Having dropped a nice buck from the high seat the week before i was reluctant to try for another so soon in the same spot but given it had been a wee while for the Steyr .243 with a good few blanks experienced over the rut i headed out. You know what its like, you arrive early evening and you just know that you will startle a buck on your way to the seat and you feel that it will be your chance-gone. This had had happened a few weeks before so i paid a lot of attention to the older clearfell strip my seat sits on checking it over carefully from the grass field a good 200 yards away .With nothing viewed i walked on ,reached the sheep fence and strained my arthritic frame over the rather tightly set top strand trying hard not to bounce too much on it but just enough so as to bring my nuts safely with me to the other side. Crunching through the beech nuts ,not ideal, but unavoidable i clambered up the ladder having checked it was not tampered with. The button buck was there within half an hour. The same spot had seen him chased off by a buck with a head like a ram a week earlier when i had taken the .270 out I spotted two deer ,probably does, racing along the wood edge 250 yards off, although i could not get the binoculars on them fast enough. Deer about but no buck.Lovely sunny weather but slightly breezy and Mr hare junior turned up lolloping through the tussocks and birch branches. I do love watching the hares. This particular fella is one of years youngsters and follows the same evening route out of the clearfell.Ive noticed the hares love to sit facing a setting sun passing time thinking about something only hares think about.My companion continued to sit on a tree stump , eyes half shut ,pondering goodness knows what.I turned to my right. Heres the screw up. A fine big buck standing 150 yards off looking at me but not seeing anything that made him concerned. I foolishly tried the buttalo. i knew its time was over and should have left it at home, All i done was allow him to fine tune a good stare at me as i was sliding the rifle to the right for a possible shot .By bye mr buck. He legged it rapido all the way over the the forest. A fine olympic sprint no less. If i had sat quietly instead and just waited etc etc. Well that made me feel an abandon ship was in order .I passed a further 40 enjoyable minutes listening to the world till the sun had gone below the treeline , still daylight but now no painful hazey glare when glassing the area to my left. Button buck was gone but a doe and a kid wandered out as usual and i felt like the trip had really washed away. I was happy enough ,love watching the deer and the hares and everything else out there. Pigeon cooing kinda makes you want to just chill in warm hazey evenings -at least it does to me nowadays. Thirty years ago id be off like a ferret down a drainpipe with the air rifle bagging as many as i could! How times and attitudes change as we grow older.Having turned to my right looking up the beech strip i noticed a lovely doe wandering slowly towards me .Behind her in the long tussocks of grass ,beside the felled birch trees the branches had moved . There was her kid leaping towards her. I felt a smile rise under my facemask. Its good to know you are not slaughtering but managing a population.But wait--another! She had twins still with the faded spots on their backs.The doe turned round looking up the strip,as did her youngsters. Something behind them.I was frozen,glasses to my eyes not moving watching the family move closer and closer not 20 yards out now and they moved past me .I turned to the right looking up the strip. There he was. A good sized buck grazing his way towards me about 140 yards away His head gear sloping backwards more than most roe i see. Not a safe shot so id have to wait .How to move this rifle to the right over the rail when i have 3 pairs of eyes not 40 yards distant watching out for the slightest source of alarm. I slid the rifle as slowly as i could through what seemed to be an eternity of time.I had managed it.He headed towards the forest a few steps, but, he then came back and i felt myself urging him to keep coming . No calling this time .shut up and wait. He moved along till he was almost in front of the seat. All this time i was very conscious of the twins and mum to the side. i wanted them to be far enough away so the kids would not break a leg leaping over the masses of deadwood that littered the landscape trying to keep up with mum, or become separated, but in reality there would be no time to let then mosey along. If i wanted the shot it was now .I waited till i got a good broadside at 70 yards .He ran 20 yards after the shot and stood. .seconds later . a wobble and he fell. Success,oddly enough not 20 yards from where the .270 had dropped a buck a week or so before.im off out now to do the butchering. With the unattainable assurance that the twins were both ok id consider that a great evening overall .Im sure they are fine.
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. Always nice to watch nature doing its own thing. We are lucky enough to have had a good amount of hares born within 50 yards of the house this year so often see them in the garden or pottering around the yard.
