So having recently applied for a variation to put a deer calibre on my ticket, and having finally chosen the 6.5 swede, all that was left to do was satisfy my fao’s conditions!
He wanted me to be mentored before signing me off as capable of stalking alone, luckily for me an old friend (@25 Sharps)had already offered to take me out on some of his ground.
We had been out a few times up until this point, on 2 very different types of ground, the first being made up of small paddocks and fields bordered with nice thick hedges and some maize dotted about the place as well, we saw plenty of nice animals and had a couple of nice stalks but with no shot presented. Scott spotted a buck around 600 yards away grazing a paddock on the far side of a livery yard so we got footed it across! When we got there he appeared to have vanished...as they do, but he had led up under a hawthorn just out of site, he eventually got up and couldn’t of been any more than 60 or so yards away but with all my fumbling around on the quad sticks and forgetting the lens caps
he soon went on his way...never mind!!
So fast forward to Monday evening just gone, this time on the other piece of ground which is pretty much all arable, big fields and no hedges! But there is a small block of farm buildings with a little copse on the side, we had already seen the buck we wanted in that spot weeks previous so decided to sit it out in the high seat. Scott knew of the buck from last year, fairly poor head and pretty much a murder buck for want of a better term. We must of been sat in the seat for an hour, watching a couple of rabbits out in front, a bigger buck 2 fields away on the edge of some maize and a doe with twins, all great to see. Steadily running out of light and patience...Scott gives me a nudge, and literally at the bottom of the high seat is a deer!!! None the wiser it just carries on grazing on grass and brambles but it wasn’t going any where fast, it looked to be an immature buck, no antler but you could just make out 2 very small bumps on top of his head. Whilst Scott was watching him, immediately to my right comes another deer...the buck we’ve been looking for! The most challenging part of this whole job was turning nearly 90 degrees without bumping the young buck at the bottom of the ladder, I steadily got into position, and he’s a nice 80 yards so nothing too taxing, he’s happily grazing and I took the shot, he dropped on the spot! What a feeling, to finally grass a buck again and especially the one we had been looking for.
Massive thanks to Scott for taking me out and agreeing to mentor me, there’s plenty I’ll learn from him about stalking and rifles in general, even if half of the rifle talk blows me brains!
He wanted me to be mentored before signing me off as capable of stalking alone, luckily for me an old friend (@25 Sharps)had already offered to take me out on some of his ground.
We had been out a few times up until this point, on 2 very different types of ground, the first being made up of small paddocks and fields bordered with nice thick hedges and some maize dotted about the place as well, we saw plenty of nice animals and had a couple of nice stalks but with no shot presented. Scott spotted a buck around 600 yards away grazing a paddock on the far side of a livery yard so we got footed it across! When we got there he appeared to have vanished...as they do, but he had led up under a hawthorn just out of site, he eventually got up and couldn’t of been any more than 60 or so yards away but with all my fumbling around on the quad sticks and forgetting the lens caps
he soon went on his way...never mind!!So fast forward to Monday evening just gone, this time on the other piece of ground which is pretty much all arable, big fields and no hedges! But there is a small block of farm buildings with a little copse on the side, we had already seen the buck we wanted in that spot weeks previous so decided to sit it out in the high seat. Scott knew of the buck from last year, fairly poor head and pretty much a murder buck for want of a better term. We must of been sat in the seat for an hour, watching a couple of rabbits out in front, a bigger buck 2 fields away on the edge of some maize and a doe with twins, all great to see. Steadily running out of light and patience...Scott gives me a nudge, and literally at the bottom of the high seat is a deer!!! None the wiser it just carries on grazing on grass and brambles but it wasn’t going any where fast, it looked to be an immature buck, no antler but you could just make out 2 very small bumps on top of his head. Whilst Scott was watching him, immediately to my right comes another deer...the buck we’ve been looking for! The most challenging part of this whole job was turning nearly 90 degrees without bumping the young buck at the bottom of the ladder, I steadily got into position, and he’s a nice 80 yards so nothing too taxing, he’s happily grazing and I took the shot, he dropped on the spot! What a feeling, to finally grass a buck again and especially the one we had been looking for.
Massive thanks to Scott for taking me out and agreeing to mentor me, there’s plenty I’ll learn from him about stalking and rifles in general, even if half of the rifle talk blows me brains!
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