New shooting sidekick in tow, we headed out to see if we could secure one of the handful of Roe my local ground supports culling per year, in the early part of the Rut. Sam having been seeking a route into stalking but struggling with access and now having his DSC1 booked for November, I was keen for him to witness a cull sooner than later. Only having thirteen deer under the belt myself it felt a bit like the blind leading the blind but we reasoned it’s better for him than no support at all and I can still at least help him with the basics. Recce’s over the previous days hadn’t seen any rutting action, so it was more hopeful based on the date than in direct response to the Rut having actually started. A hopeful prayer to the Almighty prior was to prove more than Providential by the end.
The ground holding a good hundred acres or so of power and heating providing miscanthus in which the deer love to hide makes accessing other than by chance meeting incredibly difficult. Hence, the Rut provides the perfect opportunity to seek to call them out. Equally, a westerly wind dictated the best chance of calling in a buck from the adjacent woodland off the permission at the top of a valley running at 90-degress to the woodland. A very small area, but where my mentor had pinpointed and taken a buck some twelve years ago and I had taken another buck a year or two before having to surrender the FAC in 2018. Although treating the 2020 vaccine booster injury has been quite successful, mobility also still isn’t back to before levels and so although I can push myself to complete several miles of stalking if pushed, limiting walking to also limit the minimum week recovery time after is also preferable. The ambush approach would also enable taking the vehicle to within a couple of hundred metres walk so made double sense.
The family overseas on holiday I had been left dog sitting and despite being from a long line of gun dogs, Kenzi arrived after the loss of my FAC and finding fearful of anything ‘unusual’ and not responding well to early blank firing training, I hadn’t taken further. So, although well trained, he has been exclusively a family dog. My 24x7 companion, return of the FAC has therefore presented quite a predicament and he hasn’t accompanied me on any of the recent outings except odd farmyard pigeon culling visit where he can comfortably hang back and not be concerned with the hushed pfft from the moderated sub 12 ft lbs air rifle. Having Sam with me this evening and able to keep him on lead presented the ideal opportunity to see if he could cope with a slightly more adventurous outing.
Meeting at 19:00 Sam hopped into the passenger seat. Pausing to scan the open gently sloping ground just outside the farm, the solitary doe which frequents was still on her own enjoying dinner in the wheat. Watching a few minutes she eventually winded us and made her way back into the small patch of miscanthus at the bottom. Reaching and gearing up at our parking spot with seat rucksack and slung rifle, Kenzi was more pleased to be out with us than concerned with the unusual presentation of master complete with scary pointy noisy thingy over my shoulder. Reaching into the back of the Landrover to grab the sticks a sinking feeling arose as I realised they were still leaning against the cabinet at home. Not a great start. Moving off, Kenzi, despite straining at the leash in excitement, started well. However, it soon proved that whilst he had come to terms really well with everything else, he couldn’t cope with the squeak from the Buttolo to which he would growl and woof. So, back to sit it out in the Landrover for him.
An hour and a half sat in our ambush spot without so much of a sniff of deer and we reached that quandary of whether to stay put for the last 30-minutes of light or whether to see if there were any deer moving elsewhere. The latter feeling the more appealing, not a few hundred metres back towards the farm and a doe with closely following buck moved rapidly out from the field of peas and back into the miscanthus a hundred and fitty metres or so in front of us. Closing the distance and exiting the vehicle, a number of squeaks from the Buttolo and accompanying thorough scan with thermal revealing nothing else, we opted for the track between two blocks of miscanthus over the main track. Not another hundred metres down the track and a head could be seen gently bobbing over the top of the wheat block at the far end. A quick glass confirmed a young five point buck, an absolutely perfect cull. I exited the vehicle, retrieved rifle from the back, loaded, cycled and applied safety before moving to the bonnet and setting up on the bipod.
The buck was still completely oblivious to our presence, still mooching about in the wheat and slowly moving at ninety degrees, set to pop out of the wheat onto the track directly to our front a hundred metres or so away. Still having binocular/thermal chest pack in place complete with caller, I tried a few squeaks on the Buttolo. Initially the call had no effect and the buck continued slowly moving across our front. A few more squeaks and he turned and started slowly sauntering down a tractor line in the wheat directly towards us. Advancing so far, I could no longer track through scope with the bipod on the bonnet and so had to switch to freehand. However, he had closed the distance so much as to remove any concern over a freehand shot.
Suddenly sensing something not quite right, perhaps catching a slight scent, the buck stopped. Realising I wasn’t getting any other opportunity than another neck shot, but the angle meaning bullet would pass cleanly through without coming close to the body cavity, the split second decision was made. This the third deer with the new 6.5CM, the recoil was controlled well enough to see the buck drop on the spot. Sam hopped out the cab offering his congratulations and commenting that the buck had been taken at precisely 45m, range found with his shiny new binoculars. Briefing Sam on waiting a few minutes to ensure fully expired we then moved in to complete eye blink test with the rifle muzzle and confirm absolutely stone dead. A short drag out via tractor track in the wheat and it was onto the towbar gralloch stand for my first head-torch lit gralloch the remaining light now almost gone.
This the third gralloch back went pretty well, especially proving the more complicated of the three deer taken so far. Running over the carcass and examining between the slots for any sign of disease, all was completely clear, the buck just presenting a little thinner than I would perhaps reasonably expect. The high neck shot with bullet track heading downwards and at such comparative short distance had however rendered a pretty frighteningly sized exit on the reverse of the neck, also puncturing the oesophagus and so presenting a challenge in usual gralloch approach to work around on the fly.
Consequently, realising I wouldn’t be able to tie off the oesophagus as normal and stomach contents already spiling out, I moved to the back end. Placing the usual knife slit at the base of the anus, it proved particularly challenging to extract the colon such that I had to release the winch and drop the buck onto the floor to release some of the pressure from the stomach. That worked and I was finally able to tie off the colon, winch the buck back up, remove the pizzle and testis and unzip, this time pleasingly without any rupture to the stomach and my third unsplit bladder in a row.
With stomach and intestines now out and over the ribs, I cut off completing a field gralloch to now figure out the mess at the neck end. The chest saw dealt with the ribs and with the pressure from the weight of the stomach now removed I was finally able to reach into the neck and tie off what remained of the oesophagus and extract with the rest of the red offal through the chest. It now clear the shot to the neck had literally severed the entire spinal column, cutting away the remaining skin and the neck and head simple dropped clear. Job done, completely clean carcass with no contamination, an incredibly pleasing result, especially with how first looked. A brief explanation of the pluck that presented completely clear of any cause for concern and the gralloch was bagged for removal from site and the carcass was swung into the 90l chiller complete with four ice packs in the boot.
A text from the farmer asking to lock main gate on exit and Sam and I bid farewell and headed home. A deal having been struck with the local Farm Shop upon suggestion from kind members here following the last write up, for them to butcher in return for keeping every other carcass, I had planned to drop off with them the following morning. However, realising how lean this buck presented, I decided to pop the chiller on, keep and skin and butcher myself after all. So, taking a few days to recover now, an article on how long to keep deer in a chiller suggesting 7-days to allow the meat to set and flavour to develop and I’ll deal with in a few days time.
So, now up to fourteen deer and thoroughly enjoying and appreciating being back and the health holding up pretty well to boot. Another couple of fellow shooting club members having asked to accompany me on future outings for the experience, there will hopefully be time to squeeze them both in before the end of the rut. Here’s hoping.
The ground holding a good hundred acres or so of power and heating providing miscanthus in which the deer love to hide makes accessing other than by chance meeting incredibly difficult. Hence, the Rut provides the perfect opportunity to seek to call them out. Equally, a westerly wind dictated the best chance of calling in a buck from the adjacent woodland off the permission at the top of a valley running at 90-degress to the woodland. A very small area, but where my mentor had pinpointed and taken a buck some twelve years ago and I had taken another buck a year or two before having to surrender the FAC in 2018. Although treating the 2020 vaccine booster injury has been quite successful, mobility also still isn’t back to before levels and so although I can push myself to complete several miles of stalking if pushed, limiting walking to also limit the minimum week recovery time after is also preferable. The ambush approach would also enable taking the vehicle to within a couple of hundred metres walk so made double sense.
The family overseas on holiday I had been left dog sitting and despite being from a long line of gun dogs, Kenzi arrived after the loss of my FAC and finding fearful of anything ‘unusual’ and not responding well to early blank firing training, I hadn’t taken further. So, although well trained, he has been exclusively a family dog. My 24x7 companion, return of the FAC has therefore presented quite a predicament and he hasn’t accompanied me on any of the recent outings except odd farmyard pigeon culling visit where he can comfortably hang back and not be concerned with the hushed pfft from the moderated sub 12 ft lbs air rifle. Having Sam with me this evening and able to keep him on lead presented the ideal opportunity to see if he could cope with a slightly more adventurous outing.
Meeting at 19:00 Sam hopped into the passenger seat. Pausing to scan the open gently sloping ground just outside the farm, the solitary doe which frequents was still on her own enjoying dinner in the wheat. Watching a few minutes she eventually winded us and made her way back into the small patch of miscanthus at the bottom. Reaching and gearing up at our parking spot with seat rucksack and slung rifle, Kenzi was more pleased to be out with us than concerned with the unusual presentation of master complete with scary pointy noisy thingy over my shoulder. Reaching into the back of the Landrover to grab the sticks a sinking feeling arose as I realised they were still leaning against the cabinet at home. Not a great start. Moving off, Kenzi, despite straining at the leash in excitement, started well. However, it soon proved that whilst he had come to terms really well with everything else, he couldn’t cope with the squeak from the Buttolo to which he would growl and woof. So, back to sit it out in the Landrover for him.
An hour and a half sat in our ambush spot without so much of a sniff of deer and we reached that quandary of whether to stay put for the last 30-minutes of light or whether to see if there were any deer moving elsewhere. The latter feeling the more appealing, not a few hundred metres back towards the farm and a doe with closely following buck moved rapidly out from the field of peas and back into the miscanthus a hundred and fitty metres or so in front of us. Closing the distance and exiting the vehicle, a number of squeaks from the Buttolo and accompanying thorough scan with thermal revealing nothing else, we opted for the track between two blocks of miscanthus over the main track. Not another hundred metres down the track and a head could be seen gently bobbing over the top of the wheat block at the far end. A quick glass confirmed a young five point buck, an absolutely perfect cull. I exited the vehicle, retrieved rifle from the back, loaded, cycled and applied safety before moving to the bonnet and setting up on the bipod.
The buck was still completely oblivious to our presence, still mooching about in the wheat and slowly moving at ninety degrees, set to pop out of the wheat onto the track directly to our front a hundred metres or so away. Still having binocular/thermal chest pack in place complete with caller, I tried a few squeaks on the Buttolo. Initially the call had no effect and the buck continued slowly moving across our front. A few more squeaks and he turned and started slowly sauntering down a tractor line in the wheat directly towards us. Advancing so far, I could no longer track through scope with the bipod on the bonnet and so had to switch to freehand. However, he had closed the distance so much as to remove any concern over a freehand shot.
Suddenly sensing something not quite right, perhaps catching a slight scent, the buck stopped. Realising I wasn’t getting any other opportunity than another neck shot, but the angle meaning bullet would pass cleanly through without coming close to the body cavity, the split second decision was made. This the third deer with the new 6.5CM, the recoil was controlled well enough to see the buck drop on the spot. Sam hopped out the cab offering his congratulations and commenting that the buck had been taken at precisely 45m, range found with his shiny new binoculars. Briefing Sam on waiting a few minutes to ensure fully expired we then moved in to complete eye blink test with the rifle muzzle and confirm absolutely stone dead. A short drag out via tractor track in the wheat and it was onto the towbar gralloch stand for my first head-torch lit gralloch the remaining light now almost gone.
This the third gralloch back went pretty well, especially proving the more complicated of the three deer taken so far. Running over the carcass and examining between the slots for any sign of disease, all was completely clear, the buck just presenting a little thinner than I would perhaps reasonably expect. The high neck shot with bullet track heading downwards and at such comparative short distance had however rendered a pretty frighteningly sized exit on the reverse of the neck, also puncturing the oesophagus and so presenting a challenge in usual gralloch approach to work around on the fly.
Consequently, realising I wouldn’t be able to tie off the oesophagus as normal and stomach contents already spiling out, I moved to the back end. Placing the usual knife slit at the base of the anus, it proved particularly challenging to extract the colon such that I had to release the winch and drop the buck onto the floor to release some of the pressure from the stomach. That worked and I was finally able to tie off the colon, winch the buck back up, remove the pizzle and testis and unzip, this time pleasingly without any rupture to the stomach and my third unsplit bladder in a row.
With stomach and intestines now out and over the ribs, I cut off completing a field gralloch to now figure out the mess at the neck end. The chest saw dealt with the ribs and with the pressure from the weight of the stomach now removed I was finally able to reach into the neck and tie off what remained of the oesophagus and extract with the rest of the red offal through the chest. It now clear the shot to the neck had literally severed the entire spinal column, cutting away the remaining skin and the neck and head simple dropped clear. Job done, completely clean carcass with no contamination, an incredibly pleasing result, especially with how first looked. A brief explanation of the pluck that presented completely clear of any cause for concern and the gralloch was bagged for removal from site and the carcass was swung into the 90l chiller complete with four ice packs in the boot.
A text from the farmer asking to lock main gate on exit and Sam and I bid farewell and headed home. A deal having been struck with the local Farm Shop upon suggestion from kind members here following the last write up, for them to butcher in return for keeping every other carcass, I had planned to drop off with them the following morning. However, realising how lean this buck presented, I decided to pop the chiller on, keep and skin and butcher myself after all. So, taking a few days to recover now, an article on how long to keep deer in a chiller suggesting 7-days to allow the meat to set and flavour to develop and I’ll deal with in a few days time.
So, now up to fourteen deer and thoroughly enjoying and appreciating being back and the health holding up pretty well to boot. Another couple of fellow shooting club members having asked to accompany me on future outings for the experience, there will hopefully be time to squeeze them both in before the end of the rut. Here’s hoping.
The Farm Shop desire skinned simply to avoid the extra work and have the stalkers undertake out of view in their yard. Think that absolutely confirms I shall just stick to personal consumption to avoid the added hassle.
