Most interesting extraction?

[anguscrombie]

Life lessons, hopefully we only have to learn them once!

Ye haven’t done that again.

 

[Spear Chucker]

Shooting on ground at the back of sanqhar, I got 2 stags down on the edge of the area on my own . So set to 300yd at a time , deer deer gear and worked my way to the extraction point , all down rides and ruts. On google earth I got it to 2600 yds. took 6 hours. Thank god it was 12yrs ago . No chance now! lol.

My first red in Sutherland was on a big estate. We shot the deer probably 1-2 miles from the road. I was seriously impressed by Donald, the Stalker. Got the guts out of him, grabbed his antlers and skipped off across some of the roughest ground. I think the stag probably weighed as much as he did, but he was properly fit and made of iron. I'd have been in tears. He hardly broke a sweat. Drank his whisky with lemonade!

 

[John Gryphon]

Nitro Express himself (JH) taking a few pics of his stag that had bolted down a steep hill after the shot and ran into a 10 metre wide and 2-3 metre high blackberry clump. The stag shot through the shoulder nearly made it all the way through,note channel/broken canes above it.
I said " he`s yours, now get him out" lol.

 

[starr shot]

A Kudu out of a very steep and rocky gulley that we had a job to walk down yet the trackers bounced from boulder to boulder and were half way up with the Kudu on an old bed frame before we had even got halfway down.The chap that shot it was not very popular afterwards having been told what ever you do don’t shoot anything on this side as it is a bastard to get out.

 

[Ratel]

Shooting four Fallow does on this year's Game fair estate forty years ago. All in a wood almost one mile from the road. No chance of vehicular extraction due to recent timber removal leaving waterlogged ruts you could hold Olympic swimming races in. Only way out uphill an alost one in one slope through timber for about five hundred yards. Same estate two of us five bucks from a group. Again no vehicular access, nearly a mile carry over plough, never again although being very fit then.

 

[John Gryphon]

My old bitch suggested that there was a deer above us on a very steep hill..short story yes there was and i took a poke at him above me knowing that a ute track wasn't far above him for an easy retrieve. Bang,stag dropped then to my dismay Catherine wheeled head over arse down hill at a rapid pace,the **** went past me 20-30 odd yards away and ended up iirc something like 2-300 yards down from where he should have dropped on the spot. It was a terrible piecemeal haul out too right to the top of the hill and off I went to get my ute.... then I couldn't find my faarkin ute in the dark as well... that was a big day lol.

 

[User00056]

I'm so glad I only shoot roe on nice flat ground

 

[John Gryphon]

I'm so glad I only shoot roe on nice flat ground

Here`s about seven roebuck. His back leg is heavier than a roebuck.

 

[Mr. Gain]

This thread makes me so happy to be the kind of lowland wuss that only shoots CWD, muntjac and roe!
I've dragged the odd muntjac out of deep dingles, and once relayed three up a long steep incline, but even that modest effort had me wishing I'd invested in a portable defibrillator before I was halfway done. So I tip my hat to anyone faced with manhandling larger species in places rugged and remote.

 

[John Gryphon]

We were on a 10 day 'walk in ' hunt having previously stashed a lot of gear in the valley for when vehicle access is denied. We were going to walk out on the tenth day from noon and decided to have one last hunt in the morning. All agreed nothing to be shot unless its a stag as the 23 kilometre walk out was too arduous with packs full of hind or spikey meat.
Short story BANG! Oldmate has got one..old mate thought that I had got one and then two other boys turned up with neither firing a shot so it must be "sweetcheeks" then. We found him up in a thick**** gully with a ****ing hind ffs.
After giving him a verbal we then painted the **** with blood..properly too as it was his first sambar.
Honouring the deer we parcelled it up and added it to our packs for that 23 k walkout of which a large portion is upfuknhill.

 

[mudman]

When I was younger and fitter I was invited to join a syndicate in a forestry block mid Scotland. It was 80% Red, 20% Roe. It was great place but the novelty of shooting Reds single handed soon wore off. All seemed to be ‘interesting’ extractions and even if they were not, they were bloody heavy and an achievement to tip into the back of my car once I got to a hard track. I relinquished my syndicate place after four seasons, maybe not my best decision but finances were tight and I was not going enough to justify the expense.

What I miss about the place is stalking in the snow. And the views. And the total silence

 

[User00056]

Here`s about seven roebuck. His back leg is heavier than a roebuck.

He's all yours

 

[Hook'N'Bullet]

i actually reloaded the rifle as a group of 8 broke cover as i was bleeding the last two does ... then though hang on no more

Your a man for a bit of punishment!

 

[John Gryphon]

And the total silence

Ah yes except for the natural sounds,especially the birds.

 

[geoshot]

I dunno about interesting extraction, but one of the most enjoyable extractions that I ever witnessed involved me & two others from this forum - @scrumbag & @IanF
The three of us were on a patch of Ian's ground
Neither Ian nor myself got anything, but just before dark we heard the bang-thump that suggested that Mike had connected with something.
Ian & I met up to discuss what, if anything, we should do to assist our young friend
Well, we didn't exactly know where he was - certainly not to 8 or 10-figure grid reference accuracy anyway - we knew roughly where he was of course
And the ground was rough, with many dry stone walls, fences, hedges & barbed wire fences criss-crossing it - and there were steep drop offs & gulleys to consider too
And as said, it was getting dark, the light was failing quickly
So, Ian & I thought it better if we plan things, sit and have a think about the best way to deal with it all
So, he broke out his flask of tea & I shared out my biccies
It continued along the lines of "more tea there fella?" "don't mind if I do" "help yourself to a biscuit or two, there's plenty left, might even have some Garibaldi's or fig rolls in my roe sac"
Eventually we spotted the beam from what turned out to be Mike's head torch swinging and flashing about like a demented laser light show at an impromptu rave
"should we go help him?"
"nah, he said he needs the exercise" - which he had said - he was a desk pilot and probably could have done with a bit of a workout at the time right enough
So we continued in this vein, topping up tea cups and discovering ever more varieties of biscuits secreted in the pockets of our kit - some of them were even still worth eating
Eventually a horrible sight manifested itself before us - just as we ran out of tea too
There was Mike, peuce of face, hair and what remained of his shirt & stalking trousers (those hedges & barbed wire were a hazard right enough - Ian & I had been right to be wary of them) plastered to him by litres of sweat, and a sprinkling of blood
After a while, it seemed like ages but was probably only a couple of minutes, Mike finally had the breath to wheeze "I bet you barstewards enjoyed that - didn't you"
Ian & I both agreed that yes, we had found the whole thing rather amusing to watch, especially trying to guess the reasons for the occasional disappearance of the demented searchlight - had our young colleague fainted, fallen off a cliff, expired?
He also copped a load of flak because he had shot a young stag - maybe a yearling - not a great big animal, something which could have justified his exhaustion

I don't know for sure, but I suspect that this incident is the reason for his tagline on this forum
"He who drags the deer has the last laugh (mainly because he has to get his breath back)"

 

[dryan]

Too many to mention. Plenty I’ve shot and within seconds of pulling the trigger thought “ohh b@ll@cks, the retrieval is going to take some time” mature fallow bucks across rutted bog with cut forestry is particularly challenging. Most ground here can’t be driven as it’s generally too wet.

 

[Foxyboy43]

Interesting thread - reading the experiences of so many funny through to downright scary extractions did make me wonder whether our pals in the US who quite regularly field butcher have it right? I have done this only once (plenty enough) with the biggest hind I have ever shot - this was on clear-fell with the associated now-covered drains which had grown up to two feet of grass all liberally sprinkled with branches and brash. The obliging old girl cleverly fell into the nearest machine cut gully and managed to pretty much trap all four legs under herself. Ever tried pulling a very large hind by the ears out of a steep-sided 4 feet deep V-sided cutting? I swear I could not move her - leaving the strap in the Jimny was possibly not my finest moment either.
Soo nothing for it - out came the gloves and knife and field-dress it I did - initially standing astride her and working from the back so to speak….
Absolute nightmare, took forever, the Jimny looked like something from the Texas Chainsaw massacre and it (and I - apparently) stank for weeks afterwards but at least it solved the minor problem of how I was ever going to get that huge beast up or even into the Jimny in the first place….

 

[Mungo]

Interesting thread - reading the experiences of so many funny through to downright scary extractions did make me wonder whether our pals in the US who quite regularly field butcher have it right? I have done this only once (plenty enough) with the biggest hind I have ever shot - this was on clear-fell with the associated now-covered drains which had grown up to two feet of grass all liberally sprinkled with branches and brash. The obliging old girl cleverly fell into the nearest machine cut gully and managed to pretty much trap all four legs under herself. Ever tried pulling a very large hind by the ears out of a steep-sided 4 feet deep V-sided cutting? I swear I could not move her - leaving the strap in the Jimny was possibly not my finest moment either.
Soo nothing for it - out came the gloves and knife and field-dress it I did - initially standing astride her and working from the back so to speak….
Absolute nightmare, took forever, the Jimny looked like something from the Texas Chainsaw massacre and it (and I - apparently) stank for weeks afterwards but at least it solved the minor problem of how I was ever going to get that huge beast up or even into the Jimny in the first place….

I think people would fold butcher more were it not for the fact that most carcasses go to the game dealers - who understandably want them intact!

I do it reasonably often now, if the carcass is somewhere horrible, or there are signs of green inside and I can get legs and backstraps off uncontaminated. I carry a couple cotton draw-string laundry bags as standard for this reason.

 

[tackb]

two instances come to mind , both entirely my own doing for not taking the hints from the stalkers

first was across a small valley , i was told extraction would be tricky as couldn't get the argo in there so only shoot two each tops , i shot six in rapid succession and when we got across there the ghillie and stalker took the closest smaller beasts and set off down leaving me two a little higher up which i went and fetched , the biggest of which a 70kg hind had to be dragged a short way uphill ( i nearly died!) then the two of them down through some seriously rough steep ground, i finally arrived at the road soaked with sweat and steaming unable to speak for a while to knowing looks from the other two

you'd think i'd learn.........

second time we had shot a load of hinds up the back of a small forest on a flat area , enough to fill the argo but while we were sorting them out waiting for the argo to get there i spotted some in the trees so i radioed the head stalker who was on his way in the argo and asked if he wanted me to shoot some of those as well , he said ' aye , if you want but you'll need to drag them down through the trees to the bottom' ( i should have paid attention to his tone!) anyway , shot two walked down sorted them out and started dragging , those trees were very different once in there and i ended up doing 50m relays at a time with the deer and my rifle and kit for a couple of kms , again i thought i was going to die ! another hard learned lesson !

 

[scrumbag]

I dunno about interesting extraction, but one of the most enjoyable extractions that I ever witnessed involved me & two others from this forum - @scrumbag & @IanF
The three of us were on a patch of Ian's ground
Neither Ian nor myself got anything, but just before dark we heard the bang-thump that suggested that Mike had connected with something.
Ian & I met up to discuss what, if anything, we should do to assist our young friend
Well, we didn't exactly know where he was - certainly not to 8 or 10-figure grid reference accuracy anyway - we knew roughly where he was of course
And the ground was rough, with many dry stone walls, fences, hedges & barbed wire fences criss-crossing it - and there were steep drop offs & gulleys to consider too
And as said, it was getting dark, the light was failing quickly
So, Ian & I thought it better if we plan things, sit and have a think about the best way to deal with it all
So, he broke out his flask of tea & I shared out my biccies
It continued along the lines of "more tea there fella?" "don't mind if I do" "help yourself to a biscuit or two, there's plenty left, might even have some Garibaldi's or fig rolls in my roe sac"
Eventually we spotted the beam from what turned out to be Mike's head torch swinging and flashing about like a demented laser light show at an impromptu rave
"should we go help him?"
"nah, he said he needs the exercise" - which he had said - he was a desk pilot and probably could have done with a bit of a workout at the time right enough
So we continued in this vein, topping up tea cups and discovering ever more varieties of biscuits secreted in the pockets of our kit - some of them were even still worth eating
Eventually a horrible sight manifested itself before us - just as we ran out of tea too
There was Mike, peuce of face, hair and what remained of his shirt & stalking trousers (those hedges & barbed wire were a hazard right enough - Ian & I had been right to be wary of them) plastered to him by litres of sweat, and a sprinkling of blood
After a while, it seemed like ages but was probably only a couple of minutes, Mike finally had the breath to wheeze "I bet you barstewards enjoyed that - didn't you"
Ian & I both agreed that yes, we had found the whole thing rather amusing to watch, especially trying to guess the reasons for the occasional disappearance of the demented searchlight - had our young colleague fainted, fallen off a cliff, expired?
He also copped a load of flak because he had shot a young stag - maybe a yearling - not a great big animal, something which could have justified his exhaustion

I don't know for sure, but I suspect that this incident is the reason for his tagline on this forum
"He who drags the deer has the last laugh (mainly because he has to get his breath back)"

Harrumph