This is a bit of a long winded one, hopefully relatable as a first experience of hunting/stalking, and hopefully other people looking to get into this sort of thing can read this and avoid some of my mistakes!
My First Attempt
In April I headed to the Forest of Dean for a lesson in preparedness. Arriving on time, with a zeroed rifle on a freshly developed 220 grain ball tipped 30-06 load fitted with a brand new Pulsar Thermion 2, I was excited, but didn't really know what to expect.
Barry (ELMER_FUDD on here), the keeper, was very welcoming and took me through where I'd be sitting, where he'd be etc, and then left me to it.
Having never done anything remotely like this before, and wrapped up warm in my hide, there was a real novelty to watching dusk fall and hearing the woods come alive.
As it got dark, I soon discovered that picking up my rifle to sweep back and forth to have a look around was noisy, awkward, and made me more than a little uncomfortable, it being a loaded rifle.
After a short while some deer started to appear, but I had absolutely no hope of identifying what type of deer they were, something that was entirely my fault through inexperience (my username really is a giveaway here).
I began to hear movement around my hide, but kept making loud banging noises every time I picked up or put down the rifle to see what it was, with the result that all noise would stop for a minute or two!
At around 11pm I fell asleep for a couple of hours, and likely missed my opportunity! At 1, some deer came down out of the tree line and started grazing, making their way across the field. At 2, they were briefly joined by a badger.
At 3, a fox came out to investigate the bait pile. A quick text to the keeper confirmed that a dead fox would be appreciated, and I promptly dropped my phone, scaring the fox off before I could shoot it!
After that I decided to knock it on the head, getting a couple of hours shuteye with the plan to see if the deer were still hanging around just before dawn. And they were! However, I still couldn't identify what type of deer they were, didn't have binoculars to aid with that, and to make matters worse the seasons had changed over at midnight, and I now was able to confirm that they were does, and thus I couldn't shoot them even if I knew what species they were.
Feeling cold, quite frustrated but still having had a lot of fun, I schlepped my way back home and wrote a huge list of things I needed to sort before next time, be it equipment or things to know/check beforehand.
The Second Attempt
Undeterred, I returned in August, this time bringing a friend along to keep me awake. He'd shot lots of boar growing up in France, but hadn't held a rifle since coming to the UK two decades ago.
He went off to zero the estate rifle while I got set up, with my new sticks and LRF thermal spotter making things far easier.
My friend returned at around 9, and less than an hour later a sow and several adolescent piglets showed up!
My friend told me to shoot, he wasn't comfortable shooting live animals after such a long break, and two shots in quick succession later, the sow and one of the piglets fell where they were shot.
Now came the fun part - I had zero experience of graloching freshly shot animals, having never shot anything bigger than a squirrel or rabbit before.
Thankfully, Barry and his assistant Dave were able to come out and give me an excellent demonstration on one pig while I did the other, and that was that.
We retired to our hotel, headed home, and in the morning set to butchering the two carcasses, resulting in a whole suckling pig and a decent haul of joints each.
All I need to do now is forecast when it will all be eaten by so I can book in another trip!
My First Attempt
In April I headed to the Forest of Dean for a lesson in preparedness. Arriving on time, with a zeroed rifle on a freshly developed 220 grain ball tipped 30-06 load fitted with a brand new Pulsar Thermion 2, I was excited, but didn't really know what to expect.
Barry (ELMER_FUDD on here), the keeper, was very welcoming and took me through where I'd be sitting, where he'd be etc, and then left me to it.
Having never done anything remotely like this before, and wrapped up warm in my hide, there was a real novelty to watching dusk fall and hearing the woods come alive.
As it got dark, I soon discovered that picking up my rifle to sweep back and forth to have a look around was noisy, awkward, and made me more than a little uncomfortable, it being a loaded rifle.
After a short while some deer started to appear, but I had absolutely no hope of identifying what type of deer they were, something that was entirely my fault through inexperience (my username really is a giveaway here).
I began to hear movement around my hide, but kept making loud banging noises every time I picked up or put down the rifle to see what it was, with the result that all noise would stop for a minute or two!
At around 11pm I fell asleep for a couple of hours, and likely missed my opportunity! At 1, some deer came down out of the tree line and started grazing, making their way across the field. At 2, they were briefly joined by a badger.
At 3, a fox came out to investigate the bait pile. A quick text to the keeper confirmed that a dead fox would be appreciated, and I promptly dropped my phone, scaring the fox off before I could shoot it!
After that I decided to knock it on the head, getting a couple of hours shuteye with the plan to see if the deer were still hanging around just before dawn. And they were! However, I still couldn't identify what type of deer they were, didn't have binoculars to aid with that, and to make matters worse the seasons had changed over at midnight, and I now was able to confirm that they were does, and thus I couldn't shoot them even if I knew what species they were.
Feeling cold, quite frustrated but still having had a lot of fun, I schlepped my way back home and wrote a huge list of things I needed to sort before next time, be it equipment or things to know/check beforehand.
The Second Attempt
Undeterred, I returned in August, this time bringing a friend along to keep me awake. He'd shot lots of boar growing up in France, but hadn't held a rifle since coming to the UK two decades ago.
He went off to zero the estate rifle while I got set up, with my new sticks and LRF thermal spotter making things far easier.
My friend returned at around 9, and less than an hour later a sow and several adolescent piglets showed up!
My friend told me to shoot, he wasn't comfortable shooting live animals after such a long break, and two shots in quick succession later, the sow and one of the piglets fell where they were shot.
Now came the fun part - I had zero experience of graloching freshly shot animals, having never shot anything bigger than a squirrel or rabbit before.
Thankfully, Barry and his assistant Dave were able to come out and give me an excellent demonstration on one pig while I did the other, and that was that.
We retired to our hotel, headed home, and in the morning set to butchering the two carcasses, resulting in a whole suckling pig and a decent haul of joints each.
All I need to do now is forecast when it will all be eaten by so I can book in another trip!
amazed this was acceptable
