Last year I shot a buck on a permission near us but we never found it. It got into some conifers and despite us going back in there for the next 3 days we couldn't find it even with our 2 spaniels which are pretty good on deer. I was heartbroken.
I don't know if you can remember but a while ago on here I mentioned I should hopefully be putting up a report of my first deer soon. That post was on April 1st after seeing a cracking buck in velvet just before the start of the season.
We visited the place we had last seen him for 14 times without a sign of him and we feared he'd been shot by someone else on the neighbouring farm as there was a new stalker there and he was shooting everything.
Last night we were on another nearby permission and shot a fox and I said to dad I'd like to have another look for the roebuck we'd seen or a munty which are abundant near us but a bugger to get.
We arrived about 20.00. We parked up for 5 mins to have a look before I went for a walk down the hedge to a gap where we can see on the neighbouring farm where we'd also seen the buck in March. As I got down the hedge I could hear whistling so I span round to see dad and my brother waving me over with the buck stood 100m in front of the truck. I ran up the hedge whilst dad grabbed the gun out the slip and put it on the bipod. I got down on the bipod and found the buck in the scope stood perfectly broadside.
I aimed half way up his body just behind the shoulder and squeezed off a shot. I saw him lurch forward in the scope and he ran off with his head down around the corner and disappeared out of sight.
I was very nervous and shaking as I thought I may have pulled the shot with how he reacted. We gave him a couple of minutes and went to look. As we went around the corner, there he lay. I was so relieved, yet ecstatic at the same time.
We slowly walked over and he kicked once but we checked his eye and he was dead. I hadn't paid much attention to his head in the scope as I knew from past sightings that he was a goodun and I thought buck fever may kick in if I dawned on it too much.
He was beautiful looking, almost in his full summer coat and with lovely long brow points. As dad went to get the truck I looked him over. It was obvious he was a bit of a scrapper, with only half an ear on one side and his other ear split in half. He also had several scars all over his body. Plus he'd been causing a lot of fraying damage to young trees which we saw when we got there.
We gralloched him on the field where the fox earth is, and we are gonna sit out for them tomorrow.
It's a shame he wasn't much of a stalk but there you go. I couldn't care less and the stalking bug has most certainly sunk his teeth into me.
I hope you enjoy reading this and here are a few photos. Sorry for waffling a bit but I am soo pleased. I now have something to contribute to the site and you'll see me posting on here a lot more now.
Forgot to say, he was shot with a Ruger VT .243 with 87grn v-max and a Schmidt 10x42 scope. Also, sorry for the backgarden pics, but we forgot to take the camera.
I don't know if you can remember but a while ago on here I mentioned I should hopefully be putting up a report of my first deer soon. That post was on April 1st after seeing a cracking buck in velvet just before the start of the season.
We visited the place we had last seen him for 14 times without a sign of him and we feared he'd been shot by someone else on the neighbouring farm as there was a new stalker there and he was shooting everything.
Last night we were on another nearby permission and shot a fox and I said to dad I'd like to have another look for the roebuck we'd seen or a munty which are abundant near us but a bugger to get.
We arrived about 20.00. We parked up for 5 mins to have a look before I went for a walk down the hedge to a gap where we can see on the neighbouring farm where we'd also seen the buck in March. As I got down the hedge I could hear whistling so I span round to see dad and my brother waving me over with the buck stood 100m in front of the truck. I ran up the hedge whilst dad grabbed the gun out the slip and put it on the bipod. I got down on the bipod and found the buck in the scope stood perfectly broadside.
I aimed half way up his body just behind the shoulder and squeezed off a shot. I saw him lurch forward in the scope and he ran off with his head down around the corner and disappeared out of sight.
I was very nervous and shaking as I thought I may have pulled the shot with how he reacted. We gave him a couple of minutes and went to look. As we went around the corner, there he lay. I was so relieved, yet ecstatic at the same time.
We slowly walked over and he kicked once but we checked his eye and he was dead. I hadn't paid much attention to his head in the scope as I knew from past sightings that he was a goodun and I thought buck fever may kick in if I dawned on it too much.
He was beautiful looking, almost in his full summer coat and with lovely long brow points. As dad went to get the truck I looked him over. It was obvious he was a bit of a scrapper, with only half an ear on one side and his other ear split in half. He also had several scars all over his body. Plus he'd been causing a lot of fraying damage to young trees which we saw when we got there.
We gralloched him on the field where the fox earth is, and we are gonna sit out for them tomorrow.
It's a shame he wasn't much of a stalk but there you go. I couldn't care less and the stalking bug has most certainly sunk his teeth into me.
I hope you enjoy reading this and here are a few photos. Sorry for waffling a bit but I am soo pleased. I now have something to contribute to the site and you'll see me posting on here a lot more now.
Forgot to say, he was shot with a Ruger VT .243 with 87grn v-max and a Schmidt 10x42 scope. Also, sorry for the backgarden pics, but we forgot to take the camera.
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