So a quick write-up as I've got roe and muntjac to finish off processing.
I was out at first light on the first of August looking for a nice fallow pricket to start the season. I had managed a few roe bucks over the early summer break but all I seemed to be regularly taking were muntjac and I so despise skinning them - so much effort for so little reward. All this, at a time when every week seemed to bring a new customer asking for venison - feast and famine. Numerous stalks conducted since at both ends of the day with only 2 fleeting glances, despite them continuing to show on trail cameras
I decided this Monday to take today off, intending to go to the range but, as I headed North up the M5 after doing my shoot feed to stalk, I resolved that if I blanked again last night, I'd go out again at first light today. A late night and an early start is not my idea of happiness but needs must as some customers were growing impatient.
I have settled into a routine of going to one permission, a small 30 acre patch with woodland margin, for a quick check before going on to a much larger one (ten times) for a prolonged foot stalk over flat arable land bordered by woods, before returning to the smaller one to stake out productive areas at last light. Following this routine I was at the end of the totally blank quick check when to my great surprise I picked up on a small thermal hotspot down a steep barren slope in the mature woodland. My immediate thought was roe but a quick glance with the binos revealed a black fallow, sex hidden by trees. Not wishing to let this rare opportunity slip, I quickly mounted the rifle (T3X 20" Wideland Veil .308 in MDT HNT26) on my sticks. The slope was steep, but pushing the fifth leg forwards through the barbed wire I could get sufficient depression just to see the animal. Eureka, it was a pricket! At that point, the left legs chose to slip on the hard ground - bugger (or words to that effect)
A quick judicial move of the left foot to provide a firm footing for the legs meant I quickly reacquired the buck, still standing unaware about 90m down the slope. Chance to draw breadth, settle, squeeze, BANG, and almost in slow motion I watched it roll over down the slope. Relief, quickly tempered with the realisation that the slope was going to make extraction a heavy drag. At least the ground wasn't wet but the dry leaves and dust were almost as slippery. I descended the slope as fast as I could, even the dogs were having issues with the slope, to find the stone dead pricket reversed, wedged against a tree. Looking at the low exit the mind quickly questioned my shot placement but it was stone dead - we'll find out in the gralloch.
For just this very instance, I invested last year in a small petrol capstan winch and boy, am I glad I did. On this ground, it has literally saved years of my life and I'm no spring chicken! Reversing the car up against the field edge overlooking the slope, I decided to do a split pull using a firstly a tree near the top of the slope - the drag in @Stirlinggundogs excellent Jet Sled was perfect. A quick reposition and a short drag over a former stone wall/barbed wire fence and the sled was in the field.
Beinglazy efficient, I towed the sled behind the car across the field to my regular gralloch point. There I made the biggest mistake of the night, choosing for speed to use my tailgate strut to do a suspended gralloch rather that getting my big tow-bar gibbet out - after all, it had done bigger 
Ah well, time to get the gibbet out.............
Shot placement - I was pleased to see the heart severed in half diagonally at 45 degrees - precisely the angle of that dammed slope
The rest is history so to speak and the 34 kg pricket is now hanging in the chiller at home.
However, looking at the trail cam pictures from this morning from the luxury of my bed, guess what passed the camera at the second permission at roughly the time I had envisaged being there - bloody fallow!
I was out at first light on the first of August looking for a nice fallow pricket to start the season. I had managed a few roe bucks over the early summer break but all I seemed to be regularly taking were muntjac and I so despise skinning them - so much effort for so little reward. All this, at a time when every week seemed to bring a new customer asking for venison - feast and famine. Numerous stalks conducted since at both ends of the day with only 2 fleeting glances, despite them continuing to show on trail cameras
I decided this Monday to take today off, intending to go to the range but, as I headed North up the M5 after doing my shoot feed to stalk, I resolved that if I blanked again last night, I'd go out again at first light today. A late night and an early start is not my idea of happiness but needs must as some customers were growing impatient.
I have settled into a routine of going to one permission, a small 30 acre patch with woodland margin, for a quick check before going on to a much larger one (ten times) for a prolonged foot stalk over flat arable land bordered by woods, before returning to the smaller one to stake out productive areas at last light. Following this routine I was at the end of the totally blank quick check when to my great surprise I picked up on a small thermal hotspot down a steep barren slope in the mature woodland. My immediate thought was roe but a quick glance with the binos revealed a black fallow, sex hidden by trees. Not wishing to let this rare opportunity slip, I quickly mounted the rifle (T3X 20" Wideland Veil .308 in MDT HNT26) on my sticks. The slope was steep, but pushing the fifth leg forwards through the barbed wire I could get sufficient depression just to see the animal. Eureka, it was a pricket! At that point, the left legs chose to slip on the hard ground - bugger (or words to that effect)
A quick judicial move of the left foot to provide a firm footing for the legs meant I quickly reacquired the buck, still standing unaware about 90m down the slope. Chance to draw breadth, settle, squeeze, BANG, and almost in slow motion I watched it roll over down the slope. Relief, quickly tempered with the realisation that the slope was going to make extraction a heavy drag. At least the ground wasn't wet but the dry leaves and dust were almost as slippery. I descended the slope as fast as I could, even the dogs were having issues with the slope, to find the stone dead pricket reversed, wedged against a tree. Looking at the low exit the mind quickly questioned my shot placement but it was stone dead - we'll find out in the gralloch.For just this very instance, I invested last year in a small petrol capstan winch and boy, am I glad I did. On this ground, it has literally saved years of my life and I'm no spring chicken! Reversing the car up against the field edge overlooking the slope, I decided to do a split pull using a firstly a tree near the top of the slope - the drag in @Stirlinggundogs excellent Jet Sled was perfect. A quick reposition and a short drag over a former stone wall/barbed wire fence and the sled was in the field.
Being
Ah well, time to get the gibbet out.............
Shot placement - I was pleased to see the heart severed in half diagonally at 45 degrees - precisely the angle of that dammed slope
The rest is history so to speak and the 34 kg pricket is now hanging in the chiller at home.
However, looking at the trail cam pictures from this morning from the luxury of my bed, guess what passed the camera at the second permission at roughly the time I had envisaged being there - bloody fallow!
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