I’m going to put my hand up & say that today I have been reminded in no uncertain terms that I must not lose sight of the basics or become complacent or it will, and nearly did, bite me in the bum!
How many threads & posts do we see regularly referring to ‘bang flop’ or saying that .270Win is the best cartridge going, then someone says the 6.5CM is better, then there are the P(R)C brigade - see what I did there.
Or, describing a stalk in detail by reference to the rifle used, the mega expensive scope, what weight & type of bullet loaded over how much of a particular powder & how they rest the forend of the rifle on their Viper-Flex quad sticks instead of supporting it with their hand.
Then there’s the suspended vs. on the deck gralloch, etc.
Not forgetting, of course, the glass vs. digital vs. thermal scope argument… or the “which trousers are best?” & all the other threads which aren’t actually about deer stalking are they!?
After many years of being a ‘traditional’ stalker, last season was my first using an Alpex to allow me to reap the benefit of the last 20 minutes of light on the fallow - it worked very well as a tool & I had it all set up ready to use at the start of the doe season, albeit my start was postponed due to injury. A factor that probably has a bearing on what happened this evening - subconsciously I think I wanted to make up for lost time.
Last season I also succumbed & bought myself a thermal spotter to augment my trusty Dialyt binoculars. It too has proved invaluable, seeing deer long before they are visible in the binos &, as a bonus, allowing easy location of shot deer after dark.
Technology is wonderful & we all rely on it more & more each day.
The phone pinged at lunchtime, a message (weren’t phones originally for making phone calls on?) - “anyone out this afternoon if the rain clears up? - be in the yard at 1530”.
I looked at the forecast & reckoned it was worth a chance.
1515 & it was chucking it down but there were clear skies on the horizon so off I went. Arriving at the farm the rain had cleared but I decided that just to be safe in case it rained again I’d go to the nearest ladder about 200 yards from the yard & the shelter of my car!
This ladder has a habit of producing so I had expectations of catching up with a donkey or two & on that basis I passed up the solitary roe doe that appeared 10 minutes after I had settled in - she came out of the wood opposite, it’s about 150 yards, & ambled down quartering to my 4 o’clock before disappearing through the hedge.
The time ticked by & the thermal allowed me to spot two muntjac, but not only were they somewhere with no backstop, a quick look with the binos confirmed they were the other side of a hedge. One reason I’ll never use a thermal scope!
It also showed me eight roe deer in the opposite corner of the field & no fewer than 18 hares in the rape around me.
Sunset this evening was 1623 & at 1710 I was just reconciling myself that whilst I’d blanked at least I’d stayed dry. One last scan with the thermal before I climbed down &, bingo, fallow coming out of the wood opposite. The Alpex is a wonderful bit of tech & I picked a doe that was a safe shot & squeezed - I’d already set the second aiming mark at 200 yards so was confident of a solid hit.
Bang, whack, run - not out into the field to drop in sight but, turned & then disappeared through a gap in the hedge back into the wood & still going at full tilt! Not to worry, the 6.5 (NOT a CM) is a stopper so she won’t have gone far - there’s a ride about 10 yards inside the wood & if she’s not dead before she gets to that she’ll be easy to find from where she’s crossed that & won’t be far away.
So, confident of an easy retrieval I unload & clamber down the ladder then head back to the yard where I put the carrier on the back of the Disco & head off to collect my beastie. I stop short of where she went into the hedge & get out with the torch in my hand & thermal around my neck. I scan with the thermal but no sign, not a problem as I’m actually a bit too far from the gap in the hedge so I walk along scanning as I go but still nothing.
When I reach the spot where she was stood I don’t see any blood, but that’s not a big deal, I could be in the wrong place so continue along looking with the torch. Still nothing but not to worry, I’ll just walk down to the end of the ride & cut back along it using the thermal, I’m bound to find her that way… or maybe not… the bramble has grown up a lot since last winter. I get to the other end of the ride & there’s been no tell tale signature on the thermal so I turn around & come back - sometimes you can see things from the opposite direction that are hidden to start with. I walk the whole length of the ride but nothing still.
It was at this point that the little devil on my shoulder started to say “you’ve lost this one, it’s too dark, your torch batteries will run out, give up & go home for your supper”. I was tempted & almost resigned to come back in the morning to recover what would probably be by then a condemned carcass as the temperatures are still in mid teens here.
Then the angel on the other shoulder said “don’t be daft, what did you do for all the years you never had a thermal spotter? - go back to basics & look for ‘sign’ then follow it.”
So, back out to where I was certain the doe had been stood & a good look around with the torch - it’d help if I could actually see, so back to the car for my glasses! No blood, no hair, nothing, was I in the right place? I wasn’t 100% sure. What I was sure about was the gap in the hedge the doe had gone through so I walked out into the field then shone the torch back - there it was, let’s look there. Sure enough, as she turned through the gap the doe had left blood, but not much & the colour told me the shot was a bit further back than it should have been - thermals can’t tell you that can they!
Taking a broken twig I placed it in the ground next to the gap - at least if I had to retrace my steps or come back in the morning I’d know where to start. Through the gap & another small blood spot on a sapling, searching around with the torch though there were no more on leaves or undergrowth, not good & to make matters worse the track through the hedge then split into two. The fork to the right looked more defined & well used but we have a lot of muntjac in this wood & it could easily be them. I followed it out to the ride but there were no more blood spots & more importantly, there were no signs of a large deer charging along it not fully in control of its movements as it took flight.
So back to the hedge & follow the left fork - a third small spot of blood confirmed this was the way to go but again when I got to the ride there was nothing to say where next. Putting the torch beam down low or holding it off to one side gives a different perspective on things & showed a track into the wood diagonally opposite so I had a look. Once again the trail split & I went right to start with before soon realising that was the wrong way to go & back tracking. Still no blood but there were clear foot marks, overturned leaves, running through the bowl left by a fallen tree so I followed them & found some more slots - heavy marks from a running deer & then a fourth blood spot sat on a yellow leaf, bigger than the others but still no more than 5mm across. I snapped two low hanging twigs in the hazel bush directly above it to mark it, again in case I needed to come back to that point again.
Thinking I might see more & larger blood spots now I scanned around with the torch but nothing. Still sure there was a dead fallow doe not far away I got the thermal out again & had a scan about. It’s amazing what you can see with one of these - mice foraging on the woodland floor & in the hazel, a muntjac ambling along oblivious to me, a roe deer stood looking indignantly at me - I’d heard it stomping a foot at me just before. But no sign of a dead fallow doe.
With no blood to follow it became a proper “Tonto” job with me resorting to the subconscious to look for things that didn’t fit in the surroundings. Some scuffed leaves revealed a skid mark from a foot, the pale underside of a bramble leaf showed something had gone that way, another skid mark, a shadow from the torch showing where there was a gap in the brambles that just wasn't visible with the light shining straight at it.
I carried on following the trail that wasn’t really there & which somewhere deep down I knew was actually my experience guiding me. I had no idea where I was in the wood in terms of my spatial awareness but that didn’t matter, I was focused on finding what I knew was a dead fallow doe & I’d work out where I was & how to get her out once I’d found her.
Suddenly, there she was, dead as. As I’d surmised, the shot was a little bit back & the exit hole had been plugged, hence the lack of blood trail to follow. Looking up I got a feel for my bearings & started to drag her in the direction of a ride where I could get the car in.
By the time I got back to the larder it was over an hour from when I’d squeezed the trigger, OK I’d had to walk back to get the car, put the carrier in the back, etc. but it’d still taken me a good 45 minutes to find that doe in the dark. If I’d done what I should have done to start with & left the thermal in the car I’m sure I’d have found it quicker!
Instead I looked for an easy option & put my reliance in the tech & the tech let me down.
Just goes to show that we’re all human & we make mistakes - the shot should have been left as it was probably too late in all honesty, this was probably why it was too far back, but we have a higher cull target this year & I lost the first week of the doe season to injury.
Also goes to show that having the tech isn’t always the answer to everything - thermal spotters are no match for thick brambles.
At the end of the day it was good old fashioned basics that saved the day.
Although I will still be using the Alpex for the fallow & the battery for the thermal is on charge as a type this!
How many threads & posts do we see regularly referring to ‘bang flop’ or saying that .270Win is the best cartridge going, then someone says the 6.5CM is better, then there are the P(R)C brigade - see what I did there.
Or, describing a stalk in detail by reference to the rifle used, the mega expensive scope, what weight & type of bullet loaded over how much of a particular powder & how they rest the forend of the rifle on their Viper-Flex quad sticks instead of supporting it with their hand.
Then there’s the suspended vs. on the deck gralloch, etc.
Not forgetting, of course, the glass vs. digital vs. thermal scope argument… or the “which trousers are best?” & all the other threads which aren’t actually about deer stalking are they!?
After many years of being a ‘traditional’ stalker, last season was my first using an Alpex to allow me to reap the benefit of the last 20 minutes of light on the fallow - it worked very well as a tool & I had it all set up ready to use at the start of the doe season, albeit my start was postponed due to injury. A factor that probably has a bearing on what happened this evening - subconsciously I think I wanted to make up for lost time.
Last season I also succumbed & bought myself a thermal spotter to augment my trusty Dialyt binoculars. It too has proved invaluable, seeing deer long before they are visible in the binos &, as a bonus, allowing easy location of shot deer after dark.
Technology is wonderful & we all rely on it more & more each day.
The phone pinged at lunchtime, a message (weren’t phones originally for making phone calls on?) - “anyone out this afternoon if the rain clears up? - be in the yard at 1530”.
I looked at the forecast & reckoned it was worth a chance.
1515 & it was chucking it down but there were clear skies on the horizon so off I went. Arriving at the farm the rain had cleared but I decided that just to be safe in case it rained again I’d go to the nearest ladder about 200 yards from the yard & the shelter of my car!
This ladder has a habit of producing so I had expectations of catching up with a donkey or two & on that basis I passed up the solitary roe doe that appeared 10 minutes after I had settled in - she came out of the wood opposite, it’s about 150 yards, & ambled down quartering to my 4 o’clock before disappearing through the hedge.
The time ticked by & the thermal allowed me to spot two muntjac, but not only were they somewhere with no backstop, a quick look with the binos confirmed they were the other side of a hedge. One reason I’ll never use a thermal scope!
It also showed me eight roe deer in the opposite corner of the field & no fewer than 18 hares in the rape around me.
Sunset this evening was 1623 & at 1710 I was just reconciling myself that whilst I’d blanked at least I’d stayed dry. One last scan with the thermal before I climbed down &, bingo, fallow coming out of the wood opposite. The Alpex is a wonderful bit of tech & I picked a doe that was a safe shot & squeezed - I’d already set the second aiming mark at 200 yards so was confident of a solid hit.
Bang, whack, run - not out into the field to drop in sight but, turned & then disappeared through a gap in the hedge back into the wood & still going at full tilt! Not to worry, the 6.5 (NOT a CM) is a stopper so she won’t have gone far - there’s a ride about 10 yards inside the wood & if she’s not dead before she gets to that she’ll be easy to find from where she’s crossed that & won’t be far away.
So, confident of an easy retrieval I unload & clamber down the ladder then head back to the yard where I put the carrier on the back of the Disco & head off to collect my beastie. I stop short of where she went into the hedge & get out with the torch in my hand & thermal around my neck. I scan with the thermal but no sign, not a problem as I’m actually a bit too far from the gap in the hedge so I walk along scanning as I go but still nothing.
When I reach the spot where she was stood I don’t see any blood, but that’s not a big deal, I could be in the wrong place so continue along looking with the torch. Still nothing but not to worry, I’ll just walk down to the end of the ride & cut back along it using the thermal, I’m bound to find her that way… or maybe not… the bramble has grown up a lot since last winter. I get to the other end of the ride & there’s been no tell tale signature on the thermal so I turn around & come back - sometimes you can see things from the opposite direction that are hidden to start with. I walk the whole length of the ride but nothing still.
It was at this point that the little devil on my shoulder started to say “you’ve lost this one, it’s too dark, your torch batteries will run out, give up & go home for your supper”. I was tempted & almost resigned to come back in the morning to recover what would probably be by then a condemned carcass as the temperatures are still in mid teens here.
Then the angel on the other shoulder said “don’t be daft, what did you do for all the years you never had a thermal spotter? - go back to basics & look for ‘sign’ then follow it.”
So, back out to where I was certain the doe had been stood & a good look around with the torch - it’d help if I could actually see, so back to the car for my glasses! No blood, no hair, nothing, was I in the right place? I wasn’t 100% sure. What I was sure about was the gap in the hedge the doe had gone through so I walked out into the field then shone the torch back - there it was, let’s look there. Sure enough, as she turned through the gap the doe had left blood, but not much & the colour told me the shot was a bit further back than it should have been - thermals can’t tell you that can they!
Taking a broken twig I placed it in the ground next to the gap - at least if I had to retrace my steps or come back in the morning I’d know where to start. Through the gap & another small blood spot on a sapling, searching around with the torch though there were no more on leaves or undergrowth, not good & to make matters worse the track through the hedge then split into two. The fork to the right looked more defined & well used but we have a lot of muntjac in this wood & it could easily be them. I followed it out to the ride but there were no more blood spots & more importantly, there were no signs of a large deer charging along it not fully in control of its movements as it took flight.
So back to the hedge & follow the left fork - a third small spot of blood confirmed this was the way to go but again when I got to the ride there was nothing to say where next. Putting the torch beam down low or holding it off to one side gives a different perspective on things & showed a track into the wood diagonally opposite so I had a look. Once again the trail split & I went right to start with before soon realising that was the wrong way to go & back tracking. Still no blood but there were clear foot marks, overturned leaves, running through the bowl left by a fallen tree so I followed them & found some more slots - heavy marks from a running deer & then a fourth blood spot sat on a yellow leaf, bigger than the others but still no more than 5mm across. I snapped two low hanging twigs in the hazel bush directly above it to mark it, again in case I needed to come back to that point again.
Thinking I might see more & larger blood spots now I scanned around with the torch but nothing. Still sure there was a dead fallow doe not far away I got the thermal out again & had a scan about. It’s amazing what you can see with one of these - mice foraging on the woodland floor & in the hazel, a muntjac ambling along oblivious to me, a roe deer stood looking indignantly at me - I’d heard it stomping a foot at me just before. But no sign of a dead fallow doe.
With no blood to follow it became a proper “Tonto” job with me resorting to the subconscious to look for things that didn’t fit in the surroundings. Some scuffed leaves revealed a skid mark from a foot, the pale underside of a bramble leaf showed something had gone that way, another skid mark, a shadow from the torch showing where there was a gap in the brambles that just wasn't visible with the light shining straight at it.
I carried on following the trail that wasn’t really there & which somewhere deep down I knew was actually my experience guiding me. I had no idea where I was in the wood in terms of my spatial awareness but that didn’t matter, I was focused on finding what I knew was a dead fallow doe & I’d work out where I was & how to get her out once I’d found her.
Suddenly, there she was, dead as. As I’d surmised, the shot was a little bit back & the exit hole had been plugged, hence the lack of blood trail to follow. Looking up I got a feel for my bearings & started to drag her in the direction of a ride where I could get the car in.
By the time I got back to the larder it was over an hour from when I’d squeezed the trigger, OK I’d had to walk back to get the car, put the carrier in the back, etc. but it’d still taken me a good 45 minutes to find that doe in the dark. If I’d done what I should have done to start with & left the thermal in the car I’m sure I’d have found it quicker!
Instead I looked for an easy option & put my reliance in the tech & the tech let me down.
Just goes to show that we’re all human & we make mistakes - the shot should have been left as it was probably too late in all honesty, this was probably why it was too far back, but we have a higher cull target this year & I lost the first week of the doe season to injury.
Also goes to show that having the tech isn’t always the answer to everything - thermal spotters are no match for thick brambles.
At the end of the day it was good old fashioned basics that saved the day.
Although I will still be using the Alpex for the fallow & the battery for the thermal is on charge as a type this!
