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Walked a mile or so in to an area at the top of a hill that looks down into a low area at the side of a wood which seems to attract roe, and sure enough there were a couple of roe a few hundred yards down the right hand edge of the wood.
The grass is thigh high at the moment and so good cover - as the wood is basically looking up a hill into open fields from where the deer were which makes itreally hard to stalk into when the grass is short, so I began the hands an knees crawl through the grass for around 100 yards to a good firing position of a tree with a post next to it I often use.
On getting there I realise the grass is heavy with pollen and me, the rifle, my bino's and everything else are covered, and my eyes are swelling and the old sneezy feeling is building up
I see a doe and a young'un at the side of the wood and with the rutt there's sure to be a buck, but then I notice a for on the left edge of the wood which makes this even harder as I now have 3 pairs of eyes looking for me and I know there could be a buck unseen in the grass anywhere nearby..
Doe to the right (you can just see her to the right of the wood about 5 yards out)
And the doe to the left of the wood -
Zoomed in -
I decide to head for the right hand side by crawling through the long grass about 50 yards to a stone dyke on the edge of the field the Doe and young'un are in, crawling a few feet at a time then stopping still as she lifts her head to look around until she puts her head down again.
after covering about 15 yards the buck comes into view from the grass to the right of the doe and he is looking in my direction - I stay still until he looks the other way and then keep crawling slowly through the grass to the wall keeping an eye on the doe and buck, and also the doe to the left of the wood!
On getting to the wall I peek over and see the buck walking around the Doe and young'un and looking around every now and then, I get ready to take the shot but the sneeze breaks loose and I cover my mouth and nose with my gloves to stifle the sneezes.
At this point the buck is looking and the Doe heads for the wood at a walking pace with the young'un and buck following, after a couple of minutes the doe appears again and walks right out to the centre of the field with the buck cautiously following and about 80 yards away - I slowly get up and rest the rifle on the dyke but the buck is facing square onto me looking around, he turns to the right and takes a couple of paces -BANG! And the buck takes a few more paces and falls.
The doe is looking around but doesn't know where the shot came from so I get back behind the wall, I then give the bino's a wipe and have a look at the doe on the left of the wood to discover the hayfever blurry eyes and pollen covered bino's his the fact that this Dow was actually a buck!
I crawled out into the field but as I have no sticks and nothing to lean on there is no real sturdy rest and the buck is over the 100 yard mark so I try lying with my bino's under the rifle but the grass is too long - so I crawl forwards a few yards to flatten the grass then move back lying prone with the rifle rested on the bino's.
BANG! And the buck drops on the spot...
A fantastic enjoyable stalk with my heart pounding due to the distances crawled and the fact so many eyes were looking for me...two nice healthy bucks were the result although buck number two's shot caught the shoulder slightly so there was a fair amount of meat damage...
The two together with buck 2 at the top after dragging them to the edge of the wood -
Buck 1 -
Buck 2 -
Regards,
Gixer
Edited by gixer1, 01 August 2012 - 11:32 PM.
