The rut is still sputtering along, my guests are sorted and now its time to have a try for a halfway decent animal for myself. I don't shoot many mature 8 point stags, but I have a free morning sorted so todays the day. My normal diet of scruffy 6 pointers and prickets is on hold, a decent 8 or home with a clean rifle is the plan. The weather forecast isn’t encouraging, yellow level fog warning, but theres not a sign of it at 0500 and the hour and a half drive down is uneventful except for the deer running across the road. I count 5 carcasses but manage to avoid adding to them.
I arrive just as dawn is breaking, load up, park up and start stalking along the track. There are lots of deer about but very little calling, at the first clearing there are about 14 deer, including a couple of small stags, I’m glassing carefully when theres a scream from right beside me and a very nice 8 pointer hammers out of the trees and bolts up the hill. Like most mature stags he doesn’t waste time or stop for a look back, he gallops off and lives to run another day, the smaller stags hang around huffing and puffing, they’re safe today too and slowly they collect their hinds and filter off into the trees.
I carry on up the track, theres a bit of intermittent mist now limiting visibility to under 400M but its not a problem and I reach my planned glassing point over the re-plant without bouncing anything else. A quick scan shows about 20 deer out,5 or 6 small stags and hinds with calves but I’m about to move on when I spot “ something” beside a rock. Its a really nice 8 pointer lying down with his back to me, head is up and he’s at 264M, doable but I think I can get closer, so its down on all 4’s and crawl through the moss and deer crap. I manage to make it 100M closer then get right down and crawl to a small hummock which gives me a solid rest. A careful look through the bino’s shows that he’s not asleep just relaxing and keeping an eye on his hinds and the other smaller stags, he has his back to me but his head is up and the neck is fully exposed, range is 150ish and its not going to get any better so I prep the shot. Parallax is already set, I have about 8x and the little red dot in the Z6i reticule is glowing nicely. I place the dot on the centre of his neck and settle down to a solid steady hold. When I fire he just drops his head and lies still, the other deer have no idea where I am and trot around calling and swivelling their heads trying to locate the danger. I stay where I am until they move away, the stag lies still beside the rock and I have a good mark on him
.
He’s really nice, not a medal, but a great example of a ” mountain “ sika stag, hardy and tough, they have to be to survive up here. His head is a bit irregular with a broken brow tine and uneven tops which will drag his CIC score down but I ‘m thrilled with him, he’s already lost a lot of condition and is “spun out”, or “shagged out “if you prefer, very little fat, what there is is yellow and he reeks, so off to the weigh and pay, 42Kg which is very good for this area. I hope the French or Germans enjoy the strong gamey flavour, I definitely don’t.
For once recovery is a doddle, a handy 300M drag down to the track and then a walk back to the truck. Loading him up on my own took a bit of an effort but I’m all done and dusted with a little change left over from 0900.
And that’s how it went, no major drama’s or upset, just a nice morning out and a nice stag to bring home. Next week I’m back in harness, my son-in-law is overwhelmed with the desire to shoot a deer so I’ll be out mentoring and guiding again. Biting my tongue when he can’t see the creatures right in front of him, explaining why its a really bad idea to use a rifle as an alpenstock etc etc etc
Someone has to do it, its part of the dues we pay for the privilege of stalking.
I arrive just as dawn is breaking, load up, park up and start stalking along the track. There are lots of deer about but very little calling, at the first clearing there are about 14 deer, including a couple of small stags, I’m glassing carefully when theres a scream from right beside me and a very nice 8 pointer hammers out of the trees and bolts up the hill. Like most mature stags he doesn’t waste time or stop for a look back, he gallops off and lives to run another day, the smaller stags hang around huffing and puffing, they’re safe today too and slowly they collect their hinds and filter off into the trees.
I carry on up the track, theres a bit of intermittent mist now limiting visibility to under 400M but its not a problem and I reach my planned glassing point over the re-plant without bouncing anything else. A quick scan shows about 20 deer out,5 or 6 small stags and hinds with calves but I’m about to move on when I spot “ something” beside a rock. Its a really nice 8 pointer lying down with his back to me, head is up and he’s at 264M, doable but I think I can get closer, so its down on all 4’s and crawl through the moss and deer crap. I manage to make it 100M closer then get right down and crawl to a small hummock which gives me a solid rest. A careful look through the bino’s shows that he’s not asleep just relaxing and keeping an eye on his hinds and the other smaller stags, he has his back to me but his head is up and the neck is fully exposed, range is 150ish and its not going to get any better so I prep the shot. Parallax is already set, I have about 8x and the little red dot in the Z6i reticule is glowing nicely. I place the dot on the centre of his neck and settle down to a solid steady hold. When I fire he just drops his head and lies still, the other deer have no idea where I am and trot around calling and swivelling their heads trying to locate the danger. I stay where I am until they move away, the stag lies still beside the rock and I have a good mark on him
.
He’s really nice, not a medal, but a great example of a ” mountain “ sika stag, hardy and tough, they have to be to survive up here. His head is a bit irregular with a broken brow tine and uneven tops which will drag his CIC score down but I ‘m thrilled with him, he’s already lost a lot of condition and is “spun out”, or “shagged out “if you prefer, very little fat, what there is is yellow and he reeks, so off to the weigh and pay, 42Kg which is very good for this area. I hope the French or Germans enjoy the strong gamey flavour, I definitely don’t.
For once recovery is a doddle, a handy 300M drag down to the track and then a walk back to the truck. Loading him up on my own took a bit of an effort but I’m all done and dusted with a little change left over from 0900.
And that’s how it went, no major drama’s or upset, just a nice morning out and a nice stag to bring home. Next week I’m back in harness, my son-in-law is overwhelmed with the desire to shoot a deer so I’ll be out mentoring and guiding again. Biting my tongue when he can’t see the creatures right in front of him, explaining why its a really bad idea to use a rifle as an alpenstock etc etc etc
Someone has to do it, its part of the dues we pay for the privilege of stalking.
