Thundering Roe Buck

With all the beautiful weather recently it's meant early mornings and late evenings stalking. I was speaking with my friend and stalking mentor who said he would be out with a client on Tuesday evening, so I decided earlier in the day to tag along. By 17:00 the heavens had opened, with thunderstorms and torrential rain. The forecast was that this would blow through during the evening, and knowing how deer like to get out of the woods after heavy rain it was decided that it was still worth going out.

We arrived at the stalking ground at around 19:45, and having left my mentor with the client I then headed off to a nearby piece of the permission that I've stalked and written about before.

The main field lies between the big wood and a smaller strip of woodland, with the ground falling towards the big wood giving a nice backstop. It has been left uncultivated this year, so the thistles and grass are about knee high. Spying from the track I could see a doe and yearling grazing their way through the field, so I decided to keep to the smaller strip of woodland and see what else I could find.

Almost immediately I saw another doe, then as I stalked the woodland edge a further roe doe came out of the wood behind me and started grazing. Half crouching, half crawling, I continued stalking up the woodland edge. Then ahead of me I saw another doe bedded down at the top of the rise, so I dropped down to the ground while I gathered my thoughts. Knowing that the roe typically come out of the big wood at last light to graze on the meadow, I decided that it was worth staying where I was as I had a good view of most of the field.

This decision was rewarded about 5 minutes later when I spied a buck heading out of the woods. Sitting down with my back to a fencepost and the rifle on the bipod, the brow of the hill was still between me and him, meaning that the grass and thistles prevented a clear shot. A conveniently placed water trough higher up the hill 30 yards away looked ideal, but the bedded doe meant that the only approach was to crawl. Leaving my dog and stalking sticks by the fence I managed to get to the trough without spooking the doe, but the heavy rain earlier in the day meant that I was liberally covered in mud (and worse) by the time I got there. ;)

Sitting with my back against the trough and the rifle on the bipod I now had a clear shot of just over 100 yards, so I waited until the buck turned broadside on and pulled the trigger. At the shot he leapt in the air and ran for the nearby wood. Returning to pick up the dog and the sticks, I walked back to where the buck had been grazing. The long grass and heavy rain meant that finding the blood trail wasn't easy, but the dog was on form and took me about 10 yards into the wood where the buck was lying dead (thanks again Stone and Mark H :D ). The light was fading fast, so only enough time to grab a couple of photos and perform the gralloch before darkness fell:

RB40-3P.jpg


He's a nice 6-point buck, pretty representative of the type hereabouts:

RB40-2P.jpg


I normally allow myself one good buck per season, so with the rut approaching fast I'll now concentrate on cull bucks.

I got back to the car, picked up the beast and headed back to meet my mentor and the client. For them it had sadly been a blank - they'd only seen one doe - so my pleasure with the evening was tinged with a bit of guilt, but not too much ;)

willie_gunn
 
Well done Willie. It can't have been much fun crawling around in that mud but you were well rewarded for your troubles. What a nice head.

Steve.
 
Jonathon

Thanks - it was a good result although I'd have been as happy if I'd shot a spiker and the client had shot the six-pointer :) What was nice was that the plan to wait and see actually worked. By contrast, when I was out last Saturday morning I did the same thing (on a different piece of ground) but all that arrived was fog :confused: Very annoying as at 05:00 it was clear skies and sunny, but by 06:30 the fog appeared.

Sadly I don't think we'll make the CLA this year. To be honest I was a bit disappointed in the Game Fair last year, for no specific reason just in general, and we now have other plans for that weekend. I think it was because (a) it was so hot, (b) it was so crowded, and (c) I've been to the Game Fair for two days each of the last 5 or 6 years.

Of course the nearer we get, the more I wish we were going :evil:

willie_gunn
 
Pete

Yes, the new scope is working great - I just wish I'd bought it years ago ;) I need to find a range somewhere where I can verify the trajectory over longer distances. The image is nice and bright and it seems well made - I guess time will tell. It will be interesting to see how it stands up to a day on the Hill come September.

How are things with you? Any joy on the bucks yet?

willie_gunn
 
dom think i might have to invest in one VERY IMPRESSED
in them at the long range weekend
still shooting cull bucks at the moment
but seen some very nice trophy bucks about
found the dominic grithiffs book very interesting think im on
about my third time through
catch up with you in the near future pete .
 
dom think i might have to invest in one VERY IMPRESSED
in them at the long range weekend
still shooting cull bucks at the moment
but seen some very nice trophy bucks about
found the dominic grithiffs book very interesting think im on
about my third time through
catch up with you in the near future pete .
 
willie_gunn said:
Pete

Yes, the new scope is working great - I just wish I'd bought it years ago ;) I need to find a range somewhere where I can verify the trajectory over longer distances. The image is nice and bright and it seems well made - I guess time will tell. It will be interesting to see how it stands up to a day on the Hill come September.

How are things with you? Any joy on the bucks yet?

willie_gunn
what mag is your i.o.r scope bud i have the 6x24x50iluminated 35mil bodey love it what you think of i.o.r
 
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