Stalking Woes

[ColinBr]

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

 

[tozzybum]

Drove to Malcs in West Sussex from up ere 6 hours ,opened my bag n went ffs .
My ammunition was still locked in the safe at home ,praise be to Kent wool growers .
Luckily they were open Saturday morning so mr tit could redeem himself.

 

[Sol]

I shot a stag last year during the last 20 or so minutes of shooting light, waited another 20-30 minutes since we werent too sure of the shot and given the fading light a second shot if it ran off wasn't a possibility.
Forgot my gators that day.

Got the stag gralloched and my friends cut the head off claiming it would be easier (all honestly, would of been easier keeping it on) welp little 100lbs women holding probably a 40lbs head In one hand, a torch in the other making myself over the bog... in the darkness... with a stag being pulled at quick speed behind me.
what did I do? right into probably 3ft of mud and a stag almost over the top of me.

Not my proudest moment, got taken the **** off after I was more filthy than the guys that just gralloched said stag with blood all over them... thankfully I was home like 3 hours later.

 

[Overlay]

Drove to Hampshire from kent to a friends place to find a roebuck, on opening said rifle case the bolt is still nice and secure in the gun safe at home FMOB
The donk here had to borrow his rifle - he's still taking the **** now after a quite few years, every day's a learning day !!!!

 

[gixer1]

About 10 years ago, spotted a cracking buck about 300 yards away at the bottom of a field, it was summer so long grass and open fields, there was a flattened section of grass at a higher point in the field so I thought I’d do a sniper-esque crawl for about 150-200 yards and get a nice clean shot….crawled all the way panting and sweating my nuts off through 2ft high grass…as I was crawling the binos kept dragging and getting caught up so I put them on my back to stop this….

Took ages but I got all the way down, cracking position and started setting up the rifle for a shot off a bipod, the scope had a long sunshade type extension and as I set the rifle up the binos fell off my back, swung round on there strap and hit the scope sunshade and it honestly sounded like a bell being rung “ding”…..the buck took one look and f*cked off into the wood never to be seen again…..I just sat and laughed at myself and how big a tw*t I felt….

 

[ColinBr]

About 10 years ago, spotted a cracking buck about 300 yards away at the bottom of a field, it was summer so long grass and open fields, there was a flattened section of grass at a higher point in the field so I thought I’d do a sniper-esque crawl for about 150-200 yards and get a nice clean shot….crawled all the way panting and sweating my nuts off through 2ft high grass…as I was crawling the binos kept dragging and getting caught up so I put them on my back to stop this….

Took ages but I got all the way down, cracking position and started setting up the rifle for a shot off a bipod, the scope had a long sunshade type extension and as I set the rifle up the binos fell off my back, swung round on there strap and hit the scope sunshade and it honestly sounded like a bell being rung “ding”…..the buck took one look and f*cked off into the wood never to be seen again…..I just sat and laughed at myself and how big a tw*t I felt….

That's brilliant

 

[ColinBr]

@Jimmy muir
I'm sure you have 1 to tell??

 

[bottletopbill]

We can all take the P but we all forget something.
As the other half states we can't multi task.
But switching gear from range shooting to stalking and rough shooting.

Pack once check three times Happy Hunting

 

[splash]

I bought two pairs of identical boots so when one pair was wet I had a dry pair.
Early one morning on arrival at the stalking area I put my pair of boots on only to find I had picked up two right boots three hours walking and stalking taught me a valuable lesson in checking my kit

 

[ColinBr]

I bought two pairs of identical boots so when one pair was wet I had a dry pair.
Early one morning on arrival at the stalking area I put my pair of boots on only to find I had picked up two right boots three hours walking and stalking taught me a valuable lesson in checking my kit

Brilliant

 

[lochty]

Out the hill at a mate's place, many years ago, we set out for an early go at stags. Drive up the hill road in the landy, spot a group not too far away, so stop, jump out and set off after them. We'd got about 100 yards from the landy when the alarm went off, and so did the stags....

 

[Dunwaters]

Drove down in the early morning, .270 in the case and 6.5 ammo on my belt.
Oh how I laughed.
I keep 5 rounds of each hidden in the car ever since.

 

[Phil fox man]

I shot a row buck ,a couple of year's ago near colne.found I'd lost my knife somewhere! ( found it at home ).
I carried it back to the vehicle and all I could find was a rusty old Stanley blade in the back to grallock it with.
after I'd finished I looked like I'd been on a picnic with Hannibal lecter .
always got a knife in the truck now.

 

[bullet chucker]

Many years ago now I remember a Friday night after work we all met up to vermin shoot rats with the air guns, Saturday AM' all meet up again for an hours drive for rough/vermin shoot, on arrival mate cries out OH'f'#;^ I look round to see him holding his pellet gun! did not swop over to the 12 bore.

BC.

 

[Mungo]

I shot a row buck ,a couple of year's ago near colne.found I'd lost my knife somewhere! ( found it at home ).
I carried it back to the vehicle and all I could find was a rusty old Stanley blade in the back to grallock it with.
after I'd finished I looked like I'd been on a picnic with Hannibal lecter .
always got a knife in the truck now.

I’ve done variations of this several times!

Knife left at home. Knife left in truck etc…

Most recently, I’d treated myself to a rather nice custom knife. Came to gralloch, and found it wasn’t on my belt. Long story short, after many hours of searching, I found it. The loop on the sheath has given up - only secured with a very flimsy rivet. Very pleased to have the knife back, less pleased by the crappy sheath and the gralloch with a flattened cartridge case…

 

[Ratel]

Done the. Bolt thing a couple of times after driving 50miles. Trying a nice 6.5x55 one day and I had checked the zero. Shot a Fallow buck which entered a blackthorn thicket. I crawled in after reloading with safe on. The buck stood and I could see the shot was a little low, safety off, squeeze, click, off goes buck. As the.bullets were long 160gr I had ejected the spent case but hadn't pulled the bolt far enough back to pick up a fresh round.
Thank goodness for snow, it took two hours to get him with two of us working the odd blood spot on a light snow covering. I had a horrible feeling about that for a long time.

 

[bogtrotter]

I shot a row buck ,a couple of year's ago near colne.found I'd lost my knife somewhere! ( found it at home ).
I carried it back to the vehicle and all I could find was a rusty old Stanley blade in the back to grallock it with.
after I'd finished I looked like I'd been on a picnic with Hannibal lecter .
always got a knife in the truck now.

Never need be stuck with out a knife a bullet case will do a gralloch at a pinch just flatten the mouth a couple of stones will do that.
You will find it sharp enough not long enough to bleed a beast so you just need to.bleed it through the diaphragm not a big hardship.

 

[willie_gunn]

@Pine Marten

 

[WH308]

I’m sure we all have plenty, TW that stick in my mind though.

Out in the middle of D&G after Roe, we were up early and got to the ground only to find my buddy who was shooting that morning had left his Tikka magazine back at the cottage. I ribbed him for ages that my Howa floor plate was so much better as nothing to forget. Fast forward a couple of years and we are out stalking again, and I forgot my bolt…..

The second one was after taking a fallow buck in some barley, I managed to drag him to a mown and rowed up grass field that I could drive into with the truck. Quick suspended gralloch and put him in the truck, driving back to the yard I could hear an odd swishing noise from the truck. I looked under neath to see that I had grabbed what looked like a full row of grass, which was now tightly wrapped around the rear prop shaft, diff yoke and centre bearing. I took me over an hour to cut it off with my spare truck knife!!

 

[Foxyboy43]

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….