Mixed bag of Pike and Muntjac!!

Me and my shooting buddy went out yesterday and to fill the gap between work and late on when the activity starts, we decided to have a go at spinning the lakes that are on our perm as the landowner wants rid of any pike to encourage the other species to grow on!!

As you can see we are lucky to have these on the perm which we regularly shoot around, but rarely fish!!





The wildlife likes to take a stroll aroud them too, as you can see by the tracks!! We've seen deer, badgers and charlie all walking around the lakes!! Along with Polish poachers after the pike!! :rolleyes:



I managed a little perch quite early on so stormed into a 1-0 lead, but that was it for a good while until we got to the final spot before changing for the rifles. That's when the fun started. I got into a pike that took the spinner not 15ft in front of me but my rubbish knot gave way as Dale readied the landing net and it made off with a spinner and trace hanging out of its gob!! :cry: I re-loaded so to speak and Dale tied another one on and quite quickly got another taker and this time we landed a nice little Jack Pike. Queue the celebrations and grin as it is the 1st pike I've caught since fishing as a wee lad and I stormed into a 2-0 lead!! :D



Not to be outdone the ex county fisherman trumped my effort with a bigger Jack of his own, compared to my boot and we called it a night with the rods!



Onto the rifles and we mooched to the highseat to see if any munties or Charlie presented themselves. Not 5 mins after sitting down a badger mooched along in front of us then, as I was daydreaming looking away to my right, Dale nudged me back into life coz a munty buck had popped onto the ride about 60 yards away!

Initially it was broadside so I carefully flipped the safety off, but the old Brno has the loudest safety in the world and again the click made it turn and look straight at us! After a second or so it carried on and walked towards us down a track in the grass but not presenting the ideal shot! A little squeek from me got its attention again which helped to get him side on enough to send the .308 165gr SP on its way before he decided enough was enough!! Even with that hitting home he still made it 25 or so yards into cover but the blood trail led us straight to him! Unfortunately the round must have clipped a rib or something and made it a messy old gralloch, as although it had hit the vitals it deviated wildly and exited half way down the body and caught the rumen too!! :doh:

As you can see he 'was' in good nick being a good weight at 15kg pre gralloch!



While I was doing the gralloch Dale stayed in the highseat to see if charlie joined the party but alas that was the end of the evenings entertainment, but a thoroughly enjoyable night it was in me old mate's company!! :D

Stratts
 
Munt Jack evening eh?

I had a similar experience with a muntjac buck, at about 40metres with .308 (mine was 150grn Sako soft point) that went in almost exactly where yours did and divided the heart into three, then hit the opposite ribs turned left and cut a swathe through the ribs finally exiting just in front of the haunch...weird eh?

Alan
 
Brilliant, I love pike, they are an excellent fish to do battle with. Spent much of my youth doing just that.
Nice result, well done mate.
John
 
You're very lucky to have access to a spot like that, I'm very envious! Pike are fantastic to eat too, you can't blame the Polish poachers on that front. It's quite easy to mess up the insides of a muntjac, they're really not very big and we tend to use rifles made for larger beasts on them.
 
. It's quite easy to mess up the insides of a muntjac, they're really not very big and we tend to use rifles made for larger beasts on them.

Worms, can, open, of.....the common factor in all the other threads on here about bullets going sideways was bullets....the popular/common calibres appeared roughly in proportion to their ubiquity. I would dispute the idea that .308 is too big relative to a muntjac. Sure the bullet is around a sixteenth of an inch larger in diameter than the legal minimum, but the non messy creating part of the muntjac is still five or six inches wide....

Alan
 
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nice one stratts,the polish will be after carp , its their turkey at chrimbo ,ive offered them pigeons/bunnies they wouldnt take em ,offer them a carp they will drool down your arm,:drool:regards doug,
 
Nice day out then, well done.
As for removing pike, just leave anything over about 10lb in place, they will eat more jacks than you will ever catch, been going through the same thing on 6 lakes I help run, made the decision to leave the larger ones in place and a year later it is paying off as for the first time in many years the pike problem is getting better.

Neil. :)
 
In my youth I had a most satisfying approach to pike hunting and it involved a 177 air rifle pellet.

Head shots only of course as this was nothing less than cutting edge L2 stuff.

K
 
Nice one ,a great day had by you both ,it always better when you share these moments with a friend:cool:
 
Nice write up Stratts, I use to do a lot of pike fishing a few years ago and they are a great fish to fish for. They also taste nice if you soak them in salt water for 24 hours to remove the muddy taste
 
did you eat the pike?

Get in there!

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They also taste nice if you soak them in salt water for 24 hours to remove the muddy taste

Pike only taste muddy if they've been living in muddy water. If you catch a pike in a river or a clear lake, you don't need to go through this at all. Same as with carp or any other freshwater fish actually. I don't really know why people no longer eat coarse fish in the UK. Actually I don't really see a justification for even having the term "coarse" fish for everything that's not a salmonid.
 
Hi Pine Marten what rifle do you use / advise on muntjac

Regards

Trufflehunting

Oh I don't really mean to advise anyone on this. I mean, I use a 7mm-08 for everything, and it leaves them all dead, but so would any number of calibres. All I meant is that muntjac are small compared to other species, so there's just more potential for messing up the insides.
 
Oh I don't really mean to advise anyone on this. I mean, I use a 7mm-08 for everything, and it leaves them all dead, but so would any number of calibres. All I meant is that muntjac are small compared to other species, so there's just more potential for messing up the insides.
Funny you should say that pm as I also use 7 08 for everything but just picked up a .222 for muntys and foxing looking forward to getting out abd using it think it will be perfect for muntjac

I also love eating pike pike fish cakes are fantastic and perch are fantastic eating too !
 
my first thought was "did you eat the pike"!
caught my first and only one living down in Cambs
14lb beast
never had the chance to eat one though

what do they taste like? any comparable fish?
 
my first thought was "did you eat the pike"!
caught my first and only one living down in Cambs
14lb beast
never had the chance to eat one though

what do they taste like? any comparable fish?

Interesting - caught my first pike in Cambs too. On fly, no less.

They are very good eating if from clean water - fenland pike are a bit muddy. Meat is white and lean (ie. not oily) - most similar to tilapia. The down side is the bones.
 
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