A big vote of thanks to UKDTR for coming out at short notice on Saturday morning.
Long story short, at last knockings on Friday night I received a phone call saying that that a fallow buck had been shot in an open field and dropped to the shot. After leaving it for 10 minutes the deer was approached, only to get up and - with some effort - make it into the nearby wood. A brief search was carried out but, with the light now failing, the deer was left with the expectation of finding it on the woodland edge the next morning with the help of a dog.
At first light (05:00) I arrived on site, along with Sam (my Labrador), and we worked our way from the approximate shot site into the wood. After fruitlessly searching for the deer we concluded that it required specialist expertise and, having now found and marked the shot site, I made the call to UKDTR and spoke with Tony (aka @cookingfat).
Tony and Nobby from UKDTR turned up shortly afterwards and we made our way to examine the shot site. You can see in the photo below that the shot site had been marked earlier using a discarded pink foil balloon that had fortunately been found. In a huge field of clover, finding the shot site hadn't been easy, and it was marked to give the dogs the best chance of starting after the deer:
There was surprisingly little evidence to be found, other than some residual blood and a tiny piece of bone, attached to a small amount of the surrounding flesh. It was originally thought that the fallow might have been gut shot, but there was no evidence of any stomach contents:
The dogs were put onto the trail and followed it into the wood but, in the absence of finding any more blood, hair or other deer sign, it made for some really testing conditions. The undergrowth at the moment is high everywhere, and we could have walked within a couple of metres of a deer bedded down in the high ferns and still not seen it:
With three trained tracking dogs (plus Sam) we spent two hours covering a huge amount of ground searching for the deer, or further signs of a blood trail, but sadly to no avail and the whereabouts of the fallow remains a mystery. The keeper is aware, and it may be that the carcass turns up in the coming days. However the minimal amount of blood, plus the bone fragment, could also suggest that the shot might have clipped the spine - causing the deer to drop - only to then recover and make for the wood.
Despite the fact that the deer wasn't found, I wanted to take the opportunity to pay tribute to Tony and Nobby specifically, and UKDTR more generally, for the wonderful service they offer. Making that initial call can seem like an admission of failure, as no stalker wants to admit that they have a wounded deer out there. However the deer's welfare always has to come first, and from the first phone call to their arrival on site, and the time spent searching for the deer, the team at UKDTR were thoroughly professional throughout. It was a real eye-opener watching properly trained deer dogs working (I am hoping Sam was also taking copious notes), and the time and effort they put in was immense. They don't charge for the service but welcome donations, and I'd encourage all stalkers to support them.
Thanks guys
Long story short, at last knockings on Friday night I received a phone call saying that that a fallow buck had been shot in an open field and dropped to the shot. After leaving it for 10 minutes the deer was approached, only to get up and - with some effort - make it into the nearby wood. A brief search was carried out but, with the light now failing, the deer was left with the expectation of finding it on the woodland edge the next morning with the help of a dog.
At first light (05:00) I arrived on site, along with Sam (my Labrador), and we worked our way from the approximate shot site into the wood. After fruitlessly searching for the deer we concluded that it required specialist expertise and, having now found and marked the shot site, I made the call to UKDTR and spoke with Tony (aka @cookingfat).
Tony and Nobby from UKDTR turned up shortly afterwards and we made our way to examine the shot site. You can see in the photo below that the shot site had been marked earlier using a discarded pink foil balloon that had fortunately been found. In a huge field of clover, finding the shot site hadn't been easy, and it was marked to give the dogs the best chance of starting after the deer:
There was surprisingly little evidence to be found, other than some residual blood and a tiny piece of bone, attached to a small amount of the surrounding flesh. It was originally thought that the fallow might have been gut shot, but there was no evidence of any stomach contents:
The dogs were put onto the trail and followed it into the wood but, in the absence of finding any more blood, hair or other deer sign, it made for some really testing conditions. The undergrowth at the moment is high everywhere, and we could have walked within a couple of metres of a deer bedded down in the high ferns and still not seen it:
With three trained tracking dogs (plus Sam) we spent two hours covering a huge amount of ground searching for the deer, or further signs of a blood trail, but sadly to no avail and the whereabouts of the fallow remains a mystery. The keeper is aware, and it may be that the carcass turns up in the coming days. However the minimal amount of blood, plus the bone fragment, could also suggest that the shot might have clipped the spine - causing the deer to drop - only to then recover and make for the wood.
Despite the fact that the deer wasn't found, I wanted to take the opportunity to pay tribute to Tony and Nobby specifically, and UKDTR more generally, for the wonderful service they offer. Making that initial call can seem like an admission of failure, as no stalker wants to admit that they have a wounded deer out there. However the deer's welfare always has to come first, and from the first phone call to their arrival on site, and the time spent searching for the deer, the team at UKDTR were thoroughly professional throughout. It was a real eye-opener watching properly trained deer dogs working (I am hoping Sam was also taking copious notes), and the time and effort they put in was immense. They don't charge for the service but welcome donations, and I'd encourage all stalkers to support them.
Thanks guys
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