First rifle Christened with a double.

Met with Simon (Prometheus) at around 0630, the plan was to christen my first rifle, we travelled to a covert around 1/4 mile away, dismounted and went on foot, following a track uphill. As we reached the top the track exited into a newly planted area, we edged the mature wood to a highseat, where we waited for about an hour, see 2 Fallow, 3 Munties, a Roe doe and a fox. All were either too far away or didn't present a shot. We decided to stalk the roe doe, which was 400M away on foot. We skirted the field, which is all new plantation in tubes, as we cornered the field we saw 3 roe feeding just over 200M away on the other side of the valley.
As we watched they began to move in our direction, so we edged forward trying to anticipate their route. They carried on moving towards us but entered the plantation and started heading for some dead ground. At about 90M the doe paused facing away from us, with her body covered by briers and tubes, so I placed the crosshairs on the back of her neck, squeezed the trigger and watched drop on the spot. I reloaded and waited to see what was going to happen; the 2 kids were very gittery but had only moved about 30M away, darted too and froe.
I asked Simon what he wanted me to do, he said that he would head off in our original track and cut into the plantation to try and push them into the clear. I followed him for about 20M to get into a better firing position, then set up on the sticks again and waited, both the kids paused, as they spotted Simon. Only the buck kid presented a shot and again it was a high neck shot, I steadied myself and sent 139grn of Powershok to him and watched him buckle and drop. The doe kid took the hint and moved to about 170M so I decided to leave her. I dragged both to the top of the hill as Simon went to get the Rover, where I then performed my 1st and 2nd gralloch.
After we dropped them off at the larder, we went for breakfast, and then took a ride around the estate to see if anything was about. We saw nothing so Simon suggested we go for a stalk in a large fenced plantation, in which we know there were a few roe. This time Simon let me have my first solo stalk, I took the left whilst he took the right, agreeing to meet back in an 1 and ½ hours. I set off heading south along the perimeter fence, after about 30 mins I spooked a buck who bolted to the south fence. He eventually started to come back my way so I decided to stalk into him to see how close I could get. As I got to about 50M from where I expected to intercept him a pheasant flew up behind me, pushing him through the hedge in front of me.
I then started my way back to our meeting point, as I got to close to the RV I spotted 2 roe in at the bottom of the field close to the hedge. As I got closer they moved further into the filed but also into a patch of young trees, I could see them but with no shot. I was about 60M away when they sensed something, this was the start of a 15 minute standoff, where the doe just watched me. After this they both continued their journey across a ride but every time they were covered by branches.
I made my way back, then we headed off to another area for a highseat session to close the day. I blanked but Simon managed to grass a roe doe to end a fantastic day. So I managed to Christen my 1[SUP]st[/SUP] rifle, grass my first roe, then double it and to top it off had my 1[SUP]st[/SUP] solo stalk, Thanks Simon for a great day.

roe double2.jpgroe double1.jpg
 
Very nice and congrats !

Now you need to knock over a nice pearled Roe buck for the wall :thumb:

Thanks, a buck was the original plan but Open Season took soooooo long to deliver my gun that the season was over...! Still there's next year or maybe a nice fallow buck will wonder in front of me.
 
Glad you enjoyed the day Dom and that superb Mauser rifle combination you have will serve you well for a lifetime of stalking and hunting. It was a pleasure to have you out and I look forward to the next time !
 
Dom

thats a great write up mate and a nice looking rifle. well done on the roe and a few firsts. That ground sounds great.
 
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Dom

thats a great write up mate and a nice looking rifle. well done on the roe and a few firsts. That ground sounds great.
Hi Carl
There's some fantastic areas of mature woodland and large areas of young plantation with well designed rides. Rifle looks and shoots really well and it was a fantastic day. PM Simon for some local Roe action, you won't fail to see some.
Dom
 
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