I have just returned from two days stalking roe bucks on the huge Graythwaite estate which runs down the west side of Lake Windermere in Cumbria. Although I was ultimately unsuccessful in culling a buck, it was a wonderful two days stalking under the guidance of Steven Campbell, the keeper and George Sandys, a member of the landowning family who manages the shooting and stalking.
I had two morning stalks with Steven and two evening stalks with George in very un-Cumbrian weather: very warm and totally dry! On the first morning, knowing the Lakes pretty well, I dressed for their normal weather and was soon down to shirtsleeves and wishing that I hadn't put on my Fortis trousers! Although the next morning was started with a jacket on, it was soon warm enough to put it in the 'back-bag' and a cotton army-surplus shirt and light cotton trousers was plenty warm enough.
The terrain is pretty extreme and we spent a lot of time in old clear-fell with much broken and dead-ground. With the ultra dry conditions, navigating the brash was like walking on cornflakes and that combined with the high cover in places made the stalking, even with thermal spotter assistance, extremely challenging for us.
We saw plenty of roe bucks & does, red hinds and young stags on all stalks but getting close to them proved very difficult.
One of the most delightful aspects of this trip was that both Steven and George positively encouraged me to bring my 7 yoa black lab Tilly along on the stalks.
I have been doing a bit of blood-trail training with her over the past year but lockdowns etc have meant that she had never been out stalking 'in anger' and I was very keen to see what she made of this new discipline as up to now she has been a normal picking-up dog. She has never even seen a dead deer.
All in all, I think she acquitted herself well although after a couple of hours of creeping around at heel, she did appear to lose some 'focus' and start wandering off after interesting scents and a tasty bit of deer poo! A gentle tap with the Viperflex sticks on her retreating rump brought her back to heel (mostly) and we carried on as before. The occasional flushed cock pheasant was politely ignored (earning her words of praise from Steven) and the time we came nearest to disaster was when a hind jumped out of a bracken patch about 30 yds away and trotted off in that head up, springy gate that they have when bumped at close range. We were somewhat higher than her and the sight of her rapidly disappearing rump was nearly too much for Tilly! The only other incident was when I made an inadvisable motion of my arm to George, towards a unidentified noise, which madam took to be her usual 'get-out' signal! Fortunately our combined hissing brought her back with no harm done.
This photo was taken at the end of the first morning's stalk, high up on a very steep clear-fell face, waiting for Steven to recover the ATV from some way above. Yes, it was as warm as it looks! The almost total lack of surface water made the conditions quite hard for Tilly as we only found very occasional tiny pools for her to drink.
As I have said, the conditions made for extremely challenging stalking and although I was up on sticks several times, one thing or another caused us to miss the chance. The closest I came to bagging my quarry was on the 2nd morning, stalking in a beautiful wood of mixed beech, birch and conifer with a large release pen in its centre. Not long into our stalk, Steven's thermal detected a heat source moving L-R just inside the wood's edge and this turned out to be a lovely big buck, resplendent in his summer, chestnut coat and dark antlers crossing at some 60 yards. Sadly he was on a mission, possibly investigating a yearling that we saw a few minutes later, hurrying away from his location, and he never stopped for long enough in view through the thicket. He then disappeared (it turned out he had doubled back while we had been watching the youngster's heat source through the cover, thinking we were covering his approach) and we proceeded to stalk the wood in the clockwise direction dictated by the shifting breeze. We saw one further small buck but he didn't hang around for us.
Some 40 minutes later as we came round the final side of the pheasant pen, Steven again picked up a strong source which turned out to be our big, black antlered buck again. This time he was fairly settled and looking down from our rise, we managed to get a view of him between two birch. However, squatting down with my sticks spread wide, I struggled to get a line on him that wasn't made useless by crossing branches or brash. Finally I found an unobstructed line of fire and checked with Steven for his orientation as I could see neither his head nor rump from there. but as the safety came off and it was confirming that his head was to the left, the buck moved off on a fresh mission and the chance was lost.
In conclusion, Graythwaite is a fabulous sporting estate with many other facilities including cottages and larger accommodation to let and I will be definitely be back. The prices for stalking are currently £110 for a morning or £100 for an evening and cull animals are about £100-£120 depending on species which I consider very good value. Steven and George are two very nice guys who are apparently happy to deal with the vagaries of their clients (like me!), know their ground well and go the extra mile to try and find an animal. If one fails to shoot something through bad luck or one's ineptitude (again like me!), that is just stalking for you. I hugely enjoyed the opportunity to stalk is such wonderful surroundings and have come away with wonderful memories, if not another notch on my stock! George can be contacted on 07900 977918 or george@graythwaite.com.
The rifle I (didn't) use is a lightweight mutt that I built specifically for Cumbria based on a 19" Rem788 LH 308W that I installed in a T3 stock with Timney trigger, DPT mod, S&B 8x56 Klassic shooting Fox 130gr homeloads over n140 giving 8k mv. Pity I didn't fire any other than on the zero range!
As an aside, we stayed at the Cuckoo Brow Inn in nearby Far Sawrey which we can thoroughly recommend. Run by a group of eastern Europeans who worked really hard and were invariably charming, the food and service was fantastic with their 'front of house' Mihaela (?) who was the one of the most 'glass half full' people I have ever met. Our room was a bit small but clean with a huge bed and the en-suite was newly decorated. Only snag was no facilities for getting something to drink and eat at 3am! Dogs allowed in room and in dining room, in fact positively encouraged with a wall of photos of their canine guests. £10 per night charge extra.
I should add that we paid full price for all the above and have no connection with any of the people mentioned above.
I had two morning stalks with Steven and two evening stalks with George in very un-Cumbrian weather: very warm and totally dry! On the first morning, knowing the Lakes pretty well, I dressed for their normal weather and was soon down to shirtsleeves and wishing that I hadn't put on my Fortis trousers! Although the next morning was started with a jacket on, it was soon warm enough to put it in the 'back-bag' and a cotton army-surplus shirt and light cotton trousers was plenty warm enough.
The terrain is pretty extreme and we spent a lot of time in old clear-fell with much broken and dead-ground. With the ultra dry conditions, navigating the brash was like walking on cornflakes and that combined with the high cover in places made the stalking, even with thermal spotter assistance, extremely challenging for us.
We saw plenty of roe bucks & does, red hinds and young stags on all stalks but getting close to them proved very difficult.
One of the most delightful aspects of this trip was that both Steven and George positively encouraged me to bring my 7 yoa black lab Tilly along on the stalks.
I have been doing a bit of blood-trail training with her over the past year but lockdowns etc have meant that she had never been out stalking 'in anger' and I was very keen to see what she made of this new discipline as up to now she has been a normal picking-up dog. She has never even seen a dead deer.
All in all, I think she acquitted herself well although after a couple of hours of creeping around at heel, she did appear to lose some 'focus' and start wandering off after interesting scents and a tasty bit of deer poo! A gentle tap with the Viperflex sticks on her retreating rump brought her back to heel (mostly) and we carried on as before. The occasional flushed cock pheasant was politely ignored (earning her words of praise from Steven) and the time we came nearest to disaster was when a hind jumped out of a bracken patch about 30 yds away and trotted off in that head up, springy gate that they have when bumped at close range. We were somewhat higher than her and the sight of her rapidly disappearing rump was nearly too much for Tilly! The only other incident was when I made an inadvisable motion of my arm to George, towards a unidentified noise, which madam took to be her usual 'get-out' signal! Fortunately our combined hissing brought her back with no harm done.
This photo was taken at the end of the first morning's stalk, high up on a very steep clear-fell face, waiting for Steven to recover the ATV from some way above. Yes, it was as warm as it looks! The almost total lack of surface water made the conditions quite hard for Tilly as we only found very occasional tiny pools for her to drink.
As I have said, the conditions made for extremely challenging stalking and although I was up on sticks several times, one thing or another caused us to miss the chance. The closest I came to bagging my quarry was on the 2nd morning, stalking in a beautiful wood of mixed beech, birch and conifer with a large release pen in its centre. Not long into our stalk, Steven's thermal detected a heat source moving L-R just inside the wood's edge and this turned out to be a lovely big buck, resplendent in his summer, chestnut coat and dark antlers crossing at some 60 yards. Sadly he was on a mission, possibly investigating a yearling that we saw a few minutes later, hurrying away from his location, and he never stopped for long enough in view through the thicket. He then disappeared (it turned out he had doubled back while we had been watching the youngster's heat source through the cover, thinking we were covering his approach) and we proceeded to stalk the wood in the clockwise direction dictated by the shifting breeze. We saw one further small buck but he didn't hang around for us.
Some 40 minutes later as we came round the final side of the pheasant pen, Steven again picked up a strong source which turned out to be our big, black antlered buck again. This time he was fairly settled and looking down from our rise, we managed to get a view of him between two birch. However, squatting down with my sticks spread wide, I struggled to get a line on him that wasn't made useless by crossing branches or brash. Finally I found an unobstructed line of fire and checked with Steven for his orientation as I could see neither his head nor rump from there. but as the safety came off and it was confirming that his head was to the left, the buck moved off on a fresh mission and the chance was lost.
In conclusion, Graythwaite is a fabulous sporting estate with many other facilities including cottages and larger accommodation to let and I will be definitely be back. The prices for stalking are currently £110 for a morning or £100 for an evening and cull animals are about £100-£120 depending on species which I consider very good value. Steven and George are two very nice guys who are apparently happy to deal with the vagaries of their clients (like me!), know their ground well and go the extra mile to try and find an animal. If one fails to shoot something through bad luck or one's ineptitude (again like me!), that is just stalking for you. I hugely enjoyed the opportunity to stalk is such wonderful surroundings and have come away with wonderful memories, if not another notch on my stock! George can be contacted on 07900 977918 or george@graythwaite.com.
The rifle I (didn't) use is a lightweight mutt that I built specifically for Cumbria based on a 19" Rem788 LH 308W that I installed in a T3 stock with Timney trigger, DPT mod, S&B 8x56 Klassic shooting Fox 130gr homeloads over n140 giving 8k mv. Pity I didn't fire any other than on the zero range!
As an aside, we stayed at the Cuckoo Brow Inn in nearby Far Sawrey which we can thoroughly recommend. Run by a group of eastern Europeans who worked really hard and were invariably charming, the food and service was fantastic with their 'front of house' Mihaela (?) who was the one of the most 'glass half full' people I have ever met. Our room was a bit small but clean with a huge bed and the en-suite was newly decorated. Only snag was no facilities for getting something to drink and eat at 3am! Dogs allowed in room and in dining room, in fact positively encouraged with a wall of photos of their canine guests. £10 per night charge extra.
I should add that we paid full price for all the above and have no connection with any of the people mentioned above.
