Anyone got any tips for stalking red stags (woodland)

Knifeman

Active Member
Hi can anyone sugest the prefered method for stalking red stags, would it be better to sit in the high seat and wait or go out and look for them?
What are your views on this?
regards paul
 
Hi Paul,

I'm not a huge fan of the high seat, although I know they yield good results.

I've only been wodland stalking for reds a handfull of times, in a woodland with varied landscapes and terrains, with several rides passing through. For me I always enjoy the walk and the stalk. The high seat is almost a last resort.

Arguably you could find yourself in a woodland, using rides, worn paths, open floor when you are presented with a stag grazing at the far end of a ride with plenty of scope for a stalk. Or you could be faced with dense woodland with no reasonable way of walking without alerting all and sundry to your presence before getting within view of the stags, or anything for that matter.

I would say that it will depend totally on the woodland in question.

This message is actually of no help to you at all... but I've typed it now. So I'll post it!

Enjoy whatever you decide to do Paul.

DC
 
I used to have a peace of fairly thick woodland with Reds in. For two years I tried stalking them and never managed to spot on! The only way I managed to see one was when I put a high seat in and was very patient.

Like DC I am not a massive fan of high seat preferring the skill of the stalk but needs must. Reds have such a sense of smell and hearing they always seemed to see me before I saw them.
 
Reds in woodland are 90% luck and 10% skill IMHO. Clearfell is best but if you dont have any it must be woodland edges.

Get above them and wait. I have had reds scraping and grunting 50m in front of me within rides and by the time I got gloves off (minus 6 at the time) and rifle of shoulder and bulter creeks up, it was gone. Spent a year in a syndicate with very little in clear areas but plenty of reds and saw loads , bagged one. Others took wads of surrounding farmland, so I befriended some local farmers :)

Aniseed oil at a strategic point can work occasionally. but you must be upwind always (OBV) or clear an area to promote new growth.
 
see them before they see you!

Depends on what you looking at achieving. If its a one off stalk then do as you most enjoy. If you have aquired land with reds on and you need to manage them then you may need to choose the more effective method as oppossed to the one you most enjoy. I would say the high seat would be most effective but it would depend on the lay of the land
 
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Used to have a 12,500 acre lease in Scotland with two forests on it with Reds and Sika in abundant numbers. The best time to stalk reds in a forest is during the rut. As a rule I had to be on the edge of the forest before the light came up, and you could mark them down as long as they carried on roaring.

As both woods were on two opposite hills with the river blackwater running through the middle you had two beats to choose from. Providing they roared on and off you can stalk them and mark them down. However it really depends on how well you know your ground, and the wind is the biggest problem.

Whatever you do always try and keep above them, that way any scent will hopefully blow over them if indeed it changes, which it frequently does in woodland. It didnt work everytime, but I can recall many stags I have taken with clients over the years where it did work, and to me it is one of the most exciting forms of stalking.

Best

Sikamalc
 
Thank you for the tips, i am off tonight for a couple of days, so fingers crossed. I will let you know how i get on.

paul
 
its luck mate just wait till rut and call em in if your new to area, or if your seeing them all time and know their haunts be in position hour before sun rise and glass every nook & cranny as more than likely they will be lying out
Hi can anyone sugest the prefered method for stalking red stags, would it be better to sit in the high seat and wait or go out and look for them?
What are your views on this?
regards paul
 
I have been stalking some forestry Reds for the last year, and what I have found to be true is that patience is the key. I have tried stalking the rides and clearings but have seen very little that way. The route to success is to find a vantage point overlooking a favoured area (may well be from a high seat) and wait it out, so long waits are unfortunately all part of the game. One tip I was told was to be on the ground and in position in the dark to try and intercept the deer as they come in off open ground as it gets light. Do not honestly know how true this is because whenever I see the deer they are coming out from cover to feed in the open once the sun is up!
 
it works mate :thumb:
I have been stalking some forestry Reds for the last year, and what I have found to be true is that patience is the key. I have tried stalking the rides and clearings but have seen very little that way. The route to success is to find a vantage point overlooking a favoured area (may well be from a high seat) and wait it out, so long waits are unfortunately all part of the game. One tip I was told was to be on the ground and in position in the dark to try and intercept the deer as they come in off open ground as it gets light. Do not honestly know how true this is because whenever I see the deer they are coming out from cover to feed in the open once the sun is up!
 
Was in a syndicate in the highlands a few years back with reds & sika, is was a 3000 acres of woodland.

Remember going in when the rut was on, parked up & could hear a stag up near the top of the wood.
It took about an hour to get to him crawling up ditches under branches crossing burns i got to within about 30m of him he had about a dozen hinds milling about & he was lying down in a small clearing looking right at me.
He finale started showing more intrest in the hinds and started moving about i sat & watched him for about 1/2 hour i could have shot him but there was no way i could get him out.

This was about 6 years back still rember it as it is one of the best stalkes that i have ever had.
Never got anything that day bit it is a day that i will not forget.

John
 
Well done Macky
Thats what we like to hear, It's not just about pulling the trigger.
It's about making decisions, The right ones. And not the ones we would regret.
 
Be there before dark
Look to walk, don't walk to look.
Take the opportunities when they arise, you don't usually get a second chance.
Before you pull the trigger, think, can I get this out..

Woodland reds are a great prize and usually hard earned..


regards
griff
 
Was in a syndicate in the highlands a few years back with reds & sika, is was a 3000 acres of woodland.

Remember going in when the rut was on, parked up & could hear a stag up near the top of the wood.
It took about an hour to get to him crawling up ditches under branches crossing burns i got to within about 30m of him he had about a dozen hinds milling about & he was lying down in a small clearing looking right at me.
He finale started showing more intrest in the hinds and started moving about i sat & watched him for about 1/2 hour i could have shot him but there was no way i could get him out.

This was about 6 years back still rember it as it is one of the best stalkes that i have ever had.
Never got anything that day bit it is a day that i will not forget.

John

I was down in Devon a few years ago and had one of those days. I started by disturbing a stag on my way into the high seat. The high seat was against a large beech, one of a line on the edge of a wood, and the plan was that deer would come out of the wood into the turnips somewhere in the 100 yards ahead of me but after half an hour I heard a deer coming up the edge of the field behind me. I carefully looked round the large beech tree that the seat was tied to and just caught a glimpse of a stag moving from the field into the line of trees, probably the one that I had disturbed earlier. I looked the other side of my tree and took aim on the track just inside the wood expecting the stag to step out at any time. I eventually got tired and had to put the rifle down but kept looking back in case the stag came out however I figured that he had gone straight into the wood before I could turn round. Shortly after this I could hear a single hound working in the valley behind me and getting closer and it seemed likely that he was on the line of the stag. Before long he came past me, it was a single beagle and he had lost the line of the stag but carried on up the field and out of sight. Something made me look behind a few minutes later and there was the stag stood on the track briefly before running down into the wood before I could get the rifle round. That stag had stood in the line of trees, 40 odd yards behind me without moving for about 15 minutes and allowed the hound to pass within 20 yards before finally making a move.

I decided to move to another high seat further down into the wood as I could hear a stag roaring down there but as soon as I started to move I started to flush pheasants as the wood was stocked for shooting and had several thousand birds put down, I couldn't move more than a couple of paces without flushing a protesting cock pheasant. I went down past the high seat and although I knew that the deer were probably used to the disturbance it was making me uncomfortable and when I saw and spooked a spiker I retreated to the high seat and took up position. This high seat had three lines of fire, one directly ahead where the deer crossed a track on their way to the field, one at 45 degrees through a bit of a ride and another at 90 degrees down the line between the planted trees.

After a short wait I could hear a deer coming towards me but realised that it wasn't going to cross the track and started to look down the ride at 45 degrees. I saw a stag come to the edge of the ride and stop about 50 yards away, he was in heavy cover and I could see one antler that was showing 5 points. I had the rifle to my shoulder and waited for it to step out into the ride. Minutes passed and the stag hadn't moved but then suddenly shot across the gap and into heavy cover on the other side. I thought I was going to get one more chance as he passed me at 90 degrees but it did the same thing, paused before shooting across the gap and again I had no chance of a shot. He'd gone past me by now so I very very quietly got down from the high seat and started to follow him. I had just his backside occasionally in sight for another ten minutes, never saw his head, could never get a shot and he finally went into a patch of rhododendron and never came out, at least where I was watching. The stalker later told me that the stag had 6 points on the other side making it a good 11 pointer.

I had been out for about two hours, never had a shot at the two stags and a spiker that I'd seen and yet had had the most memorable morning out. It was topped by my mate who was in a high seat about a mile away and saw a cougar walking through the bracken. He thought he was seeing things but when we mentioned it to the farmer he said "oh yeah, we see it a couple of times each year" as if it was an every day thing.
 
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it works mate :thumb:

in my humble opinion , catching them out at first light is the approach i use , once i know their using the field regularly i place ahigh seat where i can easily get to it without making too much noise and then sit and wait , 8 out 10 times it works !

cheers lee
 
Paul K, great story mate, you had me enthralled, ain't it great when they manage to outwit you, makes it a hell of a lot more fun than winning every time.
I also heard about pumas/cougars in Scotland from a fairly reliable source. What I can't figure out, is why no one has shot or photographed one?
cheers
50/50
 
Only been stalking woodland reds a handful of times and find them much more difficult than roe. One memory from a few years ago during the rut. I was out about 2 hours before light with the intention of making my way up to the top boundary or the woods. I'd been out about 20 minutes when that classic roar started right on the top edge, so off I went regularly checking wind and quietly moving towards the sound. It took me about an hour then I found myself with one small bank of trees between me and the loudest roaring stag I'd ever heard. I remember the feeling like it was yesterday, I was shaking like a sh***ing dog, all the hair was stood up on the back of my neck. I paused for a few moments listening and composing myself. Then I stepped around the corner and there he was in full roar only 40 yards away. The only downer is that 40 yards was 20 yards on the other side of the boundary fence. Bummer !!! But probably just as well as extraction would have taken all day.
Wingy
 
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