To set the scene. Early August my partner and I had been invited to a friends ground near Elgin, Northern Scotland, to try and get my first Red.
We Travelled up from our home near Ponteland on the Friday afternoon and evening in my new to me 13 plate L200. This was a much needed upgrade from my nakkered old Terrano. All Was going well until we got to Perth and my car started throwing white smoke out of the exhaust. Cue recovery and a 3 hour delay until we were on our way again. Arriving at the Bothy close to 2300, my good lady not best impressed and myself shattered after 8 ours on the road including breakdown. We met with our friend and had a quick chat about where we were heading in the morning. I got my kit ready and had a few hours light sleep with the anticipation and excitement of potentially my first Red.
Morning arrived to the tune of my Alarm at 0400, my partner cursing me and giving me the old “I’m not coming” This was simply not happening as she had organised this whole thing for me. Dragged her out of the pit and threw her Yeti cup full of Tea and a bacon sandwich at her. She was quiet for a while, not sure if this was because she was eating, or just plotting my demise. I am still un decided.
Morning arrived. We met at the Farm yard and made our way into the first park enroute to where we were expecting to see the Beasts. Much to my surprise, as well as our friend, there was a herd around 40-50 strong in the first field. There was a HUGE monster of a stag at the front, and around 6-7 smaller and younger stags with the remaining made up of hinds and calves. My friend said he was happy for the larger of the stags to be shot, and uttered the words “that’s our target”
This is where it went wrong and I cry myself to sleep pretty much every night about this. I checked with the Range finder. All under 300 yards, the closest at 210 Yards. All well within shooting distance with the .308 and I had been practicing on 4” gongs out to 400m. I was happy I could put the 150grain powershok into the boiler room. Instead, what I actually did, was stand with my sticks upright Binos on target, Rifle slung and watched in awe. I watched for long enough for the herd, and a piece of my soul, to take off over the boundary fence never to return to the right side of the boundary for the next 14 hours… I have never lived this down, and still had nightmares until this weekend.
My partner and I had managed to arrange our last chance outing for this year. We travelled up Friday afternoon but my hopes were not high with the Yellow and amber warning of rain. Saturday morning my partner stayed in bed while I met up with my friend for my first time Wildfowling on the foreshore. A couple of hours being in what can only be described as persistent precipitation, I had taken my first two Pink foot geese with his Pump Action 10 bore. 0900 we called it a morning and went back to the bothy to dry off and have some breakfast.
At 1300 we went back out, this time in search of the elusive Reds. I wasn’t feeling hopeful as they hadn’t been seen for the last few days. We made our way into the first park, gingerly, low and behold they were there, albeit over the boundary. We backed up and made our slowly through the wood that ran parallel to the boundary with the field in between where they have been feeding.
Once in position I had a good scan with the thermal. There were multiple hinds laid up in the heather, and a young stag with them thrashing some young trees. About 30 mins passed and I spotted movement and a heat source in the thermal. Check with the Binos and a large Stag with what looked like 12 points came from behind the woodland 350 yards to my right. He appeared and turned, what a magnificent creature he was. He turned broadside and made his way up the hill in front of me and came to 290m of me, but stayed over the boundary and even if we was on our side, there was no safe backstop. I watched him and my heart sank as he made his way over the crest of the hill.
The hinds were still laid up. I decided my best bet was to sit and wait and see if the herd came over the boundary with the young stag in tow.
In the meantime a lovely 6 point Roe buck came out of the gorse in front of me at 130m. At this point I contemplated letting my partner shoot him. I’ve shot plenty of Roe and actually has helped me a lot with the stalking, but she turned it down and said it was my call. I didn’t want to go home empty handed but also didn’t want to miss out on a Stag. I decided to leave it. He mooched in to about 15m away from us before he spooked and bounded back into the gorse and small copse I front of us.
About 15 mins passed. Then it happened. The stag we’d seen earlier sky lined, and stood tall and majestic. He started making his way slowly down the hill side, thrashing and fraying small trees as he went. He started making his way down to the boundary. I decided I was going to stalk forward and close the distance in case of a shot.
He made his way down and through the damaged fencing and began browsing in the heather in the adjacent field to me inside our boundary. Id made my along the wood and was about to attempt to cross a gate when id come into his eye line. He stopped and looked at my direction. I was on my knees and slowly reached into my pocket for my range finder. 253m. A shot I was happy to take.
Slowly I got stood up and loaded the Tikka M590 in .308 onto the sticks, shoulder the rifled and dialled up the scope. He still hadn’t moved and wasn’t presenting a broadside shot. I had him lined up in the cross hairs but needed him to turn. Then he did. He turned to his left and presented me with a chest shot.
The 150grain powershok impacted landed smack on the mark and he dropped within 5 yards. I reloaded but he was down for sure. Then it started, the adrenalin dump and the hand shakes. My partner and friend moved up to see me, both of them beaming with happiness for me. My partner hugged me as she knew what it meant to me.
We moved up to where the beast had dropped, what I hadn’t realised was there was three fences in in between us… As we climbed over the second my partner shouted to get my rifle. The Buck we has seen earlier on was caught in the fence with a broken front leg, and its back leg caught in the fence and also broken. I quickly dispatched him. It’s the first time I’ve found a deer hung and it wasn’t nice. You could see he had given up and had no fight left.
Untangled him and then made our way to the stag. Upon finding him my partner muttered those fatal words when you realise how far you need to drag him, “**** me that’s huge. Its like a horse!”
It was indeed the largest deer I have shot and was indeed a bastard to drag out. Having been my first I thought it was only right to experience the full thing.
I gralloched him in situ and over the next 3 hours got him over 3 fences an 400m to a point at which we could get my vehicle. I have learnt a few things on this stalk:
1: Shoot the Reds close to the car
2: If no car make sure you have a quad or ATV (Martin went for the farm quad but it had no fuel)
3: Make sure there are no fences in the way
4: make sure you have a winch or method of lifting the ****ing thing into the pick up
All of this made for an extremely fun and memorable trip for my first deer and Redemption from my previous trip.
I am honoured to have been invited up and been allowed the privilege of selecting the beast id like to take. It is my first time stalking reds and am happy that my plan worked. Martin let me stalk as I saw fit and allowed me make all of the calls for which I am very grateful.
Now I sit at home with a 12 Point Royal being stripped ready to prep for a shield mount. This will be in my memories for a long time to come.
We Travelled up from our home near Ponteland on the Friday afternoon and evening in my new to me 13 plate L200. This was a much needed upgrade from my nakkered old Terrano. All Was going well until we got to Perth and my car started throwing white smoke out of the exhaust. Cue recovery and a 3 hour delay until we were on our way again. Arriving at the Bothy close to 2300, my good lady not best impressed and myself shattered after 8 ours on the road including breakdown. We met with our friend and had a quick chat about where we were heading in the morning. I got my kit ready and had a few hours light sleep with the anticipation and excitement of potentially my first Red.
Morning arrived to the tune of my Alarm at 0400, my partner cursing me and giving me the old “I’m not coming” This was simply not happening as she had organised this whole thing for me. Dragged her out of the pit and threw her Yeti cup full of Tea and a bacon sandwich at her. She was quiet for a while, not sure if this was because she was eating, or just plotting my demise. I am still un decided.
Morning arrived. We met at the Farm yard and made our way into the first park enroute to where we were expecting to see the Beasts. Much to my surprise, as well as our friend, there was a herd around 40-50 strong in the first field. There was a HUGE monster of a stag at the front, and around 6-7 smaller and younger stags with the remaining made up of hinds and calves. My friend said he was happy for the larger of the stags to be shot, and uttered the words “that’s our target”
This is where it went wrong and I cry myself to sleep pretty much every night about this. I checked with the Range finder. All under 300 yards, the closest at 210 Yards. All well within shooting distance with the .308 and I had been practicing on 4” gongs out to 400m. I was happy I could put the 150grain powershok into the boiler room. Instead, what I actually did, was stand with my sticks upright Binos on target, Rifle slung and watched in awe. I watched for long enough for the herd, and a piece of my soul, to take off over the boundary fence never to return to the right side of the boundary for the next 14 hours… I have never lived this down, and still had nightmares until this weekend.
My partner and I had managed to arrange our last chance outing for this year. We travelled up Friday afternoon but my hopes were not high with the Yellow and amber warning of rain. Saturday morning my partner stayed in bed while I met up with my friend for my first time Wildfowling on the foreshore. A couple of hours being in what can only be described as persistent precipitation, I had taken my first two Pink foot geese with his Pump Action 10 bore. 0900 we called it a morning and went back to the bothy to dry off and have some breakfast.
At 1300 we went back out, this time in search of the elusive Reds. I wasn’t feeling hopeful as they hadn’t been seen for the last few days. We made our way into the first park, gingerly, low and behold they were there, albeit over the boundary. We backed up and made our slowly through the wood that ran parallel to the boundary with the field in between where they have been feeding.
Once in position I had a good scan with the thermal. There were multiple hinds laid up in the heather, and a young stag with them thrashing some young trees. About 30 mins passed and I spotted movement and a heat source in the thermal. Check with the Binos and a large Stag with what looked like 12 points came from behind the woodland 350 yards to my right. He appeared and turned, what a magnificent creature he was. He turned broadside and made his way up the hill in front of me and came to 290m of me, but stayed over the boundary and even if we was on our side, there was no safe backstop. I watched him and my heart sank as he made his way over the crest of the hill.
The hinds were still laid up. I decided my best bet was to sit and wait and see if the herd came over the boundary with the young stag in tow.
In the meantime a lovely 6 point Roe buck came out of the gorse in front of me at 130m. At this point I contemplated letting my partner shoot him. I’ve shot plenty of Roe and actually has helped me a lot with the stalking, but she turned it down and said it was my call. I didn’t want to go home empty handed but also didn’t want to miss out on a Stag. I decided to leave it. He mooched in to about 15m away from us before he spooked and bounded back into the gorse and small copse I front of us.
About 15 mins passed. Then it happened. The stag we’d seen earlier sky lined, and stood tall and majestic. He started making his way slowly down the hill side, thrashing and fraying small trees as he went. He started making his way down to the boundary. I decided I was going to stalk forward and close the distance in case of a shot.
He made his way down and through the damaged fencing and began browsing in the heather in the adjacent field to me inside our boundary. Id made my along the wood and was about to attempt to cross a gate when id come into his eye line. He stopped and looked at my direction. I was on my knees and slowly reached into my pocket for my range finder. 253m. A shot I was happy to take.
Slowly I got stood up and loaded the Tikka M590 in .308 onto the sticks, shoulder the rifled and dialled up the scope. He still hadn’t moved and wasn’t presenting a broadside shot. I had him lined up in the cross hairs but needed him to turn. Then he did. He turned to his left and presented me with a chest shot.
The 150grain powershok impacted landed smack on the mark and he dropped within 5 yards. I reloaded but he was down for sure. Then it started, the adrenalin dump and the hand shakes. My partner and friend moved up to see me, both of them beaming with happiness for me. My partner hugged me as she knew what it meant to me.
We moved up to where the beast had dropped, what I hadn’t realised was there was three fences in in between us… As we climbed over the second my partner shouted to get my rifle. The Buck we has seen earlier on was caught in the fence with a broken front leg, and its back leg caught in the fence and also broken. I quickly dispatched him. It’s the first time I’ve found a deer hung and it wasn’t nice. You could see he had given up and had no fight left.
Untangled him and then made our way to the stag. Upon finding him my partner muttered those fatal words when you realise how far you need to drag him, “**** me that’s huge. Its like a horse!”
It was indeed the largest deer I have shot and was indeed a bastard to drag out. Having been my first I thought it was only right to experience the full thing.
I gralloched him in situ and over the next 3 hours got him over 3 fences an 400m to a point at which we could get my vehicle. I have learnt a few things on this stalk:
1: Shoot the Reds close to the car
2: If no car make sure you have a quad or ATV (Martin went for the farm quad but it had no fuel)
3: Make sure there are no fences in the way
4: make sure you have a winch or method of lifting the ****ing thing into the pick up
All of this made for an extremely fun and memorable trip for my first deer and Redemption from my previous trip.
I am honoured to have been invited up and been allowed the privilege of selecting the beast id like to take. It is my first time stalking reds and am happy that my plan worked. Martin let me stalk as I saw fit and allowed me make all of the calls for which I am very grateful.
Now I sit at home with a 12 Point Royal being stripped ready to prep for a shield mount. This will be in my memories for a long time to come.
