Good day - bad day

Tried to catch up with some hinds or calves this morning, so braved the weather between the storms. Traveled to the stalking ground last night via a couple of detours due to closed roads and flooding. The morning was fine and I was looking forward to using my new oak twin sticks after running over my originals of some 30 years Service.

No deer out on the fields in front of the main woodland block, but I started to find plenty as soon as I entered. Saw the first muntjac here in Dorset in 2020 and this morning I saw five different animals along with an abundance of roe, all of which were not on my priority list.

First Sika I managed to find, was a stag and a pricket, high on a banking above a hard track with a little too much cover between us. Walking very slowly along the opposite side of the hard track to their position, until I was opposite an obvious crossing point where I could walk directly towards them, minimised perpendicular motion without a background. Crossing the track and heading directly towards them, I only made 15 yards before the stag decided to move my direction. I was only interested in shooting the pricket and had to leave the stag get quite close before stopping them with a shout when the pricket moved into a clear patch. I settled the crosshairs on its neck, but without centralising it immediately, so delayed the shot. In the extra second with the stag being very close, it turned and ran back from where it came, taking the pricket with it. No matter I thought, best not to pull the trigger when it’s not quite right.

So on I went looking for more sika, only finding roe and muntjac. I have a nice secluded high seat not far off a hard track with a shootable range of 70yds max, sited to suit stags in the rut. On approaching the seat, I found another pricket laid up only 20 yards away. It was aware of movement and before I could thread a shot through some hazel coppice, it decided to get up and move away from me. I could make out more animals that seemed fairly relaxed allowing me to get to the seat where I waited for maybe 45 minutes or so before one of them presented a narrow shooting opportunity. Having already seen a dozen hinds and calves move away, just ahead of my 70 yard area, I didn’t wait and took a neck shot hind. Animals moved in different directions, with a group of maybe 20 or so taking the path of the earlier group without presenting a shot. Luckily a single hind split from the group and moved into the open area. Having stopped it with a shout, a second neck shot hind made my morning worth the effort.

I stayed put and what I thought was a roe initially, moving through the hazel coppice towards the clearing, turned out to be a hind calf, also stopped with a shout, followed by a third neck shot.

So good job done I thought, before climbing from the high seat. Having gralloched all 3, I picked up my gear but could not find my EKA I remember putting it down thinking it will need a good clean, covered in fat, but after extensive searching, I can only think I placed it down, stepped on it, and it sank into the mud between some rushes. So I left this site intending to have another look when I returned with the quad.

Walking away, I was sure I would see more deer on the way back, and it was only a minute or two later, a stag calf came walking towards me down the hard track. So a fourth was added, another next shot off my new oak twin sticks.

Travelling along the hard track to leave the wood I came across multiple roe and fortunately no sika, having enough to do as it was

Back at the yard, I collected the quad and returned for the deer along with a knife to gralloch the last deer.

I’ve happily put three sika onto the racks, but I thought two journeys would be best this time around. Having collected the first two, I returned to the larder only to have the quad cut out on me as I approached it. Sorted the first two and went to collect the other two with the quad playing up, only able to run on choke. I thought about borrowing the farm quad as I didn’t wish to break down in the middle of the wood in the by now, heavy rain.

Anyway, loaded the other two deer and had another look for my knife, but still couldn’t find it. I refrained from kicking about too much in the rushes and mud, knowing that with my recent luck, I would’ve found it by putting it straight through the side of my Le chameaus

Managed to get back to the larder, and found out that the farmer’s wife has a metal detector, so I’m stalking in the morning for an hour or two and then I’m metal detecting

 

[Tim.243]

Good stuff, write up's are in the lower order on SD which is a shame for a stalking forum, I dropped a knife gifted to me by a good friend after shooting a big Fallow, drove back the next morning and found the gralloch area in the stubble was the knife.
Good luck with the search

 

[Deermanagement]

Update from the next morning..... After getting all the deer back to the larder with a spluttering quad, not wishing to borrow the farm quad unless necessary, I decided I'd head across fields to the bottom end of a woodland block where I could enter, make maybe 150yds before hitting the hardtrack which I could walk back, ensuring anything shot will be easily recovered by my or the farm quad, or gator. After yesterday's lunctime adventure, where the heavens opened, I abandoned the evening stalk and manged to dry the leather out in my left wellie in particular overnight, after water found it's way in, running off a rain jacket and waterproof trousers.

Passing some roe and a sika hind with calf at the woodland edge, I found a few sika within 10yds of entering the wood. 30 mins in a few words, it turned out to be a stag, a long antlered pricket, neither of which I wanted to shoot, especially in that location, along with one or maybe 2 others which were smaller. These animals were moving slowly in the direction I wanted to take, so I ended up following in their footsteps, maybe 30yds behind as they crested a bank within the wood. As it flatene out on top. they entered an area of bramble pathes, some open ground from clearfell and coppice. Trying to get a view of the smaller deer, I did cathch a glimpse of a stag calf which I thought ideal, now only 50yds off the end of the hard track. It was painfully slow and we got to the point where I didn't know if they were moving off or stood behind a bramble patch in front of me. I decided to get some elevation by standing on the stump of a felled tree and found out they were only 15 to 20yds away, and spotting my movement, they dashed off with a warning whistle from the stag.

No problem, hadn't really started, so made my way to the hard track and only made 70yds before and animal crossed the track and entered a thinned oak plantation around 150yds ahead. Now something that we are all guilty of on occassion I'm sure...... lazy stalking, just sticking to the track. This however, is not the right thing to do. Deer can see from woodland adjacent to rides and tracks quite easily, whilst for you, it's difficult to both see and sometimes get a shot at animals within adjacent woodland. So as on this occassion, it was possible for me to enter the woodland, masking my background and movement rather than standing out like a sore thumb on the hard track. I moved towards the deer, which I gould now see numbered 2 at least, through a heavier un-thinned section for 30yds before getting a clear view into the thinned section. Unfortunately, the deer had made quicker ground and had stopped some 80yds ahead, leaving me with no alternative but stay put. I knelt and tried to get a view of the animals but found the nearer one had obviously seen a little movement and headed my way to investigate. The lead was a stag (not shooting that one), the next was a long antlered pricket (leaving that one), but the third was a stag calf. The stag had approached to within 20yds before the calf cleared some trees and I stopped it with a shout. Afrer the morning's before similar experience, I half expected the stag to charge off, staking the others with him, but it stood for long enough for me to get a 5th neck shot animal, this time at about 30yds.

Only when performing the gralloch did I realise that these were the same animals I had been following some 20 mins earlier Whilst I was waiting for a shot, a short distance away, a muntjac was barking and when finished, a quick scan revealed animals some 150yds ahead, so quickly gathering my kit, I headed off to see what they were. As it turned out, they were roe, which I left, and following the hardrack through the wood, only roe and a sika stag attempted suicide, so I returned to base quite happy with another and a mission to see if I could find my knife.

Just before setting off with metal detector strapped to a spluttering quad, I realised once again, in my rush to see what the animals were after the gralloch, I'd left my spare knife wedged between some ivy and an oak, so for the second time in 2 days, completed my stalk knifeless I'm really going to have to get some discipline installed into this area Anyway, drove to the calf, collected both animal and knife, then stopped on the way back to do some metal detecting Searched the area first where I thought I may have pushed it into the mud, but it was obviously not there. I expanded my search checking likely spots I would have placed it in advance of cleaning it, and before long I spotted it just before the metal detector sensed it. It was a little further away than I thought it would have been, so no idea why I though it was a good place to leave it

So happily I headed back on an unwell quad which was power washed off to ensure it was clean for next time, expecting my first job to be a carburettor strip or even replacement. Dealer was happy with 5 nice neck shot animals as they were short on animals for orders.

So plenty of sika about, which I'll still concentrate on for the next few outings before taking some roe and looking for a couple of muntjac. My replacement twin sticks, oak, a proper gentleman's stick, were nice to use, and I was thinking on the way home, twin sticks v quad sticks, of the two I shot from them, quad sticks could have taken the one, but would have been more hassle to use as twin sticks for the second. In actual fact, with hindsight, maybe the stag that morning was more interested in the quality of the sticks than myself

 

[ABL]

Great write up. You clearly are awash with deer! I’m very envious

 

[Deermanagement]

Great write up. You clearly are awash with deer! I’m very envious

Don't have the large numbers of fallow that many parts of the country have, nor muntjac and CWD that others have. Roe numbers are reasonable although a lot less than a couple of decades ago, likely a result of higher Sika numbers and some stock fencing. Sika numbers are always variable, being prone to movement in large groups. I'm guilty of some negative thinking when the Sika numbers are lower, having left for pastures greener, thinking that other areas will have been knocking them over with day/night sights or thermal scopes outside of legal hours

Deer are relatively easy to find in woodland during winter and better to shoot individual animals or from small groups rather than hitting large groups, unless the object is to move them off. The Roe are relatively relaxed, not chased around on a regular basis, on and area that sees little foot traffic. I've increased the cull figures by around 75% compared to 10 or more years ago, and have recently been able to take the same sort of numbers for the last 5 years without significant change in numbers, so I guess I'm around the right sort of number acceptable to the farms and woodland. Of course, any large influx of Sika means taking more, but they wise up pretty quickly and will move in large groups with little reason.

I have seen more fallow this winter, again only small numbers, and muntjac numbers have grown in the last 5 or 6 years to the point where I can plan to get a muntjac should I wish. Years ago it would have been a shoot on sight policy just to stop their numbers building behind the scenes, but with todays assistance of thermals, even they are controllable with a little effort leaving the hard tracks and venturing into their domain.