longest stint this year will be 6 days on the trot, then home for 2 nights before back again for 5 days. This is my routine for the next 2 months at the moment.

Fallow early mornings stalking, evenings usually high seats. Full moon does not bode well for good results, they will be out all night and in before light breaks. Knowing your ground, your deer and the effect of the weather comes with being on the ground, and experience over the years.

I don’t think I could manage that for more than a few days before I started to make a lot of stupid mistakes.

Do you nap in the middle of the day?

 

[DamaDama.243]

I was told by my mentor years ago that deer, when undisturbed, will feed in 4-5 hour cycles throughout the day. An hour or so feeding then lying up ruminating for 3-4 hours then start the cycle again. Obviously weather and other disturbance will alter this, but I believe that this holds true, I have shot deer at all times of day over the last 26 years.
But as already said time on the ground and learning the habits on your patch is the best way to learn what works for your area.

 

[sikamalc]

I don’t think I could manage that for more than a few days before I started to make a lot of stupid mistakes.

Do you nap in the middle of the day?

For those that know the area, I have a bothy. In fact its an old Victorian pump house, consisting of two rooms. The largest is now a living space, with kitchen, shower room and toilet, log burner, 3 beds, table chairs etc. I live, eat and sleep there when stalking. Its set in the owners garden amongst mature trees and a bluebell lawn. The other side is a slightly smaller room with a full larder, and walk in chiller.
I try to sleep midday, however I can almost put money on the gardener starting the bloody lawn mower up or strimmer when I am trying to kip. But I am lucky to have such facilities on site. However it cost me around £6000 to put it all in, with the help of the estate.
But its still nice to get home and relax, and forget about deer for a few hours!!

 

[mike308]

I like to be out 30 minutes before1st light. I'm generally out for 4 hours, back for breakfast then out again, back for dinner then rest in the afternoon then out again about 4 pm till dark. I get most of my deer early morning but can get deer anytime during the day. I am stalking red, roe and Sika in forestry in Scotland.
I'll be up for the first time this year next week so not much sleep for a week.

 

[User00025]

I will be starting on my Roe Buck cull soon. So up at 4.30am out the door by 5am with clients. Evening out about 5pm and back if were lucky by 9pm. Weather depending. June it gets better up about 3.30am out the door at 4am. Evenings out at 6.30pm back if I am lucky 10pm. Finish in the larder by 10.30pm, in bed by 11pm up again at 3.30am.
3 to 4 days on this and I am done.

That's the trouble with you young ones, can't stand the pace.
As a keeper from May 1st, up at 4.00am onto rearing field, check and water/feed. Round snares and traps, kennels, breakfast. Setting up more brooders, shelter pens, gather eggs. Lunch, one hour kip, feed round laying pens and rearing field, some work in woods on release pens, tea.
Wash eggs, and set in trays, give dogs a run, check rearing field and close up, shower, bed 11pm. Gets even worse when you have birds to wood and still shutting up on rearing field. Now looking back I don't know how I did it until early August (last birds to wood). Oh almost forgot, stalking Roe as well. Twelve weeks of most enjoyable Hell each year.

 

[sikamalc]

That's the trouble with you young ones, can't stand the pace.
As a keeper from May 1st, up at 4.00am onto rearing field, check and water/feed. Round snares and traps, kennels, breakfast. Setting up more brooders, shelter pens, gather eggs. Lunch, one hour kip, feed round laying pens and rearing field, some work in woods on release pens, tea.
Wash eggs, and set in trays, give dogs a run, check rearing field and close up, shower, bed 11pm. Gets even worse when you have birds to wood and still shutting up on rearing field. Now looking back I don't know how I did it until early August (last birds to wood). Oh almost forgot, stalking Roe as well. Twelve weeks of most enjoyable Hell each year.

I wont ask how old you are, but you may well be younger than me? That's only 12 weeks you are talking about. I am stalking and managing all 6 species just about throughout the year, young man

 

[JabaliHunter]

I like to be on the ground while it’s still dark. It just makes me feel good, watching and listening to the world waking up as it starts to get light.

 

[Tim.243]

That's the trouble with you young ones, can't stand the pace.
As a keeper from May 1st, up at 4.00am onto rearing field, check and water/feed. Round snares and traps, kennels, breakfast. Setting up more brooders, shelter pens, gather eggs. Lunch, one hour kip, feed round laying pens and rearing field, some work in woods on release pens, tea.
Wash eggs, and set in trays, give dogs a run, check rearing field and close up, shower, bed 11pm. Gets even worse when you have birds to wood and still shutting up on rearing field. Now looking back I don't know how I did it until early August (last birds to wood). Oh almost forgot, stalking Roe as well. Twelve weeks of most enjoyable Hell each year.

Good job SD was not around back then as you would have got nothing done....

 

[Loler UK]

Tailor it to the deer and the ground. Thermal 1hr (or more) before legal light can get you in position then wait for it to get light, equally if culling as a team you can communicate movements to the other team members. So everyone knows what to expect as light breaks.

 

[User00025]

I wont ask how old you are, but you may well be younger than me? That's only 12 weeks you are talking about. I am stalking and managing all 6 species just about throughout the year, young man

Ah!! I only managed three species as well in some jobs, Red, Sika and Roe, just Fallow and Muntjac now and elsewhere.You would have to be as old as Methusela to be older than me old man.
Big one next time Malc and I don't mean 70. These Fallow get heavier every year don't they.

 

[badbob]

one hour before official sunrise...you can get an app.
this is not for stalking but stationary or in high seat.
Actual stalking requires better light (before thermal spotters that is.)
Midsummer, Need a snooze at midday

 

[User00025]

Good job SD was not around back then as you would have got nothing done....

Hey Tim, I didn't even know what a computer was then,. As it's only wild birds and Fallow/Munties now, and with help from an assistant/under man, I get more time. Just another 20 and I'll get my letter, I might pack up then.

 

[stubear]

I like to be out in the field an hour before sunrise at the latest. Get up in a high seat or park myself out the way with the rifle on the sticks, have a look-see for an hour and then go for a wander.

 

[rem284]

Culling red, roe and sika daily all year round. In general out the door 1 hour before sunrise. Beat is on my doorstep. Depend on weather etc out for 3-4 hours. Home, secure rifle and dogs, head to larder. Depending on time of year back out 3-4 hours before sunset. If cold and frosty will change to going out when it's the warmer part of the day. Summer time is a pita, out about 3am, morning stalk, try to get a couple of hours kip midday, and a couple at midnight as evening stalk might not get finished till midnight. Then add into the equation the midgets biting ya heed off

 

[Erik Hamburger]

I used to be able to find deer on most of my permissions at any time of day - even mid-summer.
I often enjoyed going out in Winter after breakfast, morning paper and coffee (so around 11AM-12Noon, to return home by 15.00-15.30.
However, since CV19 lockdowns started a year ago, the massive increase in footfall and dog-walkers everywhere where they shouldn't be has forced me to be on some sites well before 1 hour before sunrise, to get into the area /position / high seat ready for first light, to have any chance at all of a successful stalk. I find the first dog-walkers turn up quite soon after sunrise and often spoil the stalk... Late afternoon Stalks in Winter now coincide with a very popular dog-walking time (15.00-16.00) so have been very frustrating on some sites.

 

[geoffw]

I was told by my mentor years ago that deer, when undisturbed, will feed in 4-5 hour cycles throughout the day. An hour or so feeding then lying up ruminating for 3-4 hours then start the cycle again. Obviously weather and other disturbance will alter this, but I believe that this holds true, I have shot deer at all times of day over the last 26 years.
But as already said time on the ground and learning the habits on your patch is the best way to learn what works for your area.

Agree, though my understanding is that there are shorter cycles for the smaller species (smaller rumens)

 

[TomDeer]

I tend to find Mounties at any time

Are you allowed to stalk them? Don't they carry guns themselves?

My autocorrect does the same thing

 

[sikamalc]

Ah!! I only managed three species as well in some jobs, Red, Sika and Roe, just Fallow and Muntjac now and elsewhere.You would have to be as old as Methusela to be older than me old man.
Big one next time Malc and I don't mean 70. These Fallow get heavier every year don't they.

It must have been a small paper round when you were a boy Keep going mate, that's the only way. Big Fallow, you need a Donk, or in my case Honda.

 

[Dunwaters]

For years I have semi religiously got up early enough to get me on site ready to get stalking just before first shooting light. So of my ground is 1-2 hours from home so I just suck it up and go to bed early. I am mainly shooting roe and fallow in central/southwest England and found generally this works for me. I do this because my old man who taught me to stalk when I was a kid said this was the thing to do and I have never bothered to think hard on the subject. Obviously it’s the traditional thinking linked with the peak activity hours for deer (dawn and dusk) it seems to work and I know it is the traditional strategy. Also avoids other people etc as well.

Today though driving around the country I have seen a total of 10+ small groups of roe standing around in the open visible from the roads/motorways in the middle of the day.

So my question is “are there people out there who just ignore the hour before sunrise rule that I work to and just wing it? And does this regularly work for them?”

I am sure that everyone has shot the odd deer at a strange time, but for me I go hour before sunrise to about an hour or so after then I just assume they are to bed.

Thoughts? Your answers may dictate what time the alarm gets set for tomorrow .

I like being out early, especially at this time of the year but you’ll probably get just as many deer in the evening.