Hello everyone.
It's been a while since I posted one of these stories but last weekend's adventure rekindled my appetite for sharing stories. With the game shooting season just ended (I'll come to that at some later point), it was time to head off up the M1 in search of larger quarry, so I went to meet my friend J, having a break from the trials of recent fatherhood (congratulations again!). What better way to recover from regular sleepless nights than to get up at the crack of dawn after all? Unlike the same time last year, this was a beautiful frosty winter's day, the ground was hard rather than a quagmire, the deep puddles were covered in a layer of ice, and we set out into the fields just after 8am.
We quickly spotted 5 or 6 Chinese water deer on a far field, as you'd expect the one that was angled towards the low rays of the rising sun, so their breakfast as slowly defrosting. But these were a long way off and there was plenty of ground to cover first. There are a lot of deer on this ground to the extent that one of the biggest problems is bumping them as you try and creep around discretely. The other main difficulty is that these deer behave like hares and like nothing better than to curl up and lie down in the middle of a field so there's absolutely no cover to approach them. Which is exactly what happened for two hours: we saw plenty of deer, but either running away, or in completely unapproachable or unshootable positions.
Eventually, J. said "We can either go back to that field and hope that one comes back into view, or we can go to the scrubland over there. There are loads of deer there, but you can't see them, and not many have been shot there. Easy way, or hard? Up to you.". You know what? It's no fun if it's easy! "Let's go where the deer are" I said. So we left the fields and entered an expanse of scrub near a stream, completely covered in scrub the exact height and colour of our quarry. More unapproachable ones followed, more bumped ones, but mostly we just couldn't see them. And then, I spotted movement on the ridge (spot the deer):
We walked crouching towards the crest, trying to keep under the skyline, until we could just see its ears poking over he ground, as by now it had of course laid down with no intention of moving. But it was still looking the other way and upwind, so we went around it, still under the skyline, trying to see if we could find an angle for a shot. This is not straightforward on a couched fur ball curled up like a cat. It's hard to work out what part of it you're even aiming. Eventually we found what looked like a window. It was behind a bit of brush but I reckoned the 145gr Fox bullet would be able to punch through that. So I set up a kneeling shot on the sticks, cocked the rifle barrel on the drilling, put the crosshairs on what I thought was the top bit of the left shoulder, and BLAM. A bit of thrashing, but it was going nowhere.
It was 11am exactly, and Artemis had finally smiled on us. If not on the little buck.
It's been a while since I posted one of these stories but last weekend's adventure rekindled my appetite for sharing stories. With the game shooting season just ended (I'll come to that at some later point), it was time to head off up the M1 in search of larger quarry, so I went to meet my friend J, having a break from the trials of recent fatherhood (congratulations again!). What better way to recover from regular sleepless nights than to get up at the crack of dawn after all? Unlike the same time last year, this was a beautiful frosty winter's day, the ground was hard rather than a quagmire, the deep puddles were covered in a layer of ice, and we set out into the fields just after 8am.
We quickly spotted 5 or 6 Chinese water deer on a far field, as you'd expect the one that was angled towards the low rays of the rising sun, so their breakfast as slowly defrosting. But these were a long way off and there was plenty of ground to cover first. There are a lot of deer on this ground to the extent that one of the biggest problems is bumping them as you try and creep around discretely. The other main difficulty is that these deer behave like hares and like nothing better than to curl up and lie down in the middle of a field so there's absolutely no cover to approach them. Which is exactly what happened for two hours: we saw plenty of deer, but either running away, or in completely unapproachable or unshootable positions.
Eventually, J. said "We can either go back to that field and hope that one comes back into view, or we can go to the scrubland over there. There are loads of deer there, but you can't see them, and not many have been shot there. Easy way, or hard? Up to you.". You know what? It's no fun if it's easy! "Let's go where the deer are" I said. So we left the fields and entered an expanse of scrub near a stream, completely covered in scrub the exact height and colour of our quarry. More unapproachable ones followed, more bumped ones, but mostly we just couldn't see them. And then, I spotted movement on the ridge (spot the deer):
We walked crouching towards the crest, trying to keep under the skyline, until we could just see its ears poking over he ground, as by now it had of course laid down with no intention of moving. But it was still looking the other way and upwind, so we went around it, still under the skyline, trying to see if we could find an angle for a shot. This is not straightforward on a couched fur ball curled up like a cat. It's hard to work out what part of it you're even aiming. Eventually we found what looked like a window. It was behind a bit of brush but I reckoned the 145gr Fox bullet would be able to punch through that. So I set up a kneeling shot on the sticks, cocked the rifle barrel on the drilling, put the crosshairs on what I thought was the top bit of the left shoulder, and BLAM. A bit of thrashing, but it was going nowhere.
It was 11am exactly, and Artemis had finally smiled on us. If not on the little buck.
none of mine are that big!
