Hi folks, just a bit of a write up on my trip to Scotland last week for Roe bucks. Myself and 2 friends booked 3 days stalking in New Galloway with Kyri from Athina Sporting. I've known Kyri and been stalking with him for over 10 years now he's a great lad and genuinely loves what he does.
so 2 of us set of from Northern Ireland on Wednesday afternoon and after a pleasant sailing across the Irish sea we were less than an hours Drive to the beautiful town of Dalry were we meet up with another friend that was joining us in a pub called the Clachan inn which at any time of the year is full of hunters and fisher men to enjoy a drive with or some fantastic food as their menu is full of wild game dishes.
The 3am starts come way too soon and it'd Day light before 4am, the ground we are stalking on is approx 7000 acres and a mixer of low dense woodland and steep open hill, our guide for the weekend was Gary, he knew the ground like the back of his hand and was also a fellow Land Rover fan too! (3 land Rover owners and 1 Mitsubishi owner lead to lots of banter over the 3 days!)
the 1st outing I chose to go into 1of the woods, it very difficult to stalk as every step sound like a .22 rifle going off, after about 15 min of walking as quiet as I could I came to a clearing and decided to put my sticks up and give a few squeaks on the Roe call and almost instantly a 4 point buck stuck his head out of the bush 30 yards in front of me, I waited a few seconds until he walked out from behind the bush then took the shot.
back to the cottage for breakfast and Gary and Trevor had seen few does but no Bucks and unfortunately Mark had found a young buck that hadhis back leg almost completely ripped off in a fence and had to dispatch it. after a good long sleep in the afternoon we went back out at 7.30 that evening.
after a long stalk following a river and up over a few bracken banks I spotted a young buck coming out of a block of timber above me, I manged to get within 100m of him and took the shot, the mighty 222 dropped him on the spot! the poor buck was completely covered in ticks, I removed 10 from his belly and back legs before I gralloched him, later that night we found 2 ticks on Gary's dog as well
Trevor managed to get 2 bucks including a nice 6 pointer while Mark just seen does this time
Friday morning I decided to stay in bed as the lack of sleep was catching up on me and we now 4 4 bucks on the chiller and no room for any more, so Trevor and I skinned and butchered the bucks and had breakfast on for Mark and Gary coming back.
Friday night the temperature had hit 25deg and the midgie's were out in force!! no amount of repellent was working and we were ate alive by the wee *******s! Mark had had a fantastic stalk on a group of Roe on the hill and ended up taking a 4 point buck at 275m with his 30-06
Saturday morning is when the magic happened for me, Gary took me to a spot where he had seen a monster buck with a few does the day before, I parked the Land Rover got my stuff and headed to the block of timber where the buck had been seen, the was a tuff of green grass in the middle of the bracken that I thought was a good place to sit down and glass the Forrest in front of me. After a few moments I turned to my right and seen a Doe standing in the open watching me, I turned and got down prone behind my Sako and just as I looked through the scope I seen a set of Antlers coming out of a dip in the ground, for the 1st time in a very long time the buck fever hit me, I was shacking like a leaf and could just about hold my rifle steady, the Doe made a run for it as did the buck but he stopped and looked back, he didnt present a great shot but I knew I didnt have time to wait so I hit him high behind the shoulder, he was only 80m away and the 6.5x55 dropped him on the spot! as it was only 4.30am I decided to take him back to the cottage and carefully cape him then make breakfast for the boys coming back.
Trevor and Mark had both seen 6 point bucks and Mark had a clean miss at 40m which we gave him plenty of stick about for the rest of the day!
After lunch in the pub and a chin wag with a few other stalkers we are friendly with in the area, that evening we put some targets out on the hill and did some plinking out to 700m, the little 222 was struggling with the wind but the 6.5 and 30-06 had no problem at all, and after all the stick we had given Mark about missing at 40m he was getting 1st shot hits at 700m!
On Sunday morning are old mate Griff called in for breakfast and we packed up and headed for home, with doubt this was the most enjoyable trip Ive had yet! big thank you to Kyri and Gary for making it possible and anyone wanting a similar trip give Kyri a shout and he will sort it out for you
so 2 of us set of from Northern Ireland on Wednesday afternoon and after a pleasant sailing across the Irish sea we were less than an hours Drive to the beautiful town of Dalry were we meet up with another friend that was joining us in a pub called the Clachan inn which at any time of the year is full of hunters and fisher men to enjoy a drive with or some fantastic food as their menu is full of wild game dishes.
The 3am starts come way too soon and it'd Day light before 4am, the ground we are stalking on is approx 7000 acres and a mixer of low dense woodland and steep open hill, our guide for the weekend was Gary, he knew the ground like the back of his hand and was also a fellow Land Rover fan too! (3 land Rover owners and 1 Mitsubishi owner lead to lots of banter over the 3 days!)
the 1st outing I chose to go into 1of the woods, it very difficult to stalk as every step sound like a .22 rifle going off, after about 15 min of walking as quiet as I could I came to a clearing and decided to put my sticks up and give a few squeaks on the Roe call and almost instantly a 4 point buck stuck his head out of the bush 30 yards in front of me, I waited a few seconds until he walked out from behind the bush then took the shot.
back to the cottage for breakfast and Gary and Trevor had seen few does but no Bucks and unfortunately Mark had found a young buck that hadhis back leg almost completely ripped off in a fence and had to dispatch it. after a good long sleep in the afternoon we went back out at 7.30 that evening.
after a long stalk following a river and up over a few bracken banks I spotted a young buck coming out of a block of timber above me, I manged to get within 100m of him and took the shot, the mighty 222 dropped him on the spot! the poor buck was completely covered in ticks, I removed 10 from his belly and back legs before I gralloched him, later that night we found 2 ticks on Gary's dog as well
Trevor managed to get 2 bucks including a nice 6 pointer while Mark just seen does this time
Friday morning I decided to stay in bed as the lack of sleep was catching up on me and we now 4 4 bucks on the chiller and no room for any more, so Trevor and I skinned and butchered the bucks and had breakfast on for Mark and Gary coming back.
Friday night the temperature had hit 25deg and the midgie's were out in force!! no amount of repellent was working and we were ate alive by the wee *******s! Mark had had a fantastic stalk on a group of Roe on the hill and ended up taking a 4 point buck at 275m with his 30-06
Saturday morning is when the magic happened for me, Gary took me to a spot where he had seen a monster buck with a few does the day before, I parked the Land Rover got my stuff and headed to the block of timber where the buck had been seen, the was a tuff of green grass in the middle of the bracken that I thought was a good place to sit down and glass the Forrest in front of me. After a few moments I turned to my right and seen a Doe standing in the open watching me, I turned and got down prone behind my Sako and just as I looked through the scope I seen a set of Antlers coming out of a dip in the ground, for the 1st time in a very long time the buck fever hit me, I was shacking like a leaf and could just about hold my rifle steady, the Doe made a run for it as did the buck but he stopped and looked back, he didnt present a great shot but I knew I didnt have time to wait so I hit him high behind the shoulder, he was only 80m away and the 6.5x55 dropped him on the spot! as it was only 4.30am I decided to take him back to the cottage and carefully cape him then make breakfast for the boys coming back.
Trevor and Mark had both seen 6 point bucks and Mark had a clean miss at 40m which we gave him plenty of stick about for the rest of the day!
After lunch in the pub and a chin wag with a few other stalkers we are friendly with in the area, that evening we put some targets out on the hill and did some plinking out to 700m, the little 222 was struggling with the wind but the 6.5 and 30-06 had no problem at all, and after all the stick we had given Mark about missing at 40m he was getting 1st shot hits at 700m!
On Sunday morning are old mate Griff called in for breakfast and we packed up and headed for home, with doubt this was the most enjoyable trip Ive had yet! big thank you to Kyri and Gary for making it possible and anyone wanting a similar trip give Kyri a shout and he will sort it out for you
