Out this morning with a buddy, feeling incredibly rough and spending most of my time trying not to be a coughing and spluttering liability.
We enter the first field and immediately see a fallow buck but he's right on the edge of the field and the only backstop is the woods. No good.
We decide to try and move around so that we could approach from another angle and possibly get a backstop, but it's no good because as we move he actually moves with us giving us no backstop until he finally decides to pop into the wood along with the other couple that we hadn't seen laying down over the crest of the hill.
No bother, it's only the beginning. We head into the wood and stalk into the middle where the main deer thoroughfare is. We see bundles of them. Roe to the front and right, and fallow off to the left. We don't even get a chance at a shot though, as two fallow come marching right up to within 10ft of us and scarper before we've even had the chance to respond. All the others follow.
The woods seem absolutely devoid of deer at this point so we make our way back up to the cars, to then drop down a different field and then into a different wood.
Things are looking good when I spy two to three thermal signatures in the woodland ahead of us. We decide to sneak up to the fence line of the wood and see if we can see what they are from the tree line. As we get closer, we can see them through a break in the trees. Damn! 4 or 5 sheep have gotten into the woods. I let the owner know and we proceed.
At the end of this wood, we cross a bridleway and had into the larger wood. Not long in and I'm picking up something on the thermal. One fallow laying down, I can see the back end of it.
I tell my my partner to get up on sticks, and I proceed to do the same as backup. We've already been out together once before, but that was unsuccessful. This time it looks like we are good. It's about 100m, so I ask him how confident he is with his rifle. The answer is very. Excellent.
It's a fallow doe, and she stands up looking our way so a chest shot is no good as it'd make a right mess and exit the back end. I'm considering neck but I'm only there as a backup anyway. She lays down, broadside.
I look over to my shooting partner. He tells me he wants me to take it, so I do.
It's a good shot considering she was laying down. Both lungs gone and a nice exit wound.
We do the gralloch and realise why she was laying down so much.
Feet rotten and the start of Aladdin's slipper. Good one to take then.
Also got a chance to try out the new sled. It's the apex ready sled, and it packs away into a little tube style. Packaging. Unpack it, pack the deer in it, and drag away. Nice and easy.
Now back home and in the chiller. Lovely Wednesday morning.
We enter the first field and immediately see a fallow buck but he's right on the edge of the field and the only backstop is the woods. No good.
We decide to try and move around so that we could approach from another angle and possibly get a backstop, but it's no good because as we move he actually moves with us giving us no backstop until he finally decides to pop into the wood along with the other couple that we hadn't seen laying down over the crest of the hill.
No bother, it's only the beginning. We head into the wood and stalk into the middle where the main deer thoroughfare is. We see bundles of them. Roe to the front and right, and fallow off to the left. We don't even get a chance at a shot though, as two fallow come marching right up to within 10ft of us and scarper before we've even had the chance to respond. All the others follow.
The woods seem absolutely devoid of deer at this point so we make our way back up to the cars, to then drop down a different field and then into a different wood.
Things are looking good when I spy two to three thermal signatures in the woodland ahead of us. We decide to sneak up to the fence line of the wood and see if we can see what they are from the tree line. As we get closer, we can see them through a break in the trees. Damn! 4 or 5 sheep have gotten into the woods. I let the owner know and we proceed.
At the end of this wood, we cross a bridleway and had into the larger wood. Not long in and I'm picking up something on the thermal. One fallow laying down, I can see the back end of it.
I tell my my partner to get up on sticks, and I proceed to do the same as backup. We've already been out together once before, but that was unsuccessful. This time it looks like we are good. It's about 100m, so I ask him how confident he is with his rifle. The answer is very. Excellent.
It's a fallow doe, and she stands up looking our way so a chest shot is no good as it'd make a right mess and exit the back end. I'm considering neck but I'm only there as a backup anyway. She lays down, broadside.
I look over to my shooting partner. He tells me he wants me to take it, so I do.
It's a good shot considering she was laying down. Both lungs gone and a nice exit wound.
We do the gralloch and realise why she was laying down so much.
Feet rotten and the start of Aladdin's slipper. Good one to take then.
Also got a chance to try out the new sled. It's the apex ready sled, and it packs away into a little tube style. Packaging. Unpack it, pack the deer in it, and drag away. Nice and easy.
Now back home and in the chiller. Lovely Wednesday morning.
