A couple of weeks ago my brother and I gained permission on a nice piece of land relatively local to us. My brother had two roe bucks on his first outing and two bucks and two foxes on his second stalk. In between I managed four blanks in a row, saw alot of deer but the only animals willing to present themselves for a shot were does! It did serve as good practise for my Wire Haired Viszla though as he had done no real training for deer work. But after a bit of gentle 'coaching' he soon got into the swing of things, i.e walking calmly at heel and not chargeing around the woods looking for a phessie to point to death.
Anyway I was out again this morning, sat at the base of a tree looking up a very nice grass ride that ran along a valley bottom and hoping that my luck would change. As often happens one moment there was nothing to be seen, then a glance back and there is a buck, he was giving a bush a bit of grief on the track side at about 140 yards. The buck moved towards me a little before standing broadside at around 120 yards.
At the shot the buck reared up and kicked out with his front legs before running up into the woodland on the valley side. I gave him ten minutes then took the dog to the point of impact, he seemed keen on the area but cast around a little on the hillside with no immediate indication of picking up a line. I sent him where I thought the deer had run, on a tangent uphill and back towards my shooting poistion, and the dog was quickly running up a trail on a hot scent, after 50 yards he turned on semi point, went straight downhill for about 20 yards and I saw him circle something in the brash. When he looked back for me I knew he had it and must say I was really very pleased with the dog. So a couple of firsts, a first buck of some new ground for me and the first deer tracked by Raff the Viszla.
Anyway I was out again this morning, sat at the base of a tree looking up a very nice grass ride that ran along a valley bottom and hoping that my luck would change. As often happens one moment there was nothing to be seen, then a glance back and there is a buck, he was giving a bush a bit of grief on the track side at about 140 yards. The buck moved towards me a little before standing broadside at around 120 yards.
At the shot the buck reared up and kicked out with his front legs before running up into the woodland on the valley side. I gave him ten minutes then took the dog to the point of impact, he seemed keen on the area but cast around a little on the hillside with no immediate indication of picking up a line. I sent him where I thought the deer had run, on a tangent uphill and back towards my shooting poistion, and the dog was quickly running up a trail on a hot scent, after 50 yards he turned on semi point, went straight downhill for about 20 yards and I saw him circle something in the brash. When he looked back for me I knew he had it and must say I was really very pleased with the dog. So a couple of firsts, a first buck of some new ground for me and the first deer tracked by Raff the Viszla.