Last night I was on one of my permissions looking for muntjac. Two of us took the two seats available in this particular area with the usual ‘which do you fancy tonight’ decision lottery.
I clambered into my seat at 1610hrs looked around at the mass of undergrowth that’s still present and shows no sign of shrinking and thought ‘I bet I see something and can’t get a shot’. Wrong attitude, so gave myself a proverbial KUA and started thermalling the surroundings for heat.
Nothing moving other than pheasants, which will do well to stay in these woods as they’re not shot here, and after half an hour I was beginning to think my mate had won the seat lottery, even though I’d not heard a shot, I was convinced he was looking at a regiment of muntjac all lining up to be taken easily.
Anyhow as the clock moved towards 1700hrs and the light did start to take on a different hue, BINGO! Business was picking up.
Young buck muntjac presents a shot at about 40m. Rifle is up, C50 is on, mag is 3.5 so I’ve got a nice FOV. Steady crosshair on shoulder, remember to squeeze and follow through ………. hit. Animal unusually doesn’t drop on the spot, but belts full speed into a full drainage ditch throwing water up before appearing again on the other side (typical) and then drops under a tree having run 5m.
Great. I’m off and running now. I’m hopeful there may be another.
Time moves on about 10 mins and I’m thermalling to my RHS and seeing nothing - hang on there’s something under the overhang of a tree and it’s Munty sized. It’s not moving much but it’s got my attention. Bring up binos and focus back and forth until I can make out brown fur. This is a munty but it’s stock still, which is not my experience of this species. Keep looking until I can see long ears. Bugger it. It’s a hare. Lower binos and look towards where my previous muntjac lies. Whoa ! There’s another munty buck jumping the drainage ditch. Rifle up, everything ready as before, another hit and it drops on the spot. This is turning into a decent evening now ! My only issue is the metre plus drainage ditch I’ll have to vault to retrieve the two. I’m not good at vaulting these days with big boots on and fully clothed and I don’t fancy getting it wrong and filling a boot or even worse, falling full length into the ditch. It has been known ……
Whilst now thinking about the retrieval, I suddenly see another big muntjac enter from stage left. He’s a bruiser and he hasn’t got this size by presenting himself for shooting. So he takes a step into the clear and stops looking directly at me. His gaze is sharp and unblinking.
I’m undergoing the ‘ordeal by staring’ as he works out why the vision he’s seeing tonight isn’t quite the same as the one he had yesterday. I freeze. Rifle is to my RHS, resting. I have one hand on it and the other on my thermal and I hold that position for at least 30 seconds whilst he stamps his foot and moves his head around but never takes his gaze off me. He decides that whatever it is, he’d rather eat the plant in front of him so he starts browsing. As he does so I start to move the rifle into position. SLOWLY - no quick movement. I keep saying this in my head as I work out how far I’ve got to move to be able to take a shot. It’s coming together, rifle is coming into line, left hand leaves thermal on highseat rail and begins to SLOWLY come over to support the stock. Start to get eyeline with C50, it’s all coming together……. FFS he’s stopped eating and he’s looking at me again. He turns round, and exits the stage. But - he’s not barking, so there’s a chance he’ll come back. I relax with the rifle closer, but crucially with the barrel pointing upwards. Time passes.
About 10 minutes later he reappears. He’s still not relaxed as he looks about the area from behind some undergrowth, but I can see his head and his neck enough to consider a shot. Rifle up - steadily. As it was facing upwards, I have to slowly lift the rear to get the barrel inline with his approximate location. This seems to take forever, but I don’t want him leaving the stage again so force myself to go SLOWLY - CAREFULLY.
Establish eye relief on scope, and turn on video option. I’ve got his head/neck in crosshair. He’s still unsure as he’s craning his neck to look over towards me. Thank you, that gives me the target which is only slightly obscured by some vegetation that’s right in front of him. I’ll be happy shooting a 6.5 x 55 123 grain bullet through that if required.
It is required, as he’s not moving forward and he’s head on towards me so no shoulder/chest shot present. Remember to squeeze and follow through with trigger…….he’s down. Ease trigger pressure off, and reload making sure I don’t drop empty case (reloaders muscle memory)
Wow. Three muntjac bucks in under 20 minutes. A pleasant change to the hrs spent in seats willing deer to appear.
So; my initial defeatist attitude was the wrong one. I’ve had a good evening. Now my thoughts turn to ‘please no more appear - I’ve got these three to deal with’ and at that, another rifle barks and my mate downs a large doe from the other seat. Even better. Four muntjac down in an hour.
And to cap it all,I managed to leap like a salmon across the ditch and didn’t get wet !
The large lad in photo turned the scales at 13kg dressed out before larder. One of my biggest.
I was hoping I could post the video but that doesn’t seem an option. I hope the description suffices.
I clambered into my seat at 1610hrs looked around at the mass of undergrowth that’s still present and shows no sign of shrinking and thought ‘I bet I see something and can’t get a shot’. Wrong attitude, so gave myself a proverbial KUA and started thermalling the surroundings for heat.
Nothing moving other than pheasants, which will do well to stay in these woods as they’re not shot here, and after half an hour I was beginning to think my mate had won the seat lottery, even though I’d not heard a shot, I was convinced he was looking at a regiment of muntjac all lining up to be taken easily.
Anyhow as the clock moved towards 1700hrs and the light did start to take on a different hue, BINGO! Business was picking up.
Young buck muntjac presents a shot at about 40m. Rifle is up, C50 is on, mag is 3.5 so I’ve got a nice FOV. Steady crosshair on shoulder, remember to squeeze and follow through ………. hit. Animal unusually doesn’t drop on the spot, but belts full speed into a full drainage ditch throwing water up before appearing again on the other side (typical) and then drops under a tree having run 5m.
Great. I’m off and running now. I’m hopeful there may be another.
Time moves on about 10 mins and I’m thermalling to my RHS and seeing nothing - hang on there’s something under the overhang of a tree and it’s Munty sized. It’s not moving much but it’s got my attention. Bring up binos and focus back and forth until I can make out brown fur. This is a munty but it’s stock still, which is not my experience of this species. Keep looking until I can see long ears. Bugger it. It’s a hare. Lower binos and look towards where my previous muntjac lies. Whoa ! There’s another munty buck jumping the drainage ditch. Rifle up, everything ready as before, another hit and it drops on the spot. This is turning into a decent evening now ! My only issue is the metre plus drainage ditch I’ll have to vault to retrieve the two. I’m not good at vaulting these days with big boots on and fully clothed and I don’t fancy getting it wrong and filling a boot or even worse, falling full length into the ditch. It has been known ……
Whilst now thinking about the retrieval, I suddenly see another big muntjac enter from stage left. He’s a bruiser and he hasn’t got this size by presenting himself for shooting. So he takes a step into the clear and stops looking directly at me. His gaze is sharp and unblinking.
I’m undergoing the ‘ordeal by staring’ as he works out why the vision he’s seeing tonight isn’t quite the same as the one he had yesterday. I freeze. Rifle is to my RHS, resting. I have one hand on it and the other on my thermal and I hold that position for at least 30 seconds whilst he stamps his foot and moves his head around but never takes his gaze off me. He decides that whatever it is, he’d rather eat the plant in front of him so he starts browsing. As he does so I start to move the rifle into position. SLOWLY - no quick movement. I keep saying this in my head as I work out how far I’ve got to move to be able to take a shot. It’s coming together, rifle is coming into line, left hand leaves thermal on highseat rail and begins to SLOWLY come over to support the stock. Start to get eyeline with C50, it’s all coming together……. FFS he’s stopped eating and he’s looking at me again. He turns round, and exits the stage. But - he’s not barking, so there’s a chance he’ll come back. I relax with the rifle closer, but crucially with the barrel pointing upwards. Time passes.
About 10 minutes later he reappears. He’s still not relaxed as he looks about the area from behind some undergrowth, but I can see his head and his neck enough to consider a shot. Rifle up - steadily. As it was facing upwards, I have to slowly lift the rear to get the barrel inline with his approximate location. This seems to take forever, but I don’t want him leaving the stage again so force myself to go SLOWLY - CAREFULLY.
Establish eye relief on scope, and turn on video option. I’ve got his head/neck in crosshair. He’s still unsure as he’s craning his neck to look over towards me. Thank you, that gives me the target which is only slightly obscured by some vegetation that’s right in front of him. I’ll be happy shooting a 6.5 x 55 123 grain bullet through that if required.
It is required, as he’s not moving forward and he’s head on towards me so no shoulder/chest shot present. Remember to squeeze and follow through with trigger…….he’s down. Ease trigger pressure off, and reload making sure I don’t drop empty case (reloaders muscle memory)
Wow. Three muntjac bucks in under 20 minutes. A pleasant change to the hrs spent in seats willing deer to appear.
So; my initial defeatist attitude was the wrong one. I’ve had a good evening. Now my thoughts turn to ‘please no more appear - I’ve got these three to deal with’ and at that, another rifle barks and my mate downs a large doe from the other seat. Even better. Four muntjac down in an hour.
And to cap it all,I managed to leap like a salmon across the ditch and didn’t get wet !
The large lad in photo turned the scales at 13kg dressed out before larder. One of my biggest.
I was hoping I could post the video but that doesn’t seem an option. I hope the description suffices.