Deermanagement
Well-Known Member
After a couple days out on my own end of September, I managed to catch up with a dozen different stags, but not one anything like special, although there was one I did not get a good enough look at to ascertain his potential. Had 2 clients out for a day at the beginning of the month, both managed their first Sika and although they were only looking for representative stags, the one had a nice malformed 7 pointer, but also had the opportunity to take a special stag. I'm pleased he didn't want to take it so early and obviously before the rut. His colleague saw plenty of stags, always just out of reach, Fallow bucks, Roe bucks and Muntjac, but was pleased to take his first Sika, a pricket from a high seat. towards last light on the evening stalk.
Fast forward 2 weeks, and things have kicked off, stags chasing and calling and I have a colleague with me for a day and a half, looking for a decent stag. First morning and first light, we had a very good stag moving adjacent to woodland but always away from us. The stag was very tall and carrying a limp on a front leg. From around 130 yds it quickly made it 275 before getting back into the wood. In hindsight, a call may have kept it's attention long enough for a shot, but instead, my colleague made his way to a high seat overlooking the part of woodland it entered. I on the other hand, made my way down through the hard track, passing the stag by no more than 50yds by the sound of it, but part of "the plan" was for the stag to potentially wind me, moving him back in the direction of my colleague.
A muntjac buck held me up for a minute or so, standing guard on the hard track and I eventually had to move him on in my pursuit of another stag going for it some 400 yds away. Anyway, the stag never reappeared I never managed to view the stag making all the noise. Evening time after a bit of a walk had my colleague back in the same high seat while I took up another some 350yds along the same edge of woodland. My plan was to shoot any rubbish stags or prickets that appeared early whilst leaving time for the larger stag to appear before last light. Of course, the only shootable animal in front of me was a nice young 6 pointer whilst the stag we were looking for didn't make an appearance.
Now when it comes to calling stags, I bought an Elk bugle whilst on a trip to the US in 2012 which at first, I could not get a reasonable call from. So I didn't use it in '12, but played around with it pre-rut in'13, and managed with some modification to get a good sound from it. So that first day or 2 using the call, I managed to successfully call stags/prickets to within range whilst in woodland, on 5 out of the first 5 times of trying.
It has been very successful since, but I've only ever used it within woodland in the morning and outside/inside of eveming time. That was until the next morning when I took a turn in the high seat overlooking the part of the woodland we saw our animal. I was in the seat just after shootable light and watched some Roe along with a Muntjac buck and doe feeding on the stuble in front of me. Now I never thought I had much chance once the sun had risen but though I'd give the call a try.
After 2 lots of triple whistles, I put the call away and was about the leave when I spotted a Sika making it's way along the hedgerow rather quickly, leading from the woodland and directly towards my seat. At first I thought pricket as it was partly obscured by the overgrown hedge, so I set up the rifle quickly, focussed in on the animal, only to find a decent but young 8 pointer homing in on my position. I quickly decided not to shoot it, and it ended up some 6yds away from the bottom of the high seat looking for it's rival. It was quite surprised by it accuracy in locating the source of the call and managing to get it to leave the woodland by some 200yds on a nice sunny morning.
Entering the woodland from the far end, I managed to get to a seat overlooking a number of stags running about after each other and their hinds. A call on the radio to my colleague had him join me some 15 minutes later, but unfortunately, his approach probably sent form wind their direction, meaning there was no shootable animals in view by the time he climbed the seat.
Well at least I know I have 3 possibly 4 good stags about and with no clients booked, I may take a look for the very tall one with a limp myself in the next week or so
Fast forward 2 weeks, and things have kicked off, stags chasing and calling and I have a colleague with me for a day and a half, looking for a decent stag. First morning and first light, we had a very good stag moving adjacent to woodland but always away from us. The stag was very tall and carrying a limp on a front leg. From around 130 yds it quickly made it 275 before getting back into the wood. In hindsight, a call may have kept it's attention long enough for a shot, but instead, my colleague made his way to a high seat overlooking the part of woodland it entered. I on the other hand, made my way down through the hard track, passing the stag by no more than 50yds by the sound of it, but part of "the plan" was for the stag to potentially wind me, moving him back in the direction of my colleague.
A muntjac buck held me up for a minute or so, standing guard on the hard track and I eventually had to move him on in my pursuit of another stag going for it some 400 yds away. Anyway, the stag never reappeared I never managed to view the stag making all the noise. Evening time after a bit of a walk had my colleague back in the same high seat while I took up another some 350yds along the same edge of woodland. My plan was to shoot any rubbish stags or prickets that appeared early whilst leaving time for the larger stag to appear before last light. Of course, the only shootable animal in front of me was a nice young 6 pointer whilst the stag we were looking for didn't make an appearance.
Now when it comes to calling stags, I bought an Elk bugle whilst on a trip to the US in 2012 which at first, I could not get a reasonable call from. So I didn't use it in '12, but played around with it pre-rut in'13, and managed with some modification to get a good sound from it. So that first day or 2 using the call, I managed to successfully call stags/prickets to within range whilst in woodland, on 5 out of the first 5 times of trying.
It has been very successful since, but I've only ever used it within woodland in the morning and outside/inside of eveming time. That was until the next morning when I took a turn in the high seat overlooking the part of the woodland we saw our animal. I was in the seat just after shootable light and watched some Roe along with a Muntjac buck and doe feeding on the stuble in front of me. Now I never thought I had much chance once the sun had risen but though I'd give the call a try.
After 2 lots of triple whistles, I put the call away and was about the leave when I spotted a Sika making it's way along the hedgerow rather quickly, leading from the woodland and directly towards my seat. At first I thought pricket as it was partly obscured by the overgrown hedge, so I set up the rifle quickly, focussed in on the animal, only to find a decent but young 8 pointer homing in on my position. I quickly decided not to shoot it, and it ended up some 6yds away from the bottom of the high seat looking for it's rival. It was quite surprised by it accuracy in locating the source of the call and managing to get it to leave the woodland by some 200yds on a nice sunny morning.
Entering the woodland from the far end, I managed to get to a seat overlooking a number of stags running about after each other and their hinds. A call on the radio to my colleague had him join me some 15 minutes later, but unfortunately, his approach probably sent form wind their direction, meaning there was no shootable animals in view by the time he climbed the seat.
Well at least I know I have 3 possibly 4 good stags about and with no clients booked, I may take a look for the very tall one with a limp myself in the next week or so
