It was great to have the weather looking promising for a trip up to Buckinghamshire for an evening & morning outing for Chinese Water Deer & Muntjac last weekend. I have not really ever had much experience of these little chaps with most of my 35 years or so of stalking concentrated on fallow, roe & reds on the hill.
We met up mid afternoon, I settled down in a very well placed high seat overlooking the remains of a cover crop and enjoyed a restful hour and a half away from the phone & watching a pair of kites circling above. I was fully expecting not to see anything until the last half hour of light, so when 2 very solid muntjac bucks appeared to my left, I had to do a double take as they caught me by surprise. The larger buck of the two moved back into the cover & out of sight, the other was still feeding at about 70m - they make me think of a clockwork toy in the way they move around. I could see that he was quite a mature beast and took the shot a few seconds, which seemed like an eternity, later. Waited a few minutes and then went over to gralloch him - so much quicker & less effort than the larger species. Not a bad head to my mind & with a damaged left antler, I thought a good one to take.
Having done this, I roosted back in the high seat and was not expecting to see anything more. To say that I was rather surprised when a CWD buck appeared about half an hour later in almost exactly the same spot as I had shot & gralloched the muntjac, oddly not seeming to be at all bothered by what had just happened.
Another shot was taken & a second beast ready for the larder. Again, so much easier to deal with but shedding more hair than a moulting Labrador!
It wasn’t until I was picked up that we realised that the CWD was quite a big boy as well. Heads are being boiled & cleaned & I will be interested to see how they score - any collective wisdom gratefully received.
A few pints & a large curry hit the spot afterwards & shooting another CWD buck the next morning made for a great weekend.
I can’t wait for the early summer & a warm evening out for a roebuck.
We met up mid afternoon, I settled down in a very well placed high seat overlooking the remains of a cover crop and enjoyed a restful hour and a half away from the phone & watching a pair of kites circling above. I was fully expecting not to see anything until the last half hour of light, so when 2 very solid muntjac bucks appeared to my left, I had to do a double take as they caught me by surprise. The larger buck of the two moved back into the cover & out of sight, the other was still feeding at about 70m - they make me think of a clockwork toy in the way they move around. I could see that he was quite a mature beast and took the shot a few seconds, which seemed like an eternity, later. Waited a few minutes and then went over to gralloch him - so much quicker & less effort than the larger species. Not a bad head to my mind & with a damaged left antler, I thought a good one to take.
Having done this, I roosted back in the high seat and was not expecting to see anything more. To say that I was rather surprised when a CWD buck appeared about half an hour later in almost exactly the same spot as I had shot & gralloched the muntjac, oddly not seeming to be at all bothered by what had just happened.
Another shot was taken & a second beast ready for the larder. Again, so much easier to deal with but shedding more hair than a moulting Labrador!
It wasn’t until I was picked up that we realised that the CWD was quite a big boy as well. Heads are being boiled & cleaned & I will be interested to see how they score - any collective wisdom gratefully received.
A few pints & a large curry hit the spot afterwards & shooting another CWD buck the next morning made for a great weekend.
I can’t wait for the early summer & a warm evening out for a roebuck.
