It’s been a long time coming, but my first stalk in eight long years after having to surrender my FAC back in 2017, completed and successfully, all thanks to Stuart, AKA @Tingers If I may just please be pardoned for the “War and Peace”, recording the detail to help me try and absorb the learning for recall on future outings, extremely poor memory and difficulty learning new things an unfortunate feature of both the illness and now over half a century of life.
So, itching to get started again after receiving medical clearance via shootcert.co.uk and awaiting re-issue of the FAC after re-applying in October, I’d been mulling over a guided stalk to re-familiarise after such a long absence and up popped a thread from Stuart offering cull days near wantage on Muntjac. Equally not wanting to re-ignite the passion for stalking prematurely in case the FAC is not re-granted, I procrastinated several weeks and almost missed my chance. However, Stuart kindly agreed to stretch his deadline another month to end of March to accommodate.
Usually preferring morning stalks so not under the same time pressure, the missus hated being disturbed by middle of the night starts. So, an afternoon/evening stalk was booked for the end of March, capitalising on the extra hour from the clocks going back. Suffering M.E. and having to spend most of my time at home resting just to be able to enjoy a little fun a few hours a week, my missus was only too glad to see the back of me despite it being Mother’s Day.
The eagerly anticipated day arriving, I was scarcely able to believe the blue sky and sunny warmth after such a long dark winter. The drive East from Wiltshire was consequently a rare delight and although home counties born and bred, even more so the stunning rolling scenery from the M4 up to Wantage, never previously experienced. Arriving in good time and parking up nearby Wantage in one of South Oxfordshire’s lovely sleepy hamlets, Stuart soon arrived, and I was struck by the warmth of his welcome and engaging and friendly character.
A short drive to todays stalking area and a metal gong was set out at 100m to check zero and test my marksmanship. Being one of the rifles under consideration, it was a delight to see Stuart pull out a Sako S20 in .308 an emotion that only increased with a direct hit off sticks, albeit only just, in the bottom right corner. First full bore shot in seven years though and .308 at that, I’ll take for sure. Stuart followed up with a prone strike absolute dead centre, confirming zero without doubt and that my slightly awry strike was hopefully just knocking off some of the rust from the lengthy lay off. Having used my simple sticks made by a kind forum member and still my preferred choice by a country mile, Stuart offered a go with his posh quad sticks. However, I just couldn’t get comfortable, finding their use just too fiddly for the foggy brain to reconcile with and so resolved to stick with what I knew.
Now onward a short distance to parking spot, we headed out enjoying great hushed conversation under the warm sun, an unspoken agreement to quieten down if/when seeing sign of deer. Perhaps only 500m in, we started heading up a hedgerow pausing regularly to glass, only for a Muntjac to pop out 187m away. A hushed word from Stuart to stalk in, he took the lead advising that once in distance to setup on sticks behind him to hide the movement from the buck before he would step aside to enable the shot. An absolute textbook stalk ensued, freezing frequently when the buck raised its head to check for danger. At precisely 100m, Stuart motioned for me to setup stepping aside as the rifle came onto the sticks as planned. The buck now clearly slightly wary, started to step back toward the hedgeline. A sharp “hey” from Stuart stopped him in his tracks and I quickly and smoothly centred the cross hairs over his shoulder, steadied and squeezed. Just in time to see the buck’s legs shoot into the air from the rifle return from the recoil assured a solid shot, that the firm press into the shoulder had otherwise completely obscured. We paused, prepared for the 5-minute customary wait to ensure expired, but aside from a brief tremor of the legs it was blatantly obvious the buck had been dead before even hitting the grass. Consequently, an abbreviated wait and we moved forward.
A brief prod in the eye with the end of his sticks confirmed what was already a very obviously healthy and lovely conditioned but squarely expired Muntjac Buck with 3-4cm of antler growth, a healthy collection of battle scars and clearly been having his way with a fair few does. A further cursory check of the bucks’ hooves for any sign of disease and then the entry and exit with accompanying positive comment on the satisfying textbook shot placement and remarkable little exit damage, that Stuart explained was courtesy of extensively developed and tested 150 grain Hornady CX running at a modest 2500 feet per second.
Stuart kindly and helpfully explained his gralloching approach, which having only taken ten deer previously was both different to the way I had been initially taught, but also by the time we finished, a much more preferable approach I resolved to repeat. With the buck on its back, we started with an upturned knife downward through the base of the neck into the chest cavity with a good wiggle to encourage any blood to exit, a standard practice Stuart explained he undertakes on all deer regardless of size. Now to cut into and reach into the neck to pull out the trachea with co-joined oesophagus, cutting and separating the two, taking care to avoid any green offal leaking back into the neck cavity and then tying off the oesophagus.
Then onto the back passage, making a single horizontal slit directly beneath the sphincter, enabling fingers to then be worked around to release the colon avoiding the need for any further cuts. Then, fingers inside the rear cavity as far as possible to squeeze out as much excrement through the colon as possible before tying off and moving back up to the end of the ribs, cutting back towards the bucks’ rear to open the stomach cavity, taking special care with the knife point not to rupture the stomach contents.
Next, reaching back up into the chest cavity under the ribs to pull out the oesophagus and trachea along with the red offal, the entire chest and stomach contents now pretty much spilling out, just needing the hands reaching inside the stomach cavity again towards the rear to pull through the colon and bladder, pleasingly managing not to rupture the contents until already outside the stomach cavity, a rare occurrence even when I was stalking regularly. This left the carcass empty and clear of contamination.
A cursory check over and chat through the glands in the pluck and nod to the missing entire top of the heart from the shot and the gralloch was complete.
We took the carcass and left at the start of the hedgerow we had stalked down for retrieval later and continued the outing, covering several more fields before entering the main area of woodland. Already feeling the effects of the outing so far, we decided to stop a while and give me my first outlook from a high seat, which I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated and given the significant payback from overexerting to stalk ‘normally’, will be an option I shall pursue much more often moving forwards.
Nothing showing after a couple of hours enjoying the view, lengthening shadows and sun on our backs pleasantly chewing the fat, we left the high seat and wood to see if we could find where the deer were hanging out this particular day. Any remaining wherewithal long disappeared, the ability to continue pushing myself on was fast disappearing too, along with the light. Here though is where the combination of Stuart’s HIKMICRO Lynx LH19 Thermal Spotter combined with Swarovski Binos and Scope absolutely came into their own, the spotter so readily showing the presence of deer and the top end glass allowing positive ID. However, despite seeing plenty of Roe, several other Muntjac at distance and bumping the single one within reasonable shooting distance having been hidden behind a clump of grass, no further opportunities arose. However, it was really for the best as I was absolutely shot by now and fast running out of the ability to even push myself onwards and so was mightily relieved when we got back to the car. It has been an absolutely brilliant outing, achieving everything I had hoped for and more, Stuart an outstanding guide and absolute pleasure to chat with. Thank you so much for the opportunity Stuart, you have set me up for success with the continue stalking journey, assuming the FAC re-grant is forthcoming.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Back home, the brain gone West along with the wherewithal, I bizarrely opted to carry the Muntjac through the hallway into the garage rather than open the outer garage door. The horror when I retraced my steps to grab the gear to be confronted with a solid line of blood drops literally from boot to garage was something of which Stephen King would be proud. Onto the hands and knees with cleaning cloth and fluid, I thought I’d got away with it until the missus popped her head into the lounge the following morning enquiring whether it was blood that happened to be on the hallway runner
Absolutely nothing left in the tank, the Munty was hung to finish cooling overnight, the night-time pills popped along with a supersize dose of four magnesium for the horrific muscle aches and off to bed.
No longer owing the wonderful Richard Eadon ‘Stalker’ that had been so comfortable in the hand previously, sold thinking I would never get my beloved stalking back, I had settled this time on a number of different options from Casstrom. The chest saw proved not needed on the tiny Munty and the unzipper a little cumbersome in use. The Safari Mini Hunter may well suffice for smaller deer moving forwards, but the larger Flat Grind Number 10 Swedish Forest Knife is blatantly a far better all-rounder. More usage of all required to settle on preferred options longer term, but the Mini Hunter proved absolutely brilliant for skinning so will perhaps just be left for that purpose. Indeed, after another four magnesium in the morning, just about mustering the wherewithal come mid-morning, the skinning went surprisingly well for a comparatively little practiced skill not undertaken at all the past eight years.
The butchery, well, no pics of that I’m afraid as the state I’m in now the payback has kicked in with a vengeance means that even loosely describing my results as ‘butchery’ is doing a firm disservice to the profession. However, it is at least much needed refreshed experience under the belt that can but be improved on next time. A significant lesson has also been learned that a chiller is no longer an optional luxury, rather a firm necessity, meaning I can take the numerous days required after an outing to recover sufficiently to skin and butcher rather a lot better than this time. To keep things simple and manageable the ‘cuts’ have been restricted to the back straps and tenderloin steaks, the two haunches for slow (Sunday) roasting and the rest in a big tub heading off to the local farm shop to mince and make into sausages for us. Assuming the FAC is re-granted, another mincer will be forthcoming along with the chiller.
Thanks for reading folks and hope to be able to share more outings in due course
So, itching to get started again after receiving medical clearance via shootcert.co.uk and awaiting re-issue of the FAC after re-applying in October, I’d been mulling over a guided stalk to re-familiarise after such a long absence and up popped a thread from Stuart offering cull days near wantage on Muntjac. Equally not wanting to re-ignite the passion for stalking prematurely in case the FAC is not re-granted, I procrastinated several weeks and almost missed my chance. However, Stuart kindly agreed to stretch his deadline another month to end of March to accommodate.
Usually preferring morning stalks so not under the same time pressure, the missus hated being disturbed by middle of the night starts. So, an afternoon/evening stalk was booked for the end of March, capitalising on the extra hour from the clocks going back. Suffering M.E. and having to spend most of my time at home resting just to be able to enjoy a little fun a few hours a week, my missus was only too glad to see the back of me despite it being Mother’s Day.
The eagerly anticipated day arriving, I was scarcely able to believe the blue sky and sunny warmth after such a long dark winter. The drive East from Wiltshire was consequently a rare delight and although home counties born and bred, even more so the stunning rolling scenery from the M4 up to Wantage, never previously experienced. Arriving in good time and parking up nearby Wantage in one of South Oxfordshire’s lovely sleepy hamlets, Stuart soon arrived, and I was struck by the warmth of his welcome and engaging and friendly character.
A short drive to todays stalking area and a metal gong was set out at 100m to check zero and test my marksmanship. Being one of the rifles under consideration, it was a delight to see Stuart pull out a Sako S20 in .308 an emotion that only increased with a direct hit off sticks, albeit only just, in the bottom right corner. First full bore shot in seven years though and .308 at that, I’ll take for sure. Stuart followed up with a prone strike absolute dead centre, confirming zero without doubt and that my slightly awry strike was hopefully just knocking off some of the rust from the lengthy lay off. Having used my simple sticks made by a kind forum member and still my preferred choice by a country mile, Stuart offered a go with his posh quad sticks. However, I just couldn’t get comfortable, finding their use just too fiddly for the foggy brain to reconcile with and so resolved to stick with what I knew.
Now onward a short distance to parking spot, we headed out enjoying great hushed conversation under the warm sun, an unspoken agreement to quieten down if/when seeing sign of deer. Perhaps only 500m in, we started heading up a hedgerow pausing regularly to glass, only for a Muntjac to pop out 187m away. A hushed word from Stuart to stalk in, he took the lead advising that once in distance to setup on sticks behind him to hide the movement from the buck before he would step aside to enable the shot. An absolute textbook stalk ensued, freezing frequently when the buck raised its head to check for danger. At precisely 100m, Stuart motioned for me to setup stepping aside as the rifle came onto the sticks as planned. The buck now clearly slightly wary, started to step back toward the hedgeline. A sharp “hey” from Stuart stopped him in his tracks and I quickly and smoothly centred the cross hairs over his shoulder, steadied and squeezed. Just in time to see the buck’s legs shoot into the air from the rifle return from the recoil assured a solid shot, that the firm press into the shoulder had otherwise completely obscured. We paused, prepared for the 5-minute customary wait to ensure expired, but aside from a brief tremor of the legs it was blatantly obvious the buck had been dead before even hitting the grass. Consequently, an abbreviated wait and we moved forward.
A brief prod in the eye with the end of his sticks confirmed what was already a very obviously healthy and lovely conditioned but squarely expired Muntjac Buck with 3-4cm of antler growth, a healthy collection of battle scars and clearly been having his way with a fair few does. A further cursory check of the bucks’ hooves for any sign of disease and then the entry and exit with accompanying positive comment on the satisfying textbook shot placement and remarkable little exit damage, that Stuart explained was courtesy of extensively developed and tested 150 grain Hornady CX running at a modest 2500 feet per second.
Stuart kindly and helpfully explained his gralloching approach, which having only taken ten deer previously was both different to the way I had been initially taught, but also by the time we finished, a much more preferable approach I resolved to repeat. With the buck on its back, we started with an upturned knife downward through the base of the neck into the chest cavity with a good wiggle to encourage any blood to exit, a standard practice Stuart explained he undertakes on all deer regardless of size. Now to cut into and reach into the neck to pull out the trachea with co-joined oesophagus, cutting and separating the two, taking care to avoid any green offal leaking back into the neck cavity and then tying off the oesophagus.
Then onto the back passage, making a single horizontal slit directly beneath the sphincter, enabling fingers to then be worked around to release the colon avoiding the need for any further cuts. Then, fingers inside the rear cavity as far as possible to squeeze out as much excrement through the colon as possible before tying off and moving back up to the end of the ribs, cutting back towards the bucks’ rear to open the stomach cavity, taking special care with the knife point not to rupture the stomach contents.
Next, reaching back up into the chest cavity under the ribs to pull out the oesophagus and trachea along with the red offal, the entire chest and stomach contents now pretty much spilling out, just needing the hands reaching inside the stomach cavity again towards the rear to pull through the colon and bladder, pleasingly managing not to rupture the contents until already outside the stomach cavity, a rare occurrence even when I was stalking regularly. This left the carcass empty and clear of contamination.
A cursory check over and chat through the glands in the pluck and nod to the missing entire top of the heart from the shot and the gralloch was complete.
We took the carcass and left at the start of the hedgerow we had stalked down for retrieval later and continued the outing, covering several more fields before entering the main area of woodland. Already feeling the effects of the outing so far, we decided to stop a while and give me my first outlook from a high seat, which I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated and given the significant payback from overexerting to stalk ‘normally’, will be an option I shall pursue much more often moving forwards.
Nothing showing after a couple of hours enjoying the view, lengthening shadows and sun on our backs pleasantly chewing the fat, we left the high seat and wood to see if we could find where the deer were hanging out this particular day. Any remaining wherewithal long disappeared, the ability to continue pushing myself on was fast disappearing too, along with the light. Here though is where the combination of Stuart’s HIKMICRO Lynx LH19 Thermal Spotter combined with Swarovski Binos and Scope absolutely came into their own, the spotter so readily showing the presence of deer and the top end glass allowing positive ID. However, despite seeing plenty of Roe, several other Muntjac at distance and bumping the single one within reasonable shooting distance having been hidden behind a clump of grass, no further opportunities arose. However, it was really for the best as I was absolutely shot by now and fast running out of the ability to even push myself onwards and so was mightily relieved when we got back to the car. It has been an absolutely brilliant outing, achieving everything I had hoped for and more, Stuart an outstanding guide and absolute pleasure to chat with. Thank you so much for the opportunity Stuart, you have set me up for success with the continue stalking journey, assuming the FAC re-grant is forthcoming.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Back home, the brain gone West along with the wherewithal, I bizarrely opted to carry the Muntjac through the hallway into the garage rather than open the outer garage door. The horror when I retraced my steps to grab the gear to be confronted with a solid line of blood drops literally from boot to garage was something of which Stephen King would be proud. Onto the hands and knees with cleaning cloth and fluid, I thought I’d got away with it until the missus popped her head into the lounge the following morning enquiring whether it was blood that happened to be on the hallway runner
Absolutely nothing left in the tank, the Munty was hung to finish cooling overnight, the night-time pills popped along with a supersize dose of four magnesium for the horrific muscle aches and off to bed.
No longer owing the wonderful Richard Eadon ‘Stalker’ that had been so comfortable in the hand previously, sold thinking I would never get my beloved stalking back, I had settled this time on a number of different options from Casstrom. The chest saw proved not needed on the tiny Munty and the unzipper a little cumbersome in use. The Safari Mini Hunter may well suffice for smaller deer moving forwards, but the larger Flat Grind Number 10 Swedish Forest Knife is blatantly a far better all-rounder. More usage of all required to settle on preferred options longer term, but the Mini Hunter proved absolutely brilliant for skinning so will perhaps just be left for that purpose. Indeed, after another four magnesium in the morning, just about mustering the wherewithal come mid-morning, the skinning went surprisingly well for a comparatively little practiced skill not undertaken at all the past eight years.
The butchery, well, no pics of that I’m afraid as the state I’m in now the payback has kicked in with a vengeance means that even loosely describing my results as ‘butchery’ is doing a firm disservice to the profession. However, it is at least much needed refreshed experience under the belt that can but be improved on next time. A significant lesson has also been learned that a chiller is no longer an optional luxury, rather a firm necessity, meaning I can take the numerous days required after an outing to recover sufficiently to skin and butcher rather a lot better than this time. To keep things simple and manageable the ‘cuts’ have been restricted to the back straps and tenderloin steaks, the two haunches for slow (Sunday) roasting and the rest in a big tub heading off to the local farm shop to mince and make into sausages for us. Assuming the FAC is re-granted, another mincer will be forthcoming along with the chiller.
Thanks for reading folks and hope to be able to share more outings in due course
