Highseat Advice needed.

Andy L

Well-Known Member
I have just got permission on a piece of land that is heaving with fallow every evening. The paddock that they frequent is bordered on two sides by roads. About 50 yards into the field is a cluster of 6 trees, one of which is perfect for puting a high seat up. As there are no other trees in a suitable position and because of the lie of the land a high seat has to be used.
I am going to face it away from the road looking up the hill which will give me a perfect safe shot for almost 180 degrees. The problem is that the fallow usually come across the road which will be behind me and usually upwind but will then have to cross the line of the highseat before I can take a safe shot.
I am not sure whether I have described the situation very well but my question is, am I wasting my time as they will wind me too quickly as soon as the pass by the high seat or do you think the positioning of the high seat will still work.
Also, the farmer is desperate to have a big cull of the animals as they are coming in every evening 20 or 30 at a time in 3 or 4 seperate groups and he has not taken any hay off this 20 acres or so for 4 years!!! There are muddy tracks everywhere where they walk and jump the fences. Do you think I should feed them in the area infront of the highseat?
Also, alot of these animals are coming in just after dark. Is feeding them going to encourage them to come in earlier or is it just a case of waiting until later in the year when the hours of darkness are shorter?
I am sure all of this is a case of 'suck it and see' but you knowledgable folk will probably be able to cut down the trial and error for me a bit!
 
seat

Andy

Just to state the obvious you should form a close relationship with the 5 day weather forecast so you get plenty of warning of favourable wind direction. Then exploit it.

I have tried the feeding trick in front of a seat I have for Roe, however whenever they approach from behind the seat they tumble me and the game is up :(

Also if the farmer is desperate could you not do a bit of pruning to make a seat position facing in a better direction? I accept the road may make this an absolute no no.

Last thought would be a freestanding seat tucked into the edge of the trees?
 
Hello Andy,

Sounds like your in for some good shooting! I use high seats with the fallow on my patch and I am still not ever 100% sure if they know your around or not. Some will come along the route I have just taken to the seat and surely must be able to pickup my scent but it dosen't seem to bother them at all; others will be more wary and know something is not right and move on quickly.

It might worth putting in a few more hours of ground work to see what other regular patterns they have, but from what you have described you may have limited options especially with regard to a safe shot. It could be worth a try feeding them but with that amount of deer any food wont be around for long especially with such little cover to hide it in so as to make them search it out. Apples work well though if you want to try it or maybe a cattle salt lick would be worth a go.

It would be good to spot them as early as possible especially as you know which direction they are coming from so you could possibly alter the seat position to allow you to spot them and then take the safe shot to one side depending whether you are right or left handed. Or maybe build platform rather than use a seat so that you have the option to move round as necessary?

Are they still around at first light? this could give you another option. Also remember if you hit them too hard they will move on pretty quickly.

I wish you luck.

Tom
 
The problem is that the two roads border the paddock in an 'L' and the ground falls towards the corner of the 'L' which is where the trees are. This means that if I position a freestanding highseat anywhere else, the ground is falling away from me with the road as a back stop!!
The fall of the land is what is governing whether the shot is on rather than the pruning of the tree.
 
Hi Thomas,
Unfortunately first light is not really an option as the farmers wife loves deer and does not want her husband to have them shot He wants an easy life so does not want her to open the curtains in the morning and see me loading the truck with 'Bambi'!

You have bought up another interesting point. How hard is too hard??? How often do you reckon I should go out and if I have the opportunity to take more that one beast at a time, should I resist the urge? Also, is it worth taking the doe or buck that seems to be leading the herds first so they don't lead the other animals to pastures new or will this not make any difference?
Sorry, 1001 questions!
 
Hi andy l,
My advice would have been early mornings as well you could then ambush them knowing the way that they want to go is past you!
As to numbers to cull the farmer has already told you to hit them hard as he would like some hay! you are talking about 60 to 100+ deer coming in each night, my advice on what to cull would be based how much time can you can put in and what you want out of it and if maybe you want word to get around that you are a effective stalker/deer manager.
we are talking here about an outright cull situation, shoot all you can as often as you can they are already travelling during the night so dont get picky and it sounds like your acreage is fairly low so herd management would be hard unless you are in touch with neighbouring stalkers.
I believe that to maintain a herd 25/33% should be culled each year,
this just to maintain it.
As shootingduckdog has said watch the weather forecast closely
 
This should hopefully make it a little clearer. Red dot is proposed place for highseat. Yellow dots are where the deer are coming in from and the lovely green shaded area is where they are generally feeding so I guess as long as the wind is southerly or westerly the job should be a good un!

stalkingpaddock.jpg
 
Andy
Feed points are great, but it don't take long for fallow to shy away from them or even others where they hav not even been shot at
never shoot at a feed site , only when they are coming to or away from them and are atleast several hundred metres away from the feed sites.
several highseats will work better than just the one
as you are now trying to shoot numbers then 2-3 highseats in the same area just so if you do hav different seats to choose from because of the wind directions, means you can use which ever seat you like depending on the breaze
if you are soley going to sit in just the seats then it will make no difference if you go every night
if you intend to walk around the patch then you might need to give it a couple of days rest between stalks, as your scent will linger and the deer as they become more wary of your presence may not return for a few days after seeing you one morning
mind you you do look rough after a few pints :evil:
but as the old wise man said 'if you don't get out there then you will never know what you missed'
good luck mate
catch up soon
 
Andy: I use high seats for one of the reasons you've mentioned ,the roads and the safety thing, the ground in question has 4 major roads and was not certificated for a full bore weapon ,I spoke and wrote to the head of firearms giving him all the details, and the proposals of using high seats .

I got the go a head put up high seats ,and sorted the problem within a week, this was a roe problem created by the forestry grant scheme .

The high seats I bought and made were free standing ,which allowed me to move them, if i had a wind problem on the night i was out ,your picture shows great vantage points throughout the field in question .

The farmers wife likes them only untill there eating them out of valuable crops , she'll come round when she gets the first fallow roast ,and sausages Ive never known a farmer to turn down good meat .

The feeding blocks do you require them, the deer are feeding on something, to bring them on to the ground , keep your cash in your pocket.

The high seats good for that type of work are sold by, bush wear a free standing tripod type with a swivel seat that gives you 360 field of view,
I have one that I bought, and others Ive made from that pattern .
 
As the wind in the UK is predominately a SW the siting is good. You could put it in the hedge line of the yellow dots at a push.

Remeber hitting fallow hard may turn them into night time feeders only.

If you try in the AM make sure your in the seat well early, if its the summer, sit in it all night, its only dark for about 5 -6 hours tops.
 
Thanks SDD, I have never seen a lean to high seat that swivels. Going to see the bank manager about a mortgage!

I have a double cabelas high seat that I was going to have a go with. A friend of mine has just bought a freestander from sportmans which was £200ish. Looks pretty good to me but a bit heavy when it comes to moving it.

Weather permitting, I am going out tomorrow afternoon to see what occurrs. Will let you know! :lol:
 
Well, I ended up puting the highseat up at the top corner of the lake.

The weather cleared up a bit this afternoon so went and sat up a tree for a few hours. The fog kept rolling in and out and I was just starting to think that I was wasting my time. Then when the fog lifted again, I could just make out a few fallow that had just crossed the road (at the furthest left yellow dot). I sat a watched as about twenty fallow grouped just by the side of the road. I was hoping that they would start moving in my direction but they looked pretty settled and all had their heads down. I decided to get down from the highseat and try to stalk to a position that would give a safe shot. I went round the back of the lake and popped up behind the herd which had now started moving up towards the highseat (typical!). A calf stood about 80 yards out broadside so I sent 100 grains straight to the boiler room and it dropped on the spot. A doe (its mother?) stood about 50 yards further on and once again the bullet hit its mark and after a very brief trot, she dropped. I had the opportunity to take another but the truck was at least 300 yards away and I was not feeling that energetic!
While I completed the grallochs, another group of fallow congregated around the trees that I was originally going to use for the highseat.
A fantastic evening and the land is indeed crawling with deer!
Just the job and I have impressed the farmer! :lol:
 
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