Key skills needed
1) patience - easily practiced - just get out into wilder areas and move slowly and watch lots. You will find after a while as your eyes and ears get attuned you will see all sorts of animals and birds. If you are not seeing things or more hearing you are making too much noise. Learn to walk quietly and smoothly. Don’t thump you feet, but roll your feet.
And get the patience to study the small things - the prints on the ground, bent grass, rubbing on sticks etc.
Most deer are found by a flicking ear or a turn of an antler.
And learn to do this with naked eye first before starting to use binoculars.
2) following on from above you need to get really good at identifying deer, and what is in season, out of season, old, young etc.
3) a really good understanding of deer anatomy and in particular position of heart and lungs. Plenty of good pictures but you need to bring this into three dimensions. The family dog is very helpful and try to understand how a bullet will go through the vital organs etc.
4) shooting. Get yourself an air rifle and learn to shoot it well. A simple break barrel is more than adequate and you can shoot it lots and lots for pennies with (Scotland no quite so much) minimal paperwork etc. Joining a rifle club is good, but shooting a rifle on a range is not the same as in the field. Skills with an air rifle transfer to a proper rifle.
5) safety. 4 simple rules
1) all guns are always loaded. Even if empty they are loaded. - Simple. No ifs no buts, they are loaded.
2) never point a gun at anything you do not want to destroy. - again very simple - if the gun goes off it destroys what is in line with the barrel. If you can’t see the muzzle - how can you control where it is pointing?
3) always clearly identify your target AND what is behind the target. Follows on from point 2. A rifle bullet will go through a 1 foot thick plank of wood, and will go five miles.
4) only put your finger on trigger when sights are aligned with target and you are certain of what is behind the target.
And knives are sharp and cut easily, and deer, especially reds are big and heavy, and you are in wild places on broken and steep ground on your own or just one or two others. You don’t need to be very far away, but a simple slip, break of a leg, bad weather etc.
6) learn to think ahead and plan well. A lot happens when stalking and buck fever takes over leading to very poor decisions. Planning and reconnaissance (especially using Maps, google earth etc) is seldom waisted. Indeed just taking five minutes and looking at a landscape and working out routes, backstops, extractions etc is seldom waisted.
7) sense of humour and optimism - get enjoyment and pleasure from the small things. Stalking is not about killing deer. Its about selecting a specific animal and taking it in an ethical and sustainable manner. Squeezing the trigger is just one point on the journey.
8) and learn to butcher and cook. Nothing gives greater pleasure than serving up venison steaks or a venison biryani to your friends and family that has your involvement from the initial deer management to the plate and then to your morning constitutional the following day.
