Wanted: Looking for first stalk

[hutt]

I'm doing my DSC1 in the autumn and looking for my first stalk. I'm taking it up as I'm interested in the procuring of food, rather than sport. As such I'd like to go through the whole process with as much emphasis on the fieldcraft on the ground, taking the deer, then learning to properly butcher it and take it home for the better half and friends. I'm in Bristol, and it'd be a great opportunity to see some of the more beautiful land around; cotswolds, etc.

I'm also looking to find lands to shoot vermin on for the pot, so any further recommendations would be kindly appreciated!
cheers

 

[tonyt]

Hutt,
am new also and the food angle is exactly why I started looking at stalking earlier this year (now done 2 stalks,1 successful, and dsc1 due in Nov). Suggest you get started on the butchery side of things now rather than wait until your first successful stalk though, as taking apart a whole deer with no butchery experience will take a lot of time.

So...buy a good boning knife, phone around local butchers, and see if you can get a whole haunch on the bone, and set about taking all the muscles apart to give you some beautiful haunch steaks, and a load of mince for bambi burgers.
Trial and error on a haunch will give you an entry into the skills needed for a whole carcass butchery and will also help you spread out the cost of kit so that it doesn't get onto the radar of the fun prevention officer you have at home.

tony

ps - also recommend buying (and wearing) one of those cut proof kevlar embedded gloves on your non knife hand - my knife is closer in sharpness to a surgical scalpel than a carving knife and is quite frankly, a little bit scary to use

 

[kennyc]

I'm doing my DSC1 in the autumn and looking for my first stalk. I'm taking it up as I'm interested in the procuring of food, rather than sport. As such I'd like to go through the whole process with as much emphasis on the fieldcraft on the ground, taking the deer, then learning to properly butcher it and take it home for the better half and friends. I'm in Bristol, and it'd be a great opportunity to see some of the more beautiful land around; cotswolds, etc.

I'm also looking to find lands to shoot vermin on for the pot, so any further recommendations would be kindly appreciated!
cheers

head a bit South West of you and you'll find IanF of this parish, if you want the full entry level package he's your guy

 

[hutt]

Thank you very much, email sent to Ian F and knife shopping presently!!

 

[Devon County Shooter]

Hutt,

Look at this link, Steve has created some great educational videos on Youtube. Mike from Jelen Deer Services also has some top videos. Good luck.

 

[Fallow Buck]

Thank you very much, email sent to Ian F and knife shopping presently!!

Hutt,

Ian is a great guy to start off and develop your stalking career with. He also has the butchery on location so could probably help you develop both areas of your interest.

Butchery is really dependant on the species as to how it is taken down, so Roe would be a good start, which would leave you with a decent pile of meat but not too complex a process.

Kiri