A close encounter with a nice buck.

Well i had a phone call from one of my farmers on saturday afternoon to say he'd seen a fox coming out of one of my other 'permissions' heading towards his chickens a couple of evenings this week. So I went down and set up shop with the .22-250 about 150yds from the wood, tucked into the top corner of the field and waited. With nothing showing after 2 hours and the light nearly failed, I got up and walked 3 metres across to the hedge to have a scan round with the bino's. I turned round to find a buck charging towards my position only 40 metres away, where had he come from? F*ck, he's now 10 metres away and i can't really move. He ran past me, stands there about to hop the fence when he spots me and sprints back to the wood. Thankfully I got a good look at him since he was so close, so could see that he had a pretty special head and was looking fairly old as well. So that was me decided, I've been after a Roe buck for a shoulder mount off my land and this was to be my man!

After some discussion with Karl, I decided to try again last night with Karl there on foxing duties on the off chance one showed. Anyway, Karl took my former position in the corner of the field and I took up an ambush position sat down, on my sticks with the 7mm, half way back towards the wood and next to a few small trees. After a couple of hours wait in the freezing Northerly winds, right on queue at 8:45pm, i noticed a shape in the corner of my eye that wasnt there 3 seconds ago. Straight up with the rifle and it was my buck, he'd just stepped out of the tree line but had already seen me, so there was no time to wait for 'the perfect shot' - he was quartering towards me, crosshairs on his front shoulder and I squeezed the round off. The shot took his heart and lungs but exited just behind the diaphram so there was a wee amount of green to deal with upon gralloching, nevermind.

After all the anticipation and the ensuing banter from my fiance about probably spending the next months worth of evenings out till I caught up with him I was pretty pleased to say the least! Gotta say a big thanks to Karl for coming with me, its always nice to have someone there to share the moment. He'll be heading to the taxidermists tomorrow morning, I'm not sure if he'll make a medal as he's not very symetrical but he has got a fair amount of weight in his head........answers on a post card.


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Tom
 
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I'm aiming to be there for about 9 ish so I can get back and do some graft. Maybe see you there? I wouldn't want to jinx it by guessing its possible score but by all means anyone else have a crack. Fingers crossed gary can give me a guesstimate tomorrow.

Tom
 
I was just thinking about your OP. You say
'I turned round to find a buck charging towards my position only 40 metres away, where had he come from? F*ck, he's now 10 metres away and i can't really move. He ran past me, stands there about to hop the fence when he spots me and sprints back to the wood.'
I would say that if this buck is running hard away from the wood at this time of year then it's because he's getting his ass kicked by something bigger:p Are you sure that is was this buck you saw and not a smaller one that was being chased by him?
Worth a thought
 
The wood was about 150 m in front of me and I was turned away for well over a minute, he stopped 10 metres from me so I can certainly confirm it was him. There was a strong wind blowing up his arse and 40 metres out he was bucking and throwing his head about a fair bit, I'd say acting similar to a horse when they're a bit too fiesty. The corner I was sat in had a few well hammered trees and sort of forms part of the boundry to that lump of land, so I'm guessing he was coming up to scent mark a do a bit more fraying. Having seen him in winter and then not seen him since it was a pleasant suprise! I only have about 1000 acres here and there's a couple of other nice bucks around to take his place!
 
Gary has said he's going to air on the side of caution and say very high bronze to mid silver, probably won't make gold due to the lack of span, but watch this space 90 days from today.

Tom
 
Had a look at him today he looks a monster in the flesh, i really hope he scores well for you.
A superb trophy he is whatever medal he wears, and to get him on your own land well thats just the icing on the cake mate well done. DF
 
Here's a pic of him after cleaning today, he weighed off at 590g after a day in the sun so I'm guessing high bronze / low silver?

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Tom
 
Well, he went 119 CIC points, so a mid range silver. Very happy indeed !!! Will post pics once he's mounted later in the year.
 
Congrats on your medal, i ended up guessing a bit high but think it was more in hope, look forward to seeing it mounted.

Moose
 
Fantastic tango well done pal, all the better from been home grown pal nice one mate.
 
Went and picked this buck up today, mounted by Gary Tatterton, Wetherby. I'm super impressed by his work yet again, very very happy with the result!!! (Apologies for the low-res images, ipad doesn't do it justice)










Tom
 
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