Stalking Woes

[David Barker]

I was taking a guest out for a summer buck a few years back. He had traveled all the way up from London. I had put him on one side of a mile long wood with a tree line separation. I told him if i saw a decent buck on my side i would call him on the mobile. After about an our of sitting tight to a stone dyke fence i saw a real nice buck slowly making its way towards me. I call the guest and he had seen nothing so headed a long the burn to my area were he could creep up the low part of the ground to were i lay. As he was getting close i pointed to the buck that was by now only 60 mtr or so off me and only 120 or so from him but because of his low position he couldn't get a decent shot. As he crept closer my dog spotted him and sat up hitting her head of the electric fence and howling like a banshee. The buck did not hang around and the guest was not a happy chap this was the only chance he had on the visit and to make matters worse the friend he came up with shot a medal class buck from one of my high seats. Still he has been back since and shot a few deer so all was not lost.

 

[scotch_egg]

Magazine and mod forgotten for the 10/22 when I was a lad out on rabbits in Perth. There was a lot of rabbits back then and loading a 10/22 singly is a real PITA

 

[JH83]

Well I feel the need to say this before @NickJ pipes up.

Driving up to Perthshire for 2 days culling and got the haunting feeling at about Annan services I’d left something. That something was my ammo bag, containing bolt, mod, ammo.

Well my stalking companion used his well honed PR skills to tell every stalker in the NW about this, I had people I barely know give me s**t. Well deserved. He had a spare rifle thankfully. I blamed coming off night shifts

 

[TringSaint]

Thought start this as a bit of light hearted fun.

So what are your stalking woes.

Now everyone has no doubt fell down a mounding hole, or caught a nut on a barbed wire fence, or left feeling like a knobber leaving something at home.

I'll leave this 1 of many 'woes' I've experienced over the last few years.

Having finally getting all my paperwork sorted in order to be able to shoot on a ground a mate does some contracting on, and doing the graft in return of him showing me the ropes.
I got to take my own rifle with a plan in place to take a few deer and make our way along from 1 end of a section of the ground to the other.

All sorted and feeling confident of a good day and a plan in place, I started setting up getting my jacket on and kit organised. Final thing get the magazine in and bolt.

Oh but no, even with having no sleep the night before going through things. I had only left the bolt behind. Absolute bell wacker!

The shameful admission to my mate was shall I say emotional

Anyway let's here some of your woes', all in good jest. After all we can't all be perfect can we

Left my bolt at home once - only a 45 min drive for nothing!!
Driven to farm, got set up, muck spreader arrives - game over
Twisted ankle on hard heavy ploughing and had to crawl 1km back to car on hands and knees with a deer in the sack on my back
Forgot wellies so had to go in trainers in the mud
Locked keys in car and had to get wife to bring spare set

 

[bullet chucker]

Is that all? ANY THING ELSE YOU'VE FORGOTTEN?

BC.

 

[Mungo]

Left my bolt at home once - only a 45 min drive for nothing!!
Driven to farm, got set up, muck spreader arrives - game over
Twisted ankle on hard heavy ploughing and had to crawl 1km back to car on hands and knees with a deer in the sack on my back
Forgot wellies so had to go in trainers in the mud
Locked keys in car and had to get wife to bring spare set

I’ve forgotten boots.

Stalking in thick summer vegetation (nettles and all) in sandals is not recommended.

I’ve left my sling behind once or twice. Workable, but makes glassing a bit of a challenge.

Walking back to truck one time, got to the last gate, patted the pocket where I keep the keys. Nothing. Panicked. Spent 3 or so hours painstakingly re re tracing my entire route searching. No sign. Eventually gave up, and walked back to the farm yard. Was just getting my phone out to call my wife to drive the 2 hours out with the spares. Looked up to see the keys still in the door of the truck…

Spent an evening sitting out for a roe buck. Never showed. Entertained myself pinging things with my new rangefinder. Two days later, went out again. Couldn’t find the rangefinder. Eventually realised what had happened. Went back to where I’d been sitting the previous outing. There it was, neatly lying on the wall where I’d left it. Buck showed 2 minutes later!

 

[Pine Marten]

@Pine Marten

Oh God, it's still too raw, man... All right, I'll try.

So I have been stalking with W_G regularly if infrequently for over a decade now, but it would be fair to say we've been going through a bit of a tough patch of late. By of late, I mean since 2019, but as I said I don't go that often. Nevertheless, we've been out seven times since then, and we always see plenty of deer, just not generally the right one in the right place, or unapproachable, normal stalking troubles, and there was the time where it all came together and I missed because it turned out my drilling didn't like my 4 Stable Sticks. But this week, this week I went back, this time trying for a roebuck. At about 8pm, we spotted a lone roe about 400m away at the edge of a field of wheat. We walked down to the top corner of said field from higher up the opposite slope, peered round the corner and now there were three: two does and a buck couched in the grass margin. They were perhaps 250m away, and there was nothing for it that to attempt a long crawl along the hedge, hoping to keep out of sight, under the skyline. So down the slope we went, round the corner so they disappeared from view, keeping the faith that the deer wouldn't spot us. As the rifle repeatedly slipped off my back and I sweated and told myself that somehow, all the running isn't helping with speed-crawling, I remembered that my little Harkila rucksack had an attachment for just this situation. Anyway, heads down, move forward. Bottom of the slope, back up the opposite slope, round to the left, just under the skyline... W_G stops, cautiously peers over the stalks of wheat: "He's still there. About 40m".

I started to think about how I was going to line this shot up but he we go, an epic stalk to end the dry run! And then....

BRRRRRMMMMMM! And "Dave" almost ran us over in his quad bike. "Sorry" said Dave. "You guys are really good at stalking, I NEVER saw you! I hope you come here often. By the way there's loads of fallow in the other field".

This is known as a Berkshire Standoff. Nervous forced grins, three armed men, upper lips so stiff they seem the result of a botched Botox injection. But in the pit of the stomach, in the darkness of the soul, there was a silent scream.

No Christmas card for "Dave".



I've cut out "Dave" and only left W_G's rictus. I didn't deliberately make that face, turns out that was the facial expression I was wearing.

 

[Jon P]

Use jungle formula on my ankles once when stalking for a weekend , two hours from home, had a reaction to the chemicals, spent most off weekend sat in one seat with no shoes and socks one as feet had swollen at itching like hell.

 

[Andyquadra]

Come on @Stalker1962 I'm sat comfortably awaiting your post

 

[Stalker62]

Come on @Stalker1962 I'm sat comfortably awaiting your post

Do you know…I cannot recall any day, ever, when it never went to plan…

 

[willie_gunn]

Oh God, it's still too raw, man... All right, I'll try.

So I have been stalking with W_G regularly if infrequently for over a decade now, but it would be fair to say we've been going through a bit of a tough patch of late. By of late, I mean since 2019, but as I said I don't go that often. Nevertheless, we've been out seven times since then, and we always see plenty of deer, just not generally the right one in the right place, or unapproachable, normal stalking troubles, and there was the time where it all came together and I missed because it turned out my drilling didn't like my 4 Stable Sticks. But this week, this week I went back, this time trying for a roebuck. At about 8pm, we spotted a lone roe about 400m away at the edge of a field of wheat. We walked down to the top corner of said field from higher up the opposite slope, peered round the corner and now there were three: two does and a buck couched in the grass margin. They were perhaps 250m away, and there was nothing for it that to attempt a long crawl along the hedge, hoping to keep out of sight, under the skyline. So down the slope we went, round the corner so they disappeared from view, keeping the faith that the deer wouldn't spot us. As the rifle repeatedly slipped off my back and I sweated and told myself that somehow, all the running isn't helping with speed-crawling, I remembered that my little Harkila rucksack had an attachment for just this situation. Anyway, heads down, move forward. Bottom of the slope, back up the opposite slope, round to the left, just under the skyline... W_G stops, cautiously peers over the stalks of wheat: "He's still there. About 40m".

I started to think about how I was going to line this shot up but he we go, an epic stalk to end the dry run! And then....

BRRRRRMMMMMM! And "Dave" almost ran us over in his quad bike. "Sorry" said Dave. "You guys are really good at stalking, I NEVER saw you! I hope you come here often. By the way there's loads of fallow in the other field".

This is known as a Berkshire Standoff. Nervous forced grins, three armed men, upper lips so stiff they seem the result of a botched Botox injection. But in the pit of the stomach, in the darkness of the soul, there was a silent scream.

No Christmas card for "Dave".

View attachment 319908

I've cut out "Dave" and only left W_G's rictus. I didn't deliberately make that face, turns out that was the facial expression I was wearing.

The sight of a couple of grown men weeping and wailing is not a good one!

 

[Donkey Basher]

Did you know that a .222 Remmy 700 bolt fits nicely into a Remmy 700 .308 rifle? Neither did I but I do now - just don’t ask how I know or how far apart each was when I needed the other one….

The exact same thing can happen with a Tikka T3, or two as it happens… a 308W & 223Rem.

Fortunately for the chap concerned he discovered that when his rifle wouldn’t extract a fired 223 case but not before he’d removed the bolt & asked me if I could see anything wrong with it - yep, it was a 308 bolt

 

[Foxyboy43]

The exact same thing can happen with a Tikka T3, or two as it happens… a 308W & 223Rem.

Fortunately for the chap concerned he discovered that when his rifle wouldn’t extract a fired 223 case but not before he’d removed the bolt & asked me if I could see anything wrong with it - yep, it was a 308 bolt

Yep - it can and does happen. An early discovery I my friend made with my his Mosin Nagant is that it will chamber, fire but defo not extract a .308 Winchester - no great shock when you see the size of rim on the 7.62x54R. Interestingly at 100m the POI was pretty close - apparently….

 

[Foxyboy43]

Do you know…I cannot recall any day, ever, when it never went to plan…

Normal for your age - the inability to recall anything, anytime, anywhere….

 

[Confidis]

.223 and .308 tikka T3 lite bolts are interchangeable. The ammunition however not so much .

 

[Camelfarm]

Returning to the car empty handed and pi$$ed off after hours and hours fruitlessly going around the ground (didn't see a thing that day) and used the blipper thing to open the boot of the car - forgetting a weird and totally stupid security feature on the bloody vehicle.

Put everything in the boot and slammed it shut, the double bleep locking sound went off when I slammed the boot - the security feature is that when you open the boot only on the blipper rather than the whole car it locks and immobilises when the boot is shut - no problem, reached into the trouser pocket only to find no keys - they were in the jacket pocket......in the boot..........locked.

Mrs CF had to drive 1.5 hours on a morning to bring me the spare. got a b0ll0cking for wasting her time, and then a second one for no venison.

I have lost count of the number of times I've had to cut a stick from the hedge because I forgot my sticks

Two occasions of arriving with no ammunition

One of arriving with no rifle

One of arriving with no binos (although two decent bucks that day with the naked eye).

 

[bottletopbill]

I'm only humane after all a great song for shooter's

 

[Mungo]

Oh God, it's still too raw, man... All right, I'll try.

So I have been stalking with W_G regularly if infrequently for over a decade now, but it would be fair to say we've been going through a bit of a tough patch of late. By of late, I mean since 2019, but as I said I don't go that often. Nevertheless, we've been out seven times since then, and we always see plenty of deer, just not generally the right one in the right place, or unapproachable, normal stalking troubles, and there was the time where it all came together and I missed because it turned out my drilling didn't like my 4 Stable Sticks. But this week, this week I went back, this time trying for a roebuck. At about 8pm, we spotted a lone roe about 400m away at the edge of a field of wheat. We walked down to the top corner of said field from higher up the opposite slope, peered round the corner and now there were three: two does and a buck couched in the grass margin. They were perhaps 250m away, and there was nothing for it that to attempt a long crawl along the hedge, hoping to keep out of sight, under the skyline. So down the slope we went, round the corner so they disappeared from view, keeping the faith that the deer wouldn't spot us. As the rifle repeatedly slipped off my back and I sweated and told myself that somehow, all the running isn't helping with speed-crawling, I remembered that my little Harkila rucksack had an attachment for just this situation. Anyway, heads down, move forward. Bottom of the slope, back up the opposite slope, round to the left, just under the skyline... W_G stops, cautiously peers over the stalks of wheat: "He's still there. About 40m".

I started to think about how I was going to line this shot up but he we go, an epic stalk to end the dry run! And then....

BRRRRRMMMMMM! And "Dave" almost ran us over in his quad bike. "Sorry" said Dave. "You guys are really good at stalking, I NEVER saw you! I hope you come here often. By the way there's loads of fallow in the other field".

This is known as a Berkshire Standoff. Nervous forced grins, three armed men, upper lips so stiff they seem the result of a botched Botox injection. But in the pit of the stomach, in the darkness of the soul, there was a silent scream.

No Christmas card for "Dave".

View attachment 319908

I've cut out "Dave" and only left W_G's rictus. I didn't deliberately make that face, turns out that was the facial expression I was wearing.

Who exactly is ‘Dave’??

 

[Hook'N'Bullet]

I was heading out one early morning last year. Like many, spend most of the previous evening organizing gear, lunch and devising a plan of action. I made sure the rifle was in good working order, gave it a once over with an oily rag etc. Got up the next morning, packed up the car and off I went on an hour and a half long journey to a piece of ground. Long story short, I got to the location, put my gear on, bino harness over the head, sticks out of the car and suddenly realised, I left the rifle in the slip, sitting on the kitchen table. Had to get back in the car and drive back.

What was suppose to be an early morning hill stalk turned into an evening as a result. Felt like a real plonker

 

[Pine Marten]

Who exactly is ‘Dave’??

That is obviously not his real name. He was utterly within his rights to drive around there on his quad for professional purposes.