Hello all, a bit of an update to my stalking and a carry on from the My first Red write up.
Stalking has been a constant for me since I started the new permission in late December, I try to get out both Saturday and Sunday mornings before 1st light and have a look about some of the new ground. I think some would say its been a little slow, seeing deer Roe, Red and the odd fallow! But nothing has been in the right place at the right time, or its never stopped moving back into cover on most occasions. Sometimes I haven't even had a gun due to the time of day or the small child now almost 1 year old on my back!
I try to think of it like fishing, its called fishing not catching!
The weather has been awful, the wet days have been totally unproductive and we have had a lot of those down here and January was not my month, nothing came my way that month, the deer signs just got less and less to the point it looked like they had all moved off the patch. trail cams wernt picking much up, just the odd passing Roe or a couple Red but no pattern to movement at all.
So the 1st deer to present a decent shot was a small Fallow Doe, it was a Sunday morning my wife's birthday actually 8th of February.
Headed out before 1st light and made my way up across the woods scanning round with the thermal to make sure I didn't stumble across something and bump it off into the next county. came up to the top of the hill, I'm puffing a bit as I wanted to get to the top before any light!
A scan across the valley, My usual spot for seeing life was empty, couple of hairs bouncing about but nothing else. kept scanning round and over to the far woods and again, another morning of nothing, well at least its not raining! one last look and I will move on up the track and have a look up the filed and into the next wood. Hang on, we have life! Its Red, they are walking up from the bottom of the valley and across the far field from behind the lower tree line, ok time to get into position for a long shot. Watching through the thermal these deer are not stopping, they are going somewhere and one by one in a nice orderly line the disappear into the woods on the left of the field and up into the forestry out of bounds, Bugger! Oh well that's more than I have seen in weeks so its a good thing!
Onwards and up the track we go then, I have the wind on my right side now and I keep moving up the edge of the field hidden in the track cutting, stopping now and then looking out at the far field in hope those Red decided to go back for some breakfast but no such luck.
I can now see out the end of the cutting and into the field and into the next wood, thermal up what am I looking at? that's deer and a lot of them must be 30! its getting a decent amount of light now, I can see with the eyes, they are black! What am I looking at, that's Fallow!
Heart starts its pumping thing, calm down James!
We have everything, Doe's, spikers, Bucks and some little ones. Ok we need to pick one here, needs to be a Doe for number reduction, however the little ones are obviously quite attached to some of those Doe's.
Now we are in open ground to my right, and Infront, to my left running the field edge for 120 yards is not my ground, a fir wood and that's where they are coming from on onto mine. I'm not sure if the wind swirled or what but the biggest stag put his head up and sniffed and bolted to my right and down over the steep valley field, the rest of the adults followed. the sound of that number of deer on wet ground was something I wont forget.
now lets re scan with a thermal, ok we have 3 small ones left grazing, oblivious to the fact everyone else has left, well that will do nicely! sticks out, gun up. range finder, 96 yards. cross hairs set, squeeze Bang, thwack, deer down. the other 2 jog off to the edge of the wood in front of me, turn to look back at the down deer and stamp at it, now I feel kind of guilty here. however, the shot they are presenting is still safe but I haven't got my hygiene course done yet so cant shift them on and one is enough for my freezer.
lets go get this one sorted then. the shot was good, where I wanted it and she was a nice little Doe id estimate a late bourn last season Doe. She should make some nice meat! drag her up to the edge of the field boundary and do the gralloch. I can see the rest of them heading up over the forestry on the other side of the valley.
right she is only small, string the legs together and I will carry her back home. Carrying her back 1.5 miles was the last time I do that! I for some reason didn't take any photos of her at all, not sure if it was deliberate due to how I felt when her mates turned and stamped at her or forgetfulness. She was hung in my chiller for a week and butchered at home and put into my and my parents freezer, we got approx. 10kg of meat.
Now I have done my hygiene course so I have an outlet for them, now I should be able to make dent in the population!
The next few stalks go the same way as before, not a lot about.
The next successful morning out was Feb 21st.
Again my standard morning routine now, out before 1st light and up over the woods to check the normal spot across the valley. I'm getting a bit used to seeing nothing now when I look through the thermal however today was not that day, a full field of Red, its on!
move to my normal spot, down on to the floor, bipod out and set. ok wait for some light. These Red are quite happy moving about and grazing, pushing each other about and some young stags are still clashing antlers, a wonderful sight for me to see on a dry clear morning. then for some reason they decide that's enough and start heading to the top corner of the field and filtering over the fence and off into the forestry out of bounds, it was as if the alarm had gone off and time was called on the grazing session. now probably 8 of them decided to stay for a bit but they are right up in the top corner, 390 ish yards I know from checking before, nothing is giving me a safe shot as they are all stacked up. Then they are gone over the fence, Bugger! I think to myself I need to be able to see in the half light as once the daylight is up they are gone, go digital instead of glass maybe?
Hang on, they are back out! still up that corner but they are back and grazing, kind of, more of browsing and moving.
we have a bit of right to left wind today, its light but its not still so id like a proper broadside facing left presentation for me to make sure of no gut shot possibility. one turns that way and is still browsing etc, range it 396 yards! adjust scope 12 clicks. she stops, I'm ready, Bang, Thwack! she jumps and runs left and towards me about 10 yards and flop she is down. the rest of the group head off at speed to the right down into some oak woods, i wait for a while in case they come back up over but nothing unfortunately.
Right off back home to fetch the quad. head back over and up the steep valley side through a field and a tree line into the top field to get my prize, i do the gralloch where she fell and load her onto
the quad. she isn't a big one, this one is off the the game dealer, 35.15 kg on the hook this one. that will do nicely as my 1st deer to the dealer in over 15 years.
Now i usually walk this place and do a trail cam check on a Friday, daughter on my back, its like our big adventure day however i hadn't walked it that week so maybe I should stay away before a stalk. a mate of mine has been saying for a while he fancy's joining me on a stalk or two, so the following weekend he gets to my place for 6am and we head off out and do my normal routine, up across the woods, check the across the valley spot, nope nothing, just 1 hair having its breakfast. we stalk on up into the next set of woods, lots of signs here, slots all over the place so they're on the move, looks like Red and Roe. nothing in this bit, so we push on out the top of those woods and into the next set of fields, these join onto the forestry out of bounds and I have seen a group of Reds in here a while back on one of my recon missions without a gun, note to self if you don't have your daughter on your back take a bledy gun you fool!
Nothing in here, just pheasants and sheep.
Right ok that will do, lets go back and check the trail cams on the way home. 1st cam, one Roe at 11.45pm and another the following day at 6am, a bit strange times, not seen that movement before on that cam.
on to the next cam in my favourite spot, the long shot field as its now been named. ok Tuesday we have a small white dog at 9am (wonderful!), Thursday 1.45pm we have a human, waving at the bledy camera, and a huge dog with him. sits down in front of the camera, takes a rest then off he goes, this is way way way off the public path!!!! 30 mins later 3 Red cross left to right at some speed, odd time? for this spot not seen that before! Saturday morning (today at the time) 3 Red pass the camera at 4.30am, again strange time, not seen that before in this spot. off home we go.
Sunday i saw my friend (also the landowner/farmer) he told me the hunt had been through that week and driven everything off for miles, including his sheep..... so that explains the lack of animals, and strange movements. not sure about the bloke with the big dog or the little white one mind. but its answering some questions anyway. in passing he told me of some more ground further up the line he owns and a small woodland patch on it, he saw in his words (3 Red stags, bledy big ones) on this spot a couple days ago. I think ok sounds interesting, need to take a look at this.
Friday 6th March,
Daughter and I go for a wander on the permission. we wont go far as tomorrow I'm stalking again with a mate and don't want to disturb it. we will just go to the top of the woods and look into the long shot field and forestry wit the thermal, see if anything is around. we take picknick etc and we get to the spot, nothing, totally dead not even a Roe. oh well lets go home, but i cant, the temptation of pushing on up and taking a look at this new spot gets the better of me so we go. another mile and a half and we are into the gate of the new spot, a field maybe 3 acres in size, hedge line another field probably 4 acres down hill slope into a river valley. a far hedge line that is a boundary to another field the same kind of make up but in 1 as to what I'm standing in. this has a gap in the middle of it to get into the far field with the wood patch. quick look on google maps shows opposite the gap is the little woodland patch he owns and this joins onto a wood not owned by him.
to the left of that gate is a wet spot and its full of slots, Red for sure by the size, some are massive so for sure Stags!
we walk to the far hedge and look through into the next field with the thermal, a few pheasants but that's it. its a lovely looking spot, few oaks randomly in the middle of the field, one big dead one.
we make our way down to the gap so we can go into this field and have a look round, I get to the gap look in and wow, 7 Red looking at us, all Hinds. Ok lets back away slowly and pretend we haven't seen that, they had seen us mind and jogged of to the patch of wood i had been told about.
oh well, I know where you are now!
Saturday 7th March, our Red letter day
My mate and I are going to head out early, we need the time to get to this spot and we are going to stalk the normal spots on the way just in case, 5.45 we are out the door and up across the woods.
normal spot long shot field is 1st, nope nothing just 2 hairs in the thermal.
push on up the cutting look into the field and woods, a Roe Buck in the woods. don't want you today, your time will come!
a fox, darn don't want to shot you right now, the stalk is just starting, i will get you next time!
push on through the woods and up into the next fields to stalk them and into the new spot if we make it that far.
these fields are empty also, a few pheasant's and sheep.
we cross the track and into the spot, we walk the hedge line to our left across the field stopping every few steps and checking the thermal all over the new spot, we see nothing at all.
we reach the far hedge line and i look through into the next field, and again nothing just one pheasant in the top corner.
right down to the gap, see if we get a replay of yesterday, we approach the gap, its really wet so trying to get your boots out the suction without a sound is quite a skill in itself, and with 2 of us is not silent!
i look through with the mk1 eyeballs, nothing at all, scan the edge of the wood, nothing! right thermal time, WOW ok i see you in the woods. i can see 3, 2 well behind cover and one between a big oak and a small one right in front of me about 130 yards. sticks out, gun up and take look, its a Hind, she is looking at me front on. no shot here yet so i wait, hopeful she comes out for a feed. she keeps looking, has a bit of an itch and then moves off right into deeper cover, bugger!
i whisper to my mate, wait here and I'm going to cross the gap and look in to see if anything down below us, if its safe i will wave you over.
trying to be as slow and quiet as i can, i move into the gap and over to some brambles on the right side and use the eyes into the woods, I'm sure i can see deer! Sticks up, gun up, yep its a bunch of Hinds, probably 6 or more, all jostling about and not much of a shot presented. one big one piles into them and shoves them all off, she is side on looking at me, ok neck shot this one then, Bang! thwack! however i don't see the deer anymore.... did i miss? not with the sound i herd!
the group take off to my surprise its about 15 of them, off up hill and out into open field, they slow down and stop, ok pick one, boiler room shot, Bang! Thwack! she drops on the spot!
the group take off again, I'm saying to may mate whistle at them get them to stop!!!
all this time I'm also expecting a un moderated 30-30 to go off next to my left ear at any moment as my mate takes one, but nothing is heard apart from a whistle, we both whistle and 3 of the group stop.
no time for messing, boiler room shot on the back one of the 3, Bang! Thwack! she drops on the spot.
the other 2 are off and following the rest up over the bank and fence out into the next field, all skylined so that is the end of this mad 2 minuets!
i turn round to see my mate, rifle up on stick and him saying mate i was literally about to squeeze one off when you shot that last one, same one i was about to shoot! we joke about how i would have gone deaf in the left ear and i was expecting it any moment!
right lets find this one down in the woods, she was laying there, head down over a bank about to fall off into the depths of the woods, how we would have got her out i don't know as she was big, biggest red iv ever shot! We tried t pull her up the bank between us and gave up after about 5 feet. lets gralloch her out here, that will make her lighter to pull up the bank and up the woods the 50 yards to the field. erm lets just say that didn't help much and we gave up after another 5 feet! Quadbike and rope needed! we pop our guns and sticks against an oak, chew the fat for a bit and then think about checking the other 2 out.
99 yards the 1st shot, 130 for the 2nd and 160 for the 3rd.
We inspected the 3 kills and were happy with all and made the walk back home to get the quad, some rope, and a trailer!
we dragged her up over the bank and into field, attempted to lift her into the trailer and looked at each other and said f*** that! we will drag her up the tail board!
we dragged all 3 into the trailer and headed home.
the biggest of the 3 were for the game dealer and the smallest we would put in the larder for our families.
biggest went 69.4KG on the hook, medium one went 58.4KG on the hook and what we kept for ourselves was estimated 50ish KG
she is now hanging in the larder ready for butchery on Saturday.
If you made it this far well done for sticking with me on this long winded write up! hope you enjoyed is as much as i did.
James
Stalking has been a constant for me since I started the new permission in late December, I try to get out both Saturday and Sunday mornings before 1st light and have a look about some of the new ground. I think some would say its been a little slow, seeing deer Roe, Red and the odd fallow! But nothing has been in the right place at the right time, or its never stopped moving back into cover on most occasions. Sometimes I haven't even had a gun due to the time of day or the small child now almost 1 year old on my back!
I try to think of it like fishing, its called fishing not catching!
The weather has been awful, the wet days have been totally unproductive and we have had a lot of those down here and January was not my month, nothing came my way that month, the deer signs just got less and less to the point it looked like they had all moved off the patch. trail cams wernt picking much up, just the odd passing Roe or a couple Red but no pattern to movement at all.
So the 1st deer to present a decent shot was a small Fallow Doe, it was a Sunday morning my wife's birthday actually 8th of February.
Headed out before 1st light and made my way up across the woods scanning round with the thermal to make sure I didn't stumble across something and bump it off into the next county. came up to the top of the hill, I'm puffing a bit as I wanted to get to the top before any light!
A scan across the valley, My usual spot for seeing life was empty, couple of hairs bouncing about but nothing else. kept scanning round and over to the far woods and again, another morning of nothing, well at least its not raining! one last look and I will move on up the track and have a look up the filed and into the next wood. Hang on, we have life! Its Red, they are walking up from the bottom of the valley and across the far field from behind the lower tree line, ok time to get into position for a long shot. Watching through the thermal these deer are not stopping, they are going somewhere and one by one in a nice orderly line the disappear into the woods on the left of the field and up into the forestry out of bounds, Bugger! Oh well that's more than I have seen in weeks so its a good thing!
Onwards and up the track we go then, I have the wind on my right side now and I keep moving up the edge of the field hidden in the track cutting, stopping now and then looking out at the far field in hope those Red decided to go back for some breakfast but no such luck.
I can now see out the end of the cutting and into the field and into the next wood, thermal up what am I looking at? that's deer and a lot of them must be 30! its getting a decent amount of light now, I can see with the eyes, they are black! What am I looking at, that's Fallow!
Heart starts its pumping thing, calm down James!
We have everything, Doe's, spikers, Bucks and some little ones. Ok we need to pick one here, needs to be a Doe for number reduction, however the little ones are obviously quite attached to some of those Doe's.
Now we are in open ground to my right, and Infront, to my left running the field edge for 120 yards is not my ground, a fir wood and that's where they are coming from on onto mine. I'm not sure if the wind swirled or what but the biggest stag put his head up and sniffed and bolted to my right and down over the steep valley field, the rest of the adults followed. the sound of that number of deer on wet ground was something I wont forget.
now lets re scan with a thermal, ok we have 3 small ones left grazing, oblivious to the fact everyone else has left, well that will do nicely! sticks out, gun up. range finder, 96 yards. cross hairs set, squeeze Bang, thwack, deer down. the other 2 jog off to the edge of the wood in front of me, turn to look back at the down deer and stamp at it, now I feel kind of guilty here. however, the shot they are presenting is still safe but I haven't got my hygiene course done yet so cant shift them on and one is enough for my freezer.
lets go get this one sorted then. the shot was good, where I wanted it and she was a nice little Doe id estimate a late bourn last season Doe. She should make some nice meat! drag her up to the edge of the field boundary and do the gralloch. I can see the rest of them heading up over the forestry on the other side of the valley.
right she is only small, string the legs together and I will carry her back home. Carrying her back 1.5 miles was the last time I do that! I for some reason didn't take any photos of her at all, not sure if it was deliberate due to how I felt when her mates turned and stamped at her or forgetfulness. She was hung in my chiller for a week and butchered at home and put into my and my parents freezer, we got approx. 10kg of meat.
Now I have done my hygiene course so I have an outlet for them, now I should be able to make dent in the population!
The next few stalks go the same way as before, not a lot about.
The next successful morning out was Feb 21st.
Again my standard morning routine now, out before 1st light and up over the woods to check the normal spot across the valley. I'm getting a bit used to seeing nothing now when I look through the thermal however today was not that day, a full field of Red, its on!
move to my normal spot, down on to the floor, bipod out and set. ok wait for some light. These Red are quite happy moving about and grazing, pushing each other about and some young stags are still clashing antlers, a wonderful sight for me to see on a dry clear morning. then for some reason they decide that's enough and start heading to the top corner of the field and filtering over the fence and off into the forestry out of bounds, it was as if the alarm had gone off and time was called on the grazing session. now probably 8 of them decided to stay for a bit but they are right up in the top corner, 390 ish yards I know from checking before, nothing is giving me a safe shot as they are all stacked up. Then they are gone over the fence, Bugger! I think to myself I need to be able to see in the half light as once the daylight is up they are gone, go digital instead of glass maybe?
Hang on, they are back out! still up that corner but they are back and grazing, kind of, more of browsing and moving.
we have a bit of right to left wind today, its light but its not still so id like a proper broadside facing left presentation for me to make sure of no gut shot possibility. one turns that way and is still browsing etc, range it 396 yards! adjust scope 12 clicks. she stops, I'm ready, Bang, Thwack! she jumps and runs left and towards me about 10 yards and flop she is down. the rest of the group head off at speed to the right down into some oak woods, i wait for a while in case they come back up over but nothing unfortunately.
Right off back home to fetch the quad. head back over and up the steep valley side through a field and a tree line into the top field to get my prize, i do the gralloch where she fell and load her onto
the quad. she isn't a big one, this one is off the the game dealer, 35.15 kg on the hook this one. that will do nicely as my 1st deer to the dealer in over 15 years.
Now i usually walk this place and do a trail cam check on a Friday, daughter on my back, its like our big adventure day however i hadn't walked it that week so maybe I should stay away before a stalk. a mate of mine has been saying for a while he fancy's joining me on a stalk or two, so the following weekend he gets to my place for 6am and we head off out and do my normal routine, up across the woods, check the across the valley spot, nope nothing, just 1 hair having its breakfast. we stalk on up into the next set of woods, lots of signs here, slots all over the place so they're on the move, looks like Red and Roe. nothing in this bit, so we push on out the top of those woods and into the next set of fields, these join onto the forestry out of bounds and I have seen a group of Reds in here a while back on one of my recon missions without a gun, note to self if you don't have your daughter on your back take a bledy gun you fool!
Nothing in here, just pheasants and sheep.
Right ok that will do, lets go back and check the trail cams on the way home. 1st cam, one Roe at 11.45pm and another the following day at 6am, a bit strange times, not seen that movement before on that cam.
on to the next cam in my favourite spot, the long shot field as its now been named. ok Tuesday we have a small white dog at 9am (wonderful!), Thursday 1.45pm we have a human, waving at the bledy camera, and a huge dog with him. sits down in front of the camera, takes a rest then off he goes, this is way way way off the public path!!!! 30 mins later 3 Red cross left to right at some speed, odd time? for this spot not seen that before! Saturday morning (today at the time) 3 Red pass the camera at 4.30am, again strange time, not seen that before in this spot. off home we go.
Sunday i saw my friend (also the landowner/farmer) he told me the hunt had been through that week and driven everything off for miles, including his sheep..... so that explains the lack of animals, and strange movements. not sure about the bloke with the big dog or the little white one mind. but its answering some questions anyway. in passing he told me of some more ground further up the line he owns and a small woodland patch on it, he saw in his words (3 Red stags, bledy big ones) on this spot a couple days ago. I think ok sounds interesting, need to take a look at this.
Friday 6th March,
Daughter and I go for a wander on the permission. we wont go far as tomorrow I'm stalking again with a mate and don't want to disturb it. we will just go to the top of the woods and look into the long shot field and forestry wit the thermal, see if anything is around. we take picknick etc and we get to the spot, nothing, totally dead not even a Roe. oh well lets go home, but i cant, the temptation of pushing on up and taking a look at this new spot gets the better of me so we go. another mile and a half and we are into the gate of the new spot, a field maybe 3 acres in size, hedge line another field probably 4 acres down hill slope into a river valley. a far hedge line that is a boundary to another field the same kind of make up but in 1 as to what I'm standing in. this has a gap in the middle of it to get into the far field with the wood patch. quick look on google maps shows opposite the gap is the little woodland patch he owns and this joins onto a wood not owned by him.
to the left of that gate is a wet spot and its full of slots, Red for sure by the size, some are massive so for sure Stags!
we walk to the far hedge and look through into the next field with the thermal, a few pheasants but that's it. its a lovely looking spot, few oaks randomly in the middle of the field, one big dead one.
we make our way down to the gap so we can go into this field and have a look round, I get to the gap look in and wow, 7 Red looking at us, all Hinds. Ok lets back away slowly and pretend we haven't seen that, they had seen us mind and jogged of to the patch of wood i had been told about.
oh well, I know where you are now!
Saturday 7th March, our Red letter day
My mate and I are going to head out early, we need the time to get to this spot and we are going to stalk the normal spots on the way just in case, 5.45 we are out the door and up across the woods.
normal spot long shot field is 1st, nope nothing just 2 hairs in the thermal.
push on up the cutting look into the field and woods, a Roe Buck in the woods. don't want you today, your time will come!
a fox, darn don't want to shot you right now, the stalk is just starting, i will get you next time!
push on through the woods and up into the next fields to stalk them and into the new spot if we make it that far.
these fields are empty also, a few pheasant's and sheep.
we cross the track and into the spot, we walk the hedge line to our left across the field stopping every few steps and checking the thermal all over the new spot, we see nothing at all.
we reach the far hedge line and i look through into the next field, and again nothing just one pheasant in the top corner.
right down to the gap, see if we get a replay of yesterday, we approach the gap, its really wet so trying to get your boots out the suction without a sound is quite a skill in itself, and with 2 of us is not silent!
i look through with the mk1 eyeballs, nothing at all, scan the edge of the wood, nothing! right thermal time, WOW ok i see you in the woods. i can see 3, 2 well behind cover and one between a big oak and a small one right in front of me about 130 yards. sticks out, gun up and take look, its a Hind, she is looking at me front on. no shot here yet so i wait, hopeful she comes out for a feed. she keeps looking, has a bit of an itch and then moves off right into deeper cover, bugger!
i whisper to my mate, wait here and I'm going to cross the gap and look in to see if anything down below us, if its safe i will wave you over.
trying to be as slow and quiet as i can, i move into the gap and over to some brambles on the right side and use the eyes into the woods, I'm sure i can see deer! Sticks up, gun up, yep its a bunch of Hinds, probably 6 or more, all jostling about and not much of a shot presented. one big one piles into them and shoves them all off, she is side on looking at me, ok neck shot this one then, Bang! thwack! however i don't see the deer anymore.... did i miss? not with the sound i herd!
the group take off to my surprise its about 15 of them, off up hill and out into open field, they slow down and stop, ok pick one, boiler room shot, Bang! Thwack! she drops on the spot!
the group take off again, I'm saying to may mate whistle at them get them to stop!!!
all this time I'm also expecting a un moderated 30-30 to go off next to my left ear at any moment as my mate takes one, but nothing is heard apart from a whistle, we both whistle and 3 of the group stop.
no time for messing, boiler room shot on the back one of the 3, Bang! Thwack! she drops on the spot.
the other 2 are off and following the rest up over the bank and fence out into the next field, all skylined so that is the end of this mad 2 minuets!
i turn round to see my mate, rifle up on stick and him saying mate i was literally about to squeeze one off when you shot that last one, same one i was about to shoot! we joke about how i would have gone deaf in the left ear and i was expecting it any moment!
right lets find this one down in the woods, she was laying there, head down over a bank about to fall off into the depths of the woods, how we would have got her out i don't know as she was big, biggest red iv ever shot! We tried t pull her up the bank between us and gave up after about 5 feet. lets gralloch her out here, that will make her lighter to pull up the bank and up the woods the 50 yards to the field. erm lets just say that didn't help much and we gave up after another 5 feet! Quadbike and rope needed! we pop our guns and sticks against an oak, chew the fat for a bit and then think about checking the other 2 out.
99 yards the 1st shot, 130 for the 2nd and 160 for the 3rd.
We inspected the 3 kills and were happy with all and made the walk back home to get the quad, some rope, and a trailer!
we dragged her up over the bank and into field, attempted to lift her into the trailer and looked at each other and said f*** that! we will drag her up the tail board!
we dragged all 3 into the trailer and headed home.
the biggest of the 3 were for the game dealer and the smallest we would put in the larder for our families.
biggest went 69.4KG on the hook, medium one went 58.4KG on the hook and what we kept for ourselves was estimated 50ish KG
she is now hanging in the larder ready for butchery on Saturday.
If you made it this far well done for sticking with me on this long winded write up! hope you enjoyed is as much as i did.
James
I reckon your posts must take as long to write as the outings themselves..fair play and keep up the good work. At least the extra 25p per kilo at Kellys helps 
I run out of steam after about 5 lines so good to see a detailed write up 
