2 days culling fallow in a deer park

Andy L

Well-Known Member
Well, a few of you asked me to let you know how I got on during the 2 days that I spent on a Deer Park this week helping with the cull. I have not mentioned any names as I feel that it is not my place to do so and the park is privately owned. The chap that I was invited by manages the deer in the park for the owner and in exchange he gets access to all of the stalkng on the rest of the estate. I will call him R.
Well, R phoned me last Friday and as I had not spoken to him for about 6 months he had a lot of news for me. Unfortunately not all of the news was good. He had had some family problems and explained that he had fallen behind with the cull and would I help him out for a few days.
'What are you like at head shots?" he said.
"How the hell would I know? I shot a Roe in the head once and that fell over but other than that, I have not got a clue! I am sure I can give it a good go though." I said. I am not sure whether I came over as unsure as I felt but R seemed convinced that I would be fine. Then I realised that I still hadn't asked the boss and I knew that she would not be impressed. I was to be pheasant shooting on the Saturday, Fishing on the Sunday and shooting again the following Saturday, so I knew that 2 days culling fallow mid week was going to go down like a lead balloon. Well, what an understanding woman. She only swore 4 times and didn't hit me once! :lol:
I arranged with R that I would travel up on Tuesday evening and return on Thurday evening. Well, I obviously didn't appreciate the amount of work involved and had I known, maybe I would have delayed that homeward leg until after a friday morning lie-in.
I had a good drive up and rose early on Wednesday for a cooked breakfast and a run through of the plan. R wanted to take out at least 20 animals, mainly prickets and does, although there were some young bucks with poorly developing heads and an old boy that was now going back. I was confident with my rifle and so we set off for the park. I still did not really know what to expect, only that all deer where to be head shot as the estate wanted the optimum price for all venison. R did explain that mstakes do occassionally happen and if we injure a deer we were then to place the follow up shot anywhere to bring the animal down as quickly as possible.
Well, within 2 minutes of entering the park gates, I was looking at a herd of approximately 320 fallow of all shapes and sizes from 1 undersized fawn up to gold medal quality bucks. I then realised how difficult it was to pick out the correct cull beast when there were so many heads bobbing up and down. R took a shot at an old doe at the edge of the herd and missed so we immediately went to the far side of the park and checked the zero on both rifles. Mine was bang on I am pleased to say but R's had obviously been knocked at some point and was shooting 3" high at 100 yds. Better high with a head shot than low.
The first kill was the mother of the small fawn. R explained that once a doe had dropped a late fawn, she would continue to do so every year and so had to be one to go. The fawn then stood and looked at us at about 100yds giving me the perfect starter shot which I took cleanly. I then had a pricket stop and look and so I took that as well. Within an hour we had 10 animals plus the fawn lieing around somewhere in the 450 acres of park and we now had to remember where they were. R had said that the first hour would be the easiest! We then had dragging and gralloching to complete before we hung them in the chiller. By the time we had completed it, it was about 1.30 and R wanted to cull another 5. The deer now knew what our truck meant and were much more wary than in the morning. We split up and R used the truck to spook the deer in a direction where I would be waiting in ambush. Nice idea but the fallow seem to have their own mind on where to go and it was a good 2 hours before we had downed 4 more. All day we had seen a large buck which had gone back and one of its antlers had only grown to be half the size of the other. R asked me if I had a camera on me and as I did, he told me that we would try to cull the big buck. For nearly an hour the buck kept avoidng us. Always surrounded by fawns or other bucks. It was decided that if I did get the opportunity, I should neck him to keep the head in good condition. We were about to give up when, as if directed, all surrounding deer went down to feed and my buck looked up. I took the shot, approx. 120yds, and the buck dropped on the spot. We then had the dirty bit to do again and our day was over. 8 prickets, 6 does, 1 buck and 1 calf.
The next day went in a very similar way and up until 2pm, I had taken every animal cleanly where as R had made a couple of mistakes which we had cleaned up quickly without too much suffering.
We had taken 9 animals and were now after the final one for the day. I was dropped off in a likely ambush spot while R went to find the deer. While busy looking left and right down the ride, I had missed two young bucks appearing directly in front of me. By the time I had noticed them, 1 was lieing down with the other standing directly behind it. On closer inspection I realised that one of the bucks had a very poor head with little palmation at all. After making the decision and then checking again and again, I raised the rifle to take the shot. A branch across his forehead and the other buck directly behind him made it impossible. I slowly moved to my left and as I did, he clocked me and stood. Perfect and I squeezed the trigger. As I did he bolted and I thought that I had missed him but as he skipped away, I noticed that one of his ears was hanging low. I took a follow up shot at about 200 yards but I only had the option of the back of his head or a texas heart shot and so I went for the head and missed. Luckily, he was a distinctive buck and I new we would catch up with him soon. R turned up within a couple of minutes and I relayed my tails of woe. 'No problem." He said and we went to look for him. Luckily he was back with the main herd and amazingly he was feeding and, apart from the odd shake of his head and the low ear, you would not have known that anything was wrong. I am pleased to say that he presented himself for a shot and I took it without any more cock-ups. I was also worried that I had made the wrong decision in shooting him in the first place but R confirmed that he was a definite cull beast so all was OK. Total count after 2 days was 13 prickets, 10 does, 2 bucks and 1 calf.
I had learnt a huge amount about deer behaviour and about when to pull the trigger. All in all I had more than held my own and up until the last beast, had been extremely pleased with myself. The last animal reminded my why we should not take head shots when the animals are not fenced in. I totally understand why we head shot in the park and I don't have a problem with it. When it is clean it is very very clean but it can get dirty and the fence stops it from getting very very dirty! I also realised why many people use stainless rifles with synthetic stocks. My Sauer was a bit too pretty and you really needed a tool for this job. R's rifle was definitely a tool. Battered and bruised but made for the job.
I am sorry that this is so long, I am not a writer! I have got some photos which I will post as soon as I have managed to get them off my camera which seems to have gone wrong!!

Cheers
Andy
 
one happy chappy who has gained a lot more experiance and confidence in his own rifle and shooting ability ,also now understands a bit more on when to and when not head shoot and what animals to cull, but needs to learn more about his camera as pictures are always good :evil:
well done andy
you now need to go and sharpen your knife :lol:
 
I have just been reading the thread about knife sharpening! I think I will stick with the steel.
 
Nice read

Hi Andy,
nice to read your tale. The first time I wrote anything for this site one of the members moaned, saying he/she wasn't interested in reading someone elses account. The next six people said they loved a good story, and the original poster withdrew their comment! Keep writing I love to read, and hopefuly to learn from both the good and the bad experiences. A cock up can happen through no fault of your own, the skill is in making sure you deal with it as soo as you can!
Mark :D
 
hi andy
what calibre rifle were you using?
what ammo did you use?
as this is what my 30-06 did to a fallow calf at 40-50yards using 180 grain soft points pushed by 51 grains of varget
P1010687.jpg

and another veiw
P1010686.jpg

this was the only safe shot available and this calf needed to be culled
stone
 
I was using a Sauer 202 in .243 with Remington accutips 95 grain BT. Quite devestating! I did have one pricket though that went down solidly but then lifted its head. I hit it again and on closer inspection the first bullet had gone into the back of its head and out of the eye socket. I don't think that it really felt anything but they are amazingly strong animals. R used a .243 as well but with 75 grain vermin loads that were incredibly damagng to the head.
 
I think that the .243 was the ideal calibre for the job. In fact my 95 grain BTs made less mess than the 75 grain vermin loads. The worst part about it was trying to find the atlas bone to take the head off. There were so many bone fragments at the base of the head that you were forever taking the edge of your knife.
Those of you that do this sort of thing for a job, then I take my hat off to you. It was hard graft and although I would jump at the chance of doing it again (and probably will next year!) I can understand how it could lose its appeal.
 
Looks ideal. I had two knives on the go but did not have the old knife for legging and heading. Very wise!
 
Hi AndyL
Well done mate. A good experience you had there. I know its not everyones kettle of fish park shootin but like i said before it has to be done. The beasts tend to group up very often & a shot is not always available so time & skill is the answer. As you have realised its not an easy task is it mate :rolleyes:
Well done my friend & a very good write up :D
 
WELL DONE ANDYL.I HELPED STEYR243 WITH A CULL AND IT ISNT EASY TO GET THE BEAST YOU WANT.GLAD YOU ENJOYED IT,I LEARNT ALOT THAT DAY OFF HIM.I WAS INVITED TO GO FOR A SIKA WHILST IN IRELAND AT THE WEEKEND BUT WE HAD TO HEAD FOR HOME :cry: .LOOK FORWARD TO YOUR PHOTOS
 
Despite what some people say, culling in a deer park is not as easy as it sounds. Some believe it to be similar to shooting rats in a barrel.

Far from it. It is mostly head and neck shots to limit the damage to the high quality meat the owners seeks to produce, plus the deer soon get to know and as someone has alreday said, they tend to form large groups, making selecting the right target harder. You also tend to have other stalkers watching you from another high seat, and of course the owner of the farm or park himself at times. This tends to put a fair amount of pressure on the shooter throught out the day.

AndyL well done to you, nicely written piece and a good experience under your belt, with I am sure a repeat invite back for you in the near future.
 
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