What a phenomenal end to my first year of stalking!
2 more outings in December, one mid-month, and the second was this last Saturday.
The mid-December one was a lovely stalk. We visited a couple of my mentor's less trodden permissions to peruse, count what deer were around, and hopefully get a couple for his larder.
With the available hours of light being in short supply this time of year, the stalking kicks off earlier than we'd normally head out, so around midday, giving us a good 4 hours of light to hopefully find some deer. As we're making our way over to the first permission, we're seeing groups of 10+ roe deer ambling through the fields, so with the wind in our favour and the deer quite oblivious to us it'll be a great start to the day.
For the first, we stalked in across ploughed field facing south. With the sun directly on us we used the truck as a backdrop to try and help hide our silhouette. I found again just how difficult it can be to discern bucks from does when the bucks have cast their antlers. Thankfully with my mentors input, I was confident on selection of a doe in the group based on her shape & physiology, and of course her clear lack of danglies! I got set up on the sticks, the group ahead around 180yds, and placed a clean H&L shot. She moved a few yards and dropped. Perfect! The group dispersed, so no available second deer. I need to build that muscle memory to reload as soon as I send the first shot off. At the moment, it takes me a quick nudge by my mentor saying "reload, reload!" to kick my brain into gear to get another bullet lined up. Practice practice.
Hauling a deer across a freshly ploughed field is not light work, even with 2 people. I wouldn't mind but he's got a roe sack and dog leads in the truck we can use to make our lives easier, but we never do remember to take them with us! I make a mental note to put at least something in my jacket pocket before we retrieve a deer but have yet to remember, I must be a glutton for punishment.
Onto the next permission! A lovely bit of ground with a small patch of trees backing onto a river. A really picturesque little sliver of the country side, somewhere you'd expect to see lots of deer. We only spotted a couple of skittish roe does on the drive in to the permission who quickly disappeared into the trees, never to be seen again. Unfortunately nothing else was spotted on this permission even with the thermal, my mentor laments that someone else must be clearing up this area as he's seeing less and less here, even though he seldom visits. Oh well! Onto the next one.
The next is CWD city. There's more water deer than you can shake a stick at, but they are canny. Always seem to place themselves well enough that they can see you at good lick, so it's a really tough stalk into reasonable shooting distance without sending them off across the field at full tilt.
We've spotted a pair of ears poking up above the brush in a field to the north, and we can use a small spinney to break up our silhouette a little. I'm told I'm on my own for this stalk. This will be a real test. I take my new sticks (which I built myself, thanks again to Takbok for the 3d print files!) and the rifle and set off toward it. No tusks visible at initial glassed distance of 230yds. I closed the distance to 170yds. The deer remained couched, but he's looking right at me. I've carefully set up the rifle on sticks, and confirmed it was a buck, but likely a young'un as the tusks were tiny. With his eyes in the cross hairs, I let the shot off. The noise that comes back from a headshot isn't the nicest, but you can tell it's effective.
This one was a much easier retrieve than the doe from earlier, a nice little buck, in a set-aside field. I consider myself lucky.
With the light starting to fade, and more CWD dotted about, my mentor offered to gralloch the buck, and sent me off for another solo stalk in on a pair of CWD in the opposite field. I gear up, and start approaching along the edge of the field along a reedy dyke. I attempt to approach on the opposite side of the dyke to the deer, but I found that as I got closer, the undulations in the field meant the reeds were too tall to see over, and I couldn't set up to take a shot when I got close. Naïvely I decided to return back along the field to then stalk up the reeds on the same side as the deer, when I should have just jumped through that reedy dyke. I managed to close the gap to around 180yds, but both deer moved behind the reeds when I was setting up on the sticks. They hadn't spotted me but I was foiled at the end, they moved onto ground that we can't shoot.
Another lesson learned, next time, just jump the dyke!
The last stalk of the year, and what a day! We headed out before sunrise, and arrived with it beginning to brighten in the background. It was a lovely crisp morning on Saturday, definitely colder, the ground crunching under foot. My mentor had started looking around with the thermal to see what might be about. Plenty, was the answer! Now to wait for them to be visible through the binoculars and rifle scope. We started a few stalks, first on some CWD, then on some roe, but they were on to us this morning, bolting either just as the rifle was on the sticks, or just before. What was brilliant to see was all the CWD bucks out, in full rut. We spotted a few of them running each other, but the majority were couched, or flushed out by us approaching in the truck on the way around the permission. Though for every couple you spot out at distance, there's 2 or 3 you won't see and you'll be almost on top of them. It's not until they run out from seemingly nowhere 30yds or so in front of you that you see them, they are incredibly well camouflaged creatures.
Undeterred, we continued on a little further into the permission, where a nice heap of roe were spotted in a field opposite a small wood. These were making their way briskly along toward the back of the wood, so we intended to stalk around the other side and wait for them to cross our path. As we get behind the wood, lo and behold, another group of roe! They were only around 250yds, so a very slow stalk in toward. I picked out a nice doe from the group, got set up on the sticks, and sent a round off for a heart & lung shot. It lands perfect, and the doe drops quickly. This of course startled the other group, and sent them all well off into the distance. We continued on around in case there were any others who perhaps didn't startle at the shot, and obligingly, there was! A nice little CWD buck couched in the field, who clearly was unbothered by the shot and the roe who must have passed him reasonably close.
He wasn't too far off, so straight back up on the sticks, and sent a shot off before he got up and ran off. I was very happy to have 2 in the bag before 9am!
With these two gralloched out, we continued on, and made it probably 500yds or so before spotting more CWD in the far end of the same field. No time for sticks this time, so a bag on the bonnet will do. I line up the shot, send it off, and that's number 3!
We then moved on to another permission, and there's many deer about. The roe are starting to huddle up now, we're seeing groups of 8,10,12 throughout the area, though it seems more often on areas we can't shoot, typical. There's still plenty of other deer on available permissions but again, they are clever. We can see them, but of course they can see us, making any stalking in on them difficult. They know if they sit in the middle of a field, they are tough to approach. We see a couple of CWD nearer to the edge of a field, giving us a bit of a chance with the grass along the edge offering some cover. I line up the sight on a CWD buck, send the shot off, and he bolts. He keeps going at full pelt, I've completely missed him. I'm reliably informed by my mentor that I'd gone a little high over his head, so he gets away unscathed. Unfortunately for me, this was the start of an odd patch of not being able to hit the deer.
It was a good time to get some food, so we start heading to the local 'spoons for a bite to eat. As we're heading back we spy a couple of muntjac on a small permission of 2 fields, and couldn't resist having another quick stalk. It's really nice buck with a good head and a doe. So nice, I'm told, that it might be worth having this one mounted if I can get it. A lovely little stalk in across the first field, with a slightly higher bank between the two fields hiding us until they were in shooting distance. Set up on the sticks, I lined up the shot, place the crosshairs half way up the shoulder, and sent the shot off. The deer didn't even move. "Reload, reload!" I hear, so I send the bolt back, line up the next shot, same again. Send the shot off, but the buck wasn't hanging about the second time and he rockets off toward a nearby wood. I completely missed twice. I'm gutted! I've been on good form all morning, then all of a sudden, I can't seem to land a shot.
Time for some late breakfast/early lunch, and a bit of reflection on why I might have missed. I think I must be pulling the rifle as well as the trigger, but honestly I don't feel like I'm doing anything different. Me missing the deer entirely says otherwise, best to try not to get in my head about it.
Back out again after a full english, and we're on the other side of the town for the afternoon session. We were unsure if we might get a quiet hour or so as the deer couch up, but there's still plenty out there as we scan around with the binoculars. We spot a couple of individual CWD in a field, and amble the truck a little closer. The wind in our favour, we're able to get to shooting distance easily enough. I hopped out of the truck with the rifle and set up on the bonnet again, thankfully this time hitting my target as intended, I've broken my bad luck! As the shot rings out, we flushed 2 other CWD we hadn't seen who were hiding in the border of the field. One of them loops back on itself and ends up presenting a shot opportunity at around 250yds, this time my mentor decides to have a shot. That's 5 deer! I'm beginning to wonder at this stage how we're going to fit all of these carcasses in the tray in the truck, "they'll fit, don't worry about that" I'm told.
A couple of hours of light left, so we gralloch out this pair of CWD, and continue on to another permission. A really muddy track makes for a slippery and slidy drive along the fields, but we spot 3 does up ahead. The wind has been kind to us most of the day, and we sidle up to them without being spotted again. I pick the bigger doe in the middle of the 3, and send another shot off. A perfect broadside shot exactly where I wanted it, in the engine room. "Reload, reload!" comes the message, to which I do, but the remaining pair left me no chance and were off like rockets, quickly disappearing into the distance. She makes number 6 though, another good sized doe to gralloch!
We're up to around 14:30 now, so knowing we're soon to run out of daylight, we hit one last permission to see if we can find anything else. An old railway line crosses through this one, so we're on the high banked area where the tracks used to run, scanning the field lower to the left of us. Another pair of does spotted, and there's plenty of brambles and bushes for our cover, so we get within 100yds before setting up on the sticks in a gap between the foliage. I line up on my target, and send the round down the chamber. Another shot exactly where I intended, and she drops on the spot. Brilliant! That's 7.
What a way to end the year. It was a jam packed day of stalking, with so much action seen, and who knows how many deer. We estimate we must have seen over 200 all in over the course of the day, but at least managed to put a wee dent in their numbers.
It's been a real pleasure getting into stalking. I've enjoyed spending so much time out in the countryside learning a new craft in great company. I now find my eye searching for deer whenever I'm driving around in the car, and begin to work through in my mind how I'd go about stalking them. I find myself looking down on the ground for tracks, looking at broken blades of grass and see if deer were the ones who'd been eating it.
Here's to 2026. Wishing you all a good year's stalking! Thank you for reading, I'll be back out soon no doubt.
2 more outings in December, one mid-month, and the second was this last Saturday.
The mid-December one was a lovely stalk. We visited a couple of my mentor's less trodden permissions to peruse, count what deer were around, and hopefully get a couple for his larder.
With the available hours of light being in short supply this time of year, the stalking kicks off earlier than we'd normally head out, so around midday, giving us a good 4 hours of light to hopefully find some deer. As we're making our way over to the first permission, we're seeing groups of 10+ roe deer ambling through the fields, so with the wind in our favour and the deer quite oblivious to us it'll be a great start to the day.
For the first, we stalked in across ploughed field facing south. With the sun directly on us we used the truck as a backdrop to try and help hide our silhouette. I found again just how difficult it can be to discern bucks from does when the bucks have cast their antlers. Thankfully with my mentors input, I was confident on selection of a doe in the group based on her shape & physiology, and of course her clear lack of danglies! I got set up on the sticks, the group ahead around 180yds, and placed a clean H&L shot. She moved a few yards and dropped. Perfect! The group dispersed, so no available second deer. I need to build that muscle memory to reload as soon as I send the first shot off. At the moment, it takes me a quick nudge by my mentor saying "reload, reload!" to kick my brain into gear to get another bullet lined up. Practice practice.
Hauling a deer across a freshly ploughed field is not light work, even with 2 people. I wouldn't mind but he's got a roe sack and dog leads in the truck we can use to make our lives easier, but we never do remember to take them with us! I make a mental note to put at least something in my jacket pocket before we retrieve a deer but have yet to remember, I must be a glutton for punishment.
Onto the next permission! A lovely bit of ground with a small patch of trees backing onto a river. A really picturesque little sliver of the country side, somewhere you'd expect to see lots of deer. We only spotted a couple of skittish roe does on the drive in to the permission who quickly disappeared into the trees, never to be seen again. Unfortunately nothing else was spotted on this permission even with the thermal, my mentor laments that someone else must be clearing up this area as he's seeing less and less here, even though he seldom visits. Oh well! Onto the next one.
The next is CWD city. There's more water deer than you can shake a stick at, but they are canny. Always seem to place themselves well enough that they can see you at good lick, so it's a really tough stalk into reasonable shooting distance without sending them off across the field at full tilt.
We've spotted a pair of ears poking up above the brush in a field to the north, and we can use a small spinney to break up our silhouette a little. I'm told I'm on my own for this stalk. This will be a real test. I take my new sticks (which I built myself, thanks again to Takbok for the 3d print files!) and the rifle and set off toward it. No tusks visible at initial glassed distance of 230yds. I closed the distance to 170yds. The deer remained couched, but he's looking right at me. I've carefully set up the rifle on sticks, and confirmed it was a buck, but likely a young'un as the tusks were tiny. With his eyes in the cross hairs, I let the shot off. The noise that comes back from a headshot isn't the nicest, but you can tell it's effective.
This one was a much easier retrieve than the doe from earlier, a nice little buck, in a set-aside field. I consider myself lucky.
With the light starting to fade, and more CWD dotted about, my mentor offered to gralloch the buck, and sent me off for another solo stalk in on a pair of CWD in the opposite field. I gear up, and start approaching along the edge of the field along a reedy dyke. I attempt to approach on the opposite side of the dyke to the deer, but I found that as I got closer, the undulations in the field meant the reeds were too tall to see over, and I couldn't set up to take a shot when I got close. Naïvely I decided to return back along the field to then stalk up the reeds on the same side as the deer, when I should have just jumped through that reedy dyke. I managed to close the gap to around 180yds, but both deer moved behind the reeds when I was setting up on the sticks. They hadn't spotted me but I was foiled at the end, they moved onto ground that we can't shoot.
Another lesson learned, next time, just jump the dyke!
The last stalk of the year, and what a day! We headed out before sunrise, and arrived with it beginning to brighten in the background. It was a lovely crisp morning on Saturday, definitely colder, the ground crunching under foot. My mentor had started looking around with the thermal to see what might be about. Plenty, was the answer! Now to wait for them to be visible through the binoculars and rifle scope. We started a few stalks, first on some CWD, then on some roe, but they were on to us this morning, bolting either just as the rifle was on the sticks, or just before. What was brilliant to see was all the CWD bucks out, in full rut. We spotted a few of them running each other, but the majority were couched, or flushed out by us approaching in the truck on the way around the permission. Though for every couple you spot out at distance, there's 2 or 3 you won't see and you'll be almost on top of them. It's not until they run out from seemingly nowhere 30yds or so in front of you that you see them, they are incredibly well camouflaged creatures.
Undeterred, we continued on a little further into the permission, where a nice heap of roe were spotted in a field opposite a small wood. These were making their way briskly along toward the back of the wood, so we intended to stalk around the other side and wait for them to cross our path. As we get behind the wood, lo and behold, another group of roe! They were only around 250yds, so a very slow stalk in toward. I picked out a nice doe from the group, got set up on the sticks, and sent a round off for a heart & lung shot. It lands perfect, and the doe drops quickly. This of course startled the other group, and sent them all well off into the distance. We continued on around in case there were any others who perhaps didn't startle at the shot, and obligingly, there was! A nice little CWD buck couched in the field, who clearly was unbothered by the shot and the roe who must have passed him reasonably close.
He wasn't too far off, so straight back up on the sticks, and sent a shot off before he got up and ran off. I was very happy to have 2 in the bag before 9am!
With these two gralloched out, we continued on, and made it probably 500yds or so before spotting more CWD in the far end of the same field. No time for sticks this time, so a bag on the bonnet will do. I line up the shot, send it off, and that's number 3!
We then moved on to another permission, and there's many deer about. The roe are starting to huddle up now, we're seeing groups of 8,10,12 throughout the area, though it seems more often on areas we can't shoot, typical. There's still plenty of other deer on available permissions but again, they are clever. We can see them, but of course they can see us, making any stalking in on them difficult. They know if they sit in the middle of a field, they are tough to approach. We see a couple of CWD nearer to the edge of a field, giving us a bit of a chance with the grass along the edge offering some cover. I line up the sight on a CWD buck, send the shot off, and he bolts. He keeps going at full pelt, I've completely missed him. I'm reliably informed by my mentor that I'd gone a little high over his head, so he gets away unscathed. Unfortunately for me, this was the start of an odd patch of not being able to hit the deer.
It was a good time to get some food, so we start heading to the local 'spoons for a bite to eat. As we're heading back we spy a couple of muntjac on a small permission of 2 fields, and couldn't resist having another quick stalk. It's really nice buck with a good head and a doe. So nice, I'm told, that it might be worth having this one mounted if I can get it. A lovely little stalk in across the first field, with a slightly higher bank between the two fields hiding us until they were in shooting distance. Set up on the sticks, I lined up the shot, place the crosshairs half way up the shoulder, and sent the shot off. The deer didn't even move. "Reload, reload!" I hear, so I send the bolt back, line up the next shot, same again. Send the shot off, but the buck wasn't hanging about the second time and he rockets off toward a nearby wood. I completely missed twice. I'm gutted! I've been on good form all morning, then all of a sudden, I can't seem to land a shot.
Time for some late breakfast/early lunch, and a bit of reflection on why I might have missed. I think I must be pulling the rifle as well as the trigger, but honestly I don't feel like I'm doing anything different. Me missing the deer entirely says otherwise, best to try not to get in my head about it.
Back out again after a full english, and we're on the other side of the town for the afternoon session. We were unsure if we might get a quiet hour or so as the deer couch up, but there's still plenty out there as we scan around with the binoculars. We spot a couple of individual CWD in a field, and amble the truck a little closer. The wind in our favour, we're able to get to shooting distance easily enough. I hopped out of the truck with the rifle and set up on the bonnet again, thankfully this time hitting my target as intended, I've broken my bad luck! As the shot rings out, we flushed 2 other CWD we hadn't seen who were hiding in the border of the field. One of them loops back on itself and ends up presenting a shot opportunity at around 250yds, this time my mentor decides to have a shot. That's 5 deer! I'm beginning to wonder at this stage how we're going to fit all of these carcasses in the tray in the truck, "they'll fit, don't worry about that" I'm told.
A couple of hours of light left, so we gralloch out this pair of CWD, and continue on to another permission. A really muddy track makes for a slippery and slidy drive along the fields, but we spot 3 does up ahead. The wind has been kind to us most of the day, and we sidle up to them without being spotted again. I pick the bigger doe in the middle of the 3, and send another shot off. A perfect broadside shot exactly where I wanted it, in the engine room. "Reload, reload!" comes the message, to which I do, but the remaining pair left me no chance and were off like rockets, quickly disappearing into the distance. She makes number 6 though, another good sized doe to gralloch!
We're up to around 14:30 now, so knowing we're soon to run out of daylight, we hit one last permission to see if we can find anything else. An old railway line crosses through this one, so we're on the high banked area where the tracks used to run, scanning the field lower to the left of us. Another pair of does spotted, and there's plenty of brambles and bushes for our cover, so we get within 100yds before setting up on the sticks in a gap between the foliage. I line up on my target, and send the round down the chamber. Another shot exactly where I intended, and she drops on the spot. Brilliant! That's 7.
What a way to end the year. It was a jam packed day of stalking, with so much action seen, and who knows how many deer. We estimate we must have seen over 200 all in over the course of the day, but at least managed to put a wee dent in their numbers.
It's been a real pleasure getting into stalking. I've enjoyed spending so much time out in the countryside learning a new craft in great company. I now find my eye searching for deer whenever I'm driving around in the car, and begin to work through in my mind how I'd go about stalking them. I find myself looking down on the ground for tracks, looking at broken blades of grass and see if deer were the ones who'd been eating it.
Here's to 2026. Wishing you all a good year's stalking! Thank you for reading, I'll be back out soon no doubt.
