First Sika - Birthday stalk

Had a great morning stalking yesterday, out nice and early for first light lovely damp day (no rain) with slight wind. Saw a few sika about including two thumping stags but they were fleating sightings. After a few hours stalking i took a munty doe about 110 yards off the sticks, Stalked on for another 45 mins and caught a glimpse of a lovely stag and hinds crossing the ride about 150 yards ahead with some urgency so i backed up on myself and made my way to a highseat in the general direction they were headed on the off chance. After about 35 mins up in the high seat there was a healthy amount of noise coming from behind me and the sika still moving with urgency were there. stag was first to show himself about 70 yards to my right followed by a few hinds in a cluster so no shootable Hinds and the stag was of course a no no (big healthy stag), luckily one beast showed himself through the branches. I took the heart shot as iv heard the reputation of the sika for running and also was not confidant with the neck due to branches between us. CRACK, 243 rings out but i didnt hear a strike and the sika were off. Because of the cover and the moderator the deer had no idea where the shot was from and as a result passed behind my high seat by about 10 m or so. After about a min they moved off and i gave it another 10 mins incase my beast was layed up close by. I dropped out the high seat and went over to the spot i marked as the shot sight. I was happiy to see a good amount of blood which looped through the wood and across a ride leading to lung and about 30 metres from the shot sight was my Spiker. Its now hanging in a fridge at my butchers ready to fill my freezer for the winter. Stunning beasts and i cant wait for my booked trip to Scotland in December to see these fantastic deer again.
 

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Congratulations on your first Sika! great write up, where abouts in the UK were you (roughly) as Sika and Munjac cant be a common combination ?

Lakey
 
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