Had a cracking day with Paul Hill of Corinium Range (HME) yesterday. Starting at the range for a refresher with the .308 and then the afternoon on his ground. The huge estate was most impressive and has a large commercial pheasant shoot. The deer are rapidly repopulating the area after the end of the pheasant shooting season.
We walked through one wood indian file and after a quarter of an hour, spotted a group of fallow moving through the dense wood to our right 90 metres away. A few minutes later Paul pointed out the rear quarter of a Roe doe sticking out behind some trees about the same distance ahead. As we crept towards it I noticed Paul looking at some brambles a few metres to our left and a couple of seconds later out burst a Muntjac which ran off through the wood and then proceeded to bark at us, this disturbed the doe which ambled off out of the clearing and disappeared into the wood... bother! But hey! 3 species seen in about the same number of minutes!
Later on sitting in a tower we saw a Roebuck and his partner browsing across the field behind the hedge from us...bother again! But then... within minutes of Paul saying this is the 'magic hour' a Muntjac appeared on cue at the edge of the ride about 100 metres away and on Paul's okay I shot my first deer!
A Grand Day Out, thank you Paul.
We walked through one wood indian file and after a quarter of an hour, spotted a group of fallow moving through the dense wood to our right 90 metres away. A few minutes later Paul pointed out the rear quarter of a Roe doe sticking out behind some trees about the same distance ahead. As we crept towards it I noticed Paul looking at some brambles a few metres to our left and a couple of seconds later out burst a Muntjac which ran off through the wood and then proceeded to bark at us, this disturbed the doe which ambled off out of the clearing and disappeared into the wood... bother! But hey! 3 species seen in about the same number of minutes!
Later on sitting in a tower we saw a Roebuck and his partner browsing across the field behind the hedge from us...bother again! But then... within minutes of Paul saying this is the 'magic hour' a Muntjac appeared on cue at the edge of the ride about 100 metres away and on Paul's okay I shot my first deer!
A Grand Day Out, thank you Paul.