Thought I would do a bit of a write up for my first two deer,
I was lucky enough to pick up a bit of land from a friend in Essex a few years ago and have been down a lot for walked up and pigeon.
I only recently managed to get myself a stalking rifle and the time/money to get down on the deer. and i think it took me a good 5/6 stalks to realize crashing round covering all the land probably wasn't helping me , plus not liking shooting off sticks was probably limiting my shots, not that any presented themselves anyway!
Anyway, god knows how many hours of you tube tutorials later and lots of reading on here, teamed with a lot of practice off sticks with the .22, about 50 rounds with the .243 and I was happy , off down to Essex I went for the first day of the roe bucks.
Arrived about 10am and looked where I had seen deer activity before, I found a nice cut through by a pond with lots of slots along side a wood, went off for a wonder and saw nothing had some lunch etc and went back out for the evening. Back to the spot i had picked earlier looking down into a depression with the wind in my face i set up in the optimum place, (happend to be in a puddle about 3" deep but oh well) saw a few deer the wrong side of the boundary and thought to look round the other side of the spinney, nothing. as i come back round i see a roe buck just dissapearing into the woods. thinking i had missed my only chance i crawled back in to my puddle and waited and saw nothing, it was starting to get dark and cold etc so i thought best head to the car, just start to get my stuff together and in the middle of the field catch a glimpse of a deer. anyway hes coming charging towards me , im in the open and upwind of him , so i thought he would spook before he got to me , but i get set up on the sticks and stand still waiting he got to about 100 yards and looked like he was going to go up to the ridge so I shout at him he stops and i pull the trigger, he looks shocked for a second, i reload, an have and oh crap moment as he starts running but hapily he only made it 5 yards and drops. hes now out of sight in the crop but i was Farley happy with the shot. then the hardest bit, trying to wait the customary few mins before going charging in to have a look.
anyway the shot was good and he hadnt moved an inch. i made safe did the eye thing and got my knife out, nice little 4 pointer in the bag , now in almost total darkness with my phone for a light had a few mins to think what to do , as id never gralloched anything this big before , luckily it turns out its a lot easier to do big stuff than small game so had it done in a few mins. and then skipped back to the car with the buck over my shoulder, hotter work than i thought it would be , but then again it is the definition of dead weight!
crammed him in the boot of mums CLK ( not the right car for the job ) and went to the girlfriends to butcher it (in central london, on a main road, got some very strange looks carrying a deer in to a pub dressed in breeches shirt and flatcap, with a liberal application of blood!)
SO
Lessons learnt: use appropriate car, take baby wipes, have a headtorch and dont go to the girlfriends to butcher stuff ( her mum was suprisingly calm to be fair)
the next chance i got to go down was for the fallow bucks, went down in my car, still not the right tool for the job, no babywipes, but i did bring a head torch, 1/3 isnt bad!
anyway i drew a blank on the evening stalk and decided to kip in the car and stalk the morning, off to dominoes , park up , pizza and a pint in the motor.
woke up at about 4 30 and checked the wind, it was s-n now , so up to the other end of my perm and start stalking back down to where i had spent the night , hadn't seen a thing but thought id do the tiny bit that was left even though i thought i could see it all anyway i stalk up the hedge , and see 5 fallow bucks, heart starts pounding and i now know what buck fever is!
i tuck back in to prepare myself and slowly get on the sticks , i was tight to the hedge but had to step out about 4ft to make sure i got a clean shot with no twigs in the way, select my beast and squeese, he goes down instantly and the rest bump on 80 yards textbook i get back on the sticks but decide one is enough due to limited boot space. i make safe and graloch, and carry it back to the car, there bloody heavy , and the antlers get in the way , and i had no idea they were that big! back home to butcher this one as i think i was on wafer thin ice with the girlfriends mum aha!
shoe horning it into the car was a right job defo bringing the right car next time! , and a concerned woman stopped to ask if i was ok or needed help wich was a tad awkward!
i now officialy am hooked !
I was lucky enough to pick up a bit of land from a friend in Essex a few years ago and have been down a lot for walked up and pigeon.
I only recently managed to get myself a stalking rifle and the time/money to get down on the deer. and i think it took me a good 5/6 stalks to realize crashing round covering all the land probably wasn't helping me , plus not liking shooting off sticks was probably limiting my shots, not that any presented themselves anyway!
Anyway, god knows how many hours of you tube tutorials later and lots of reading on here, teamed with a lot of practice off sticks with the .22, about 50 rounds with the .243 and I was happy , off down to Essex I went for the first day of the roe bucks.
Arrived about 10am and looked where I had seen deer activity before, I found a nice cut through by a pond with lots of slots along side a wood, went off for a wonder and saw nothing had some lunch etc and went back out for the evening. Back to the spot i had picked earlier looking down into a depression with the wind in my face i set up in the optimum place, (happend to be in a puddle about 3" deep but oh well) saw a few deer the wrong side of the boundary and thought to look round the other side of the spinney, nothing. as i come back round i see a roe buck just dissapearing into the woods. thinking i had missed my only chance i crawled back in to my puddle and waited and saw nothing, it was starting to get dark and cold etc so i thought best head to the car, just start to get my stuff together and in the middle of the field catch a glimpse of a deer. anyway hes coming charging towards me , im in the open and upwind of him , so i thought he would spook before he got to me , but i get set up on the sticks and stand still waiting he got to about 100 yards and looked like he was going to go up to the ridge so I shout at him he stops and i pull the trigger, he looks shocked for a second, i reload, an have and oh crap moment as he starts running but hapily he only made it 5 yards and drops. hes now out of sight in the crop but i was Farley happy with the shot. then the hardest bit, trying to wait the customary few mins before going charging in to have a look.
anyway the shot was good and he hadnt moved an inch. i made safe did the eye thing and got my knife out, nice little 4 pointer in the bag , now in almost total darkness with my phone for a light had a few mins to think what to do , as id never gralloched anything this big before , luckily it turns out its a lot easier to do big stuff than small game so had it done in a few mins. and then skipped back to the car with the buck over my shoulder, hotter work than i thought it would be , but then again it is the definition of dead weight!
crammed him in the boot of mums CLK ( not the right car for the job ) and went to the girlfriends to butcher it (in central london, on a main road, got some very strange looks carrying a deer in to a pub dressed in breeches shirt and flatcap, with a liberal application of blood!)
SO
Lessons learnt: use appropriate car, take baby wipes, have a headtorch and dont go to the girlfriends to butcher stuff ( her mum was suprisingly calm to be fair)
the next chance i got to go down was for the fallow bucks, went down in my car, still not the right tool for the job, no babywipes, but i did bring a head torch, 1/3 isnt bad!
anyway i drew a blank on the evening stalk and decided to kip in the car and stalk the morning, off to dominoes , park up , pizza and a pint in the motor.
woke up at about 4 30 and checked the wind, it was s-n now , so up to the other end of my perm and start stalking back down to where i had spent the night , hadn't seen a thing but thought id do the tiny bit that was left even though i thought i could see it all anyway i stalk up the hedge , and see 5 fallow bucks, heart starts pounding and i now know what buck fever is!
i tuck back in to prepare myself and slowly get on the sticks , i was tight to the hedge but had to step out about 4ft to make sure i got a clean shot with no twigs in the way, select my beast and squeese, he goes down instantly and the rest bump on 80 yards textbook i get back on the sticks but decide one is enough due to limited boot space. i make safe and graloch, and carry it back to the car, there bloody heavy , and the antlers get in the way , and i had no idea they were that big! back home to butcher this one as i think i was on wafer thin ice with the girlfriends mum aha!
shoe horning it into the car was a right job defo bringing the right car next time! , and a concerned woman stopped to ask if i was ok or needed help wich was a tad awkward!
i now officialy am hooked !
