After three fruitless years of hard graft trying to make my part time venison business work, I was beginning to feel somewhat jaded. Stalking had become a chore, and the pressure to get carcasses for market had more or less turned deer into a commodity, which was completely at odds with the ethical approach I wanted to take. It also ruined my enjoyment of an activity I loved and took huge pride in.
Recently though, I've found the lack of pressure to produce has led to my enjoyment returning, and with it my motivation.
This evening was a case in point. I can glass my permission literally from the comfort of my living room, and had been watching a particular buck over the last week, before deciding he was an appropriate buck to shoot. I spotted him again around an hour before sunset tonight, and made the decision to have a try for him. He had his head down a lot of the time feeding, and with the wind in my favour, and the field still full of bales I figured I had a fairly decent chance if I played my cards right.
Leaving the yard, I first had a tricky 100 yards to cross our horse pasture with two does in plain view around 400 yards from me, and around 200 from the buck. If they'd spotted me the game was up, but thankfully sheerpantherlike grace and stealth luck saw me make it into ten yards or of dead ground, with only a low fence to negotiate. I made it over without activating the 'twang of disgrace', and the stalk could begin in earnest.
There's a strip of set-aside that runs north-to-south on the eastern side of this particular field, and I was able to use it to my advantage to close the 700 or yards to something more realistic. Typically though, as I stalked in the buck continually meandered and with a crossing wind I was sure to be rumbled if he got level with me.
My luck held, however, and I managed to get within 240 yards or so before I was able to directly close the distance and consider the shot. Another 20 yards, and I decided to set up on the sticks and see how things looked.
As I watched through the scope, one of the does appeared on the scene and started to graze between the buck and myself. Luckily this worked in my favour, and as she grazed she moved closer to my position, and the buck followed. They reached a point perhaps 200 yards from me, and as the buck presented the perfect broadside I squeezed off the shot. The report actually took me by surprise as I was so focused, but I was gratified to hear a good impact and the buck dropped in his own length.
On inspection, shot placement was about as good as I could've hoped for, with the top of the heart taken, and the impact directly behind the left shoulder. It was a thoroughly-enjoyable couple of hours, and it reminded me just how fortunate I am to have this on my doorstep.
Edit: Rifle, .270 Abolt Hunter, bullet 130 grain Sierra Gameking @ circa 2750fps
Recently though, I've found the lack of pressure to produce has led to my enjoyment returning, and with it my motivation.
This evening was a case in point. I can glass my permission literally from the comfort of my living room, and had been watching a particular buck over the last week, before deciding he was an appropriate buck to shoot. I spotted him again around an hour before sunset tonight, and made the decision to have a try for him. He had his head down a lot of the time feeding, and with the wind in my favour, and the field still full of bales I figured I had a fairly decent chance if I played my cards right.
Leaving the yard, I first had a tricky 100 yards to cross our horse pasture with two does in plain view around 400 yards from me, and around 200 from the buck. If they'd spotted me the game was up, but thankfully sheer
There's a strip of set-aside that runs north-to-south on the eastern side of this particular field, and I was able to use it to my advantage to close the 700 or yards to something more realistic. Typically though, as I stalked in the buck continually meandered and with a crossing wind I was sure to be rumbled if he got level with me.
My luck held, however, and I managed to get within 240 yards or so before I was able to directly close the distance and consider the shot. Another 20 yards, and I decided to set up on the sticks and see how things looked.
As I watched through the scope, one of the does appeared on the scene and started to graze between the buck and myself. Luckily this worked in my favour, and as she grazed she moved closer to my position, and the buck followed. They reached a point perhaps 200 yards from me, and as the buck presented the perfect broadside I squeezed off the shot. The report actually took me by surprise as I was so focused, but I was gratified to hear a good impact and the buck dropped in his own length.
On inspection, shot placement was about as good as I could've hoped for, with the top of the heart taken, and the impact directly behind the left shoulder. It was a thoroughly-enjoyable couple of hours, and it reminded me just how fortunate I am to have this on my doorstep.
Edit: Rifle, .270 Abolt Hunter, bullet 130 grain Sierra Gameking @ circa 2750fps
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