Cam-S94

Absolute cracker Les, nicely done!

I've been a bit quiet on the shooting front lately, what with University etc, but when dad mentioned the prospect of helping out one of his friends with the Fallow cull I jumped at the chance and sorted lifts home for the weekend. An early start this morning saw 3 suspicious looking vehicles meet in a service station in the depths of Berkshire and we soon set off to the grounds. Neighboring estates were all out as well trying to get a few more deer in the chiller. It started slowly, with just countless family groups of Roe passing the highseats of each gun, and safe they were as it was the Fallow we were after. 2 or so hours passed, I was convinced I was frozen solid to the highseat it was that cold and then it happened. Watching a stoat through the scope, I looked up to see 11 Fallow does already half way across the field I was to cover taking me completely by surprise. A quick shuffle round and I was tracking them in the scope waiting for them to stop and go broadside. Not looking like they were going to stop I shouted and held on the lead doe. She was quartering as she looked at me so I placed the shot further forward than normal and squeezed off the shot. With a good reaction to the shot, and the rest of the deer standing there looking a little shell shocked, I cycled the bolt ready to take number 2. A combination of cold fingers and excitement caused me to tit about too much and the deer skipped off through the hedge and into safety. By this time the doe I had shot was wobbling around and was soon down about 50m from the shot of impact. A long drag across a drilling soon had me warm again and it was time for some photos. The other guns had fared much the same, lots of Roe seen but the Fallow proved a little more elusive with just a handful down. I don't know if my dad's friends get on here but I'd just like to say thanks so much to them anyway for a brilliant day. The deer was shot through a Ruger VT in .308 and the gralloch showed very little left of the lungs.

Nice buck, and looks like there's another in the background!

Behind the hen wigeon at the top of the photo in the middleish.

1-Cock Teal 2-Duck Pintail 3-Wigeon 4-Wigeon 5-Wigeon, Teal, Pintail and Lapwing's (<--- Obviously not a duck though)

I agree, they look like young maggots. I have seen the same on several pigeons in Bucks, Oxfordshire and Bedfordshire. Certainly in the UK already if it is a parasite.

Well done mate, good shooting. Every morning when I wake up and see the boiled out head of the buck I got a few weeks ago, I get a shudder of excitement. Hopefully that'll be the first of many for you now, well done once again. Cheers, Cameron.

Ruger VT .243 with a Schmidt and Bender 10x42 scope and an 87grn v-max.

Cracking weekend guys and good photos.

Cheers mate and well done to you to on your first. No doubt the bug has bitten as well. Thanks for all of the other comments on this thread as well, much appreciated.

Just asked my dad about the cones as he is pretty good with trees. Apparently there are a lot of coniferous trees that have purple cones, a few examples being Japanese Larch, Ground Fir, Noble Fir. Like others have said above, I'd put my money in Larch.

Thank you for the replies. That is indeed me in the picture. He does have a very nice head with large brow points and quite an even head. I should think, that if he had a bit more weight to his antlers he would be pushing medal class, but medals don't bother me. I'm afraid this one won't go into sausages and burgers, we are gonna have the loins, and the rest will be shared between the farmers that let us shoot, as a way of saying thanks. We still have a lot of sausages in the freezer from deer from earlier in the year. Thanks once again, Cameron.

Last year I shot a buck on a permission near us but we never found it. It got into some conifers and despite us going back in there for the next 3 days we couldn't find it even with our 2 spaniels which are pretty good on deer. I was heartbroken. We'd spotted a buck on the same spot as the first one and despite us going out several times at the start of the season, we couldn't find him. Last night we were on another nearby permission and shot a fox and I said to dad I'd like to have another look for the roebuck we'd seen or a munty which are abundant near us but a ****** to get. We arrived about 20.00. We parked up for 5 mins to have a look before I went for a walk down the hedge to a gap where we can see on the neighbouring farm where we'd also seen the buck in March. As I got down the hedge I could hear whistling so I span round to see dad and my brother waving me over with the buck stood 100m in front of the truck. I ran up the hedge whilst dad grabbed the gun out the slip and put it on the bipod. I got down on the bipod and found the buck in the scope stood perfectly broadside. I aimed half way up his body just behind the shoulder and squeezed off a shot. I saw him lurch forward in the scope and he ran off with his head down around the corner and disappeared out of sight. I was very nervous and shaking as I thought I may have pulled the shot with how he reacted. We gave him a couple of minutes and went to look. As we went around the corner, there he lay. I was so relieved, yet ecstatic at the same time. We slowly walked over and he kicked once but we checked his eye and he was dead. I hadn't paid much attention to his head in the scope as I knew from past sightings that he was a goodun and I thought buck fever may kick in if I dawned on it too much. He was beautiful looking, almost in his full summer coat and with lovely long brow points. As dad went to get the truck I looked him over. It was obvious he was a bit of a scrapper, with only half an ear on one side and his other ear split in half. He also had several scars all over his body. Plus he'd been causing a lot of fraying damage to young trees which we saw when we got there. We gralloched him on the field where the fox earth is, and we are gonna sit out for them tomorrow. It's a shame he wasn't much of a stalk but there you go. I couldn't care less and the stalking bug has most certainly sunk his teeth into me. Deer was shot with a Ruger VT .243 with an 87grn v-max and a 10x42 Schmidt. The bullet destroyed the top of his lungs and took out one of the main arteries connected to his heart. He made about 30 yards from the site of impact.

Barley all day long. Wheat is good as well but barley certainly works best in my area.

Mine (on the left) is a Beretta Skeet Vest and my brothers is his tweed game shooting waistcoat. Without looking I dunno what make it is but there are lots out there at quite reasonable prices. We wear them as they are good for gun mount, especially when you have a few cartridges in the pockets to weigh it down a bit. Also, nice and light for in the summer. Hope this helps. :look:

Had a good day on a large field of oat drillings at the weekend. Despite shocking conditions for pigeon shooting, we managed to bag 75 woodies, 4 ferals and a crow after a pretty poor start for my brother and I. We went on to connect with some very good birds and gave the dogs plenty of work. The day started pretty slowly but the breeze soon picked up and with some dead birds in cradles and a bird on the bouncer, the birds decoyed lovely with a couple of groups of 20 coming in with their pants down.

75 on oat drillings. Running total = 5189

Here is a picture of a pure white crow that my dad shot out of a brood of 5 when he was just 16. The taxidermist gave it red eyes however when alive it had blue eyes. It was pure white, it just looks a little sandy due to 30 years of dust. We are going to clean it up and put it in a case. I hope you like it...

Sunday night = 4 teal and 5 mallard between 2 ponds. Last night in a different area we had 25 mallard, 10 teal, 2 gadwall and a pochard and these were on frozen ponds. Lost another 5 mallard as well. So a very good end to the season. 143 cock birds and partridges today, little walk about yesterday and now it's all over for 6.5 months. Pigeons, carp and deer here I come...

We use Eley Bismuth's in 5's, these still aren't mega cheap but they kill well. My mate once shot a box off by accident on driven pheasant and he was folding them up at 50 yards so they certainly kill well.

Well last season we had 106% returns on our syndicate, however we do have 2 neighbouring shoots, one puts a lot down and the other outs none down. This year we are only at about 70% but we are still very pleased with this. we have got 2 more shoots to go so could get to around 75% I suppose. All the birds we out down are pheasant, sorry but I can't add about how to hold them. We just make sure the feeders always have food in and we do do a fai bit of blanking in for each driv through young woodland.

Well done mate. My best is 6 in one day = Pheasant, pigeon, woodcock, mallard, teal and gadwall. On this particular day, betwwen the 5 guns we had 12 species = Pheasant, F partridge, pigeon, magpie, snipe, woodcock, rabbit, canada goose, wigeon, mallard, teal and gadwall. Nevertheless, well done mate and good shooting.

1000 yards certainly is a long way, but after a few times shooting / seeing people shoot at that range it has started to not look as far as it first did. My dad has shot 1000 yards at Diggle in the Pennines (picture on the first post) for about 7 years now with his Factory Rifle = .243 Remington 700 and his best group has been 7 and a bit inches which is considered very good shooting with a factory gun at that range. What I will say is that from my experience of spectating, the wind plays a massive part in the grouping the gun shoots. I've seen people shoot 4 bullets in about a 3 inch circle, only for the wind to suddenly change and the 5th bullet to fly off about 15 inches from the rest. Dad and I use the same rifle for deer, foxes, rabbit, etc but the furthest I have seen dad shoot out to on deer is about 350 yards. Some may not like what I've just said but I believe that if you are confident with your gun and confident of hitting the target area then there is nothing wrong with this.

Cheers for the post mate. Dad shot there a couple of seasons ago and had an absolutely brilliant day on the partridge. However, the estate have started releasing a lot of pheasant and dad says it just isn't the same. Although it turned out very good for myself on the last drive, the 5 drives before that were pretty poor in all honesty. The partridge were very sneaky (which is to be expected) but the pheasants didn't want to fly. In many cases they came through the line about 3 foot off the ground which is a shame as the land has the potential to show very good birds and it has done until recently. Cheers, Cameron.

My dad was the only one shooting a 12 bore with Fiocchi Golden Pheasant pheasants and he killed birds upto 60yards with them on the day. I personally shoot a 20 bore and so does my brother and if you are referring to the 80 yarder I shot at out of desperation, I was using 25g No.6 High Pheasant cartridges which I must add are **** on anything futher than about 35 yards. I found this out after hearing the pellets pass through pheasants wing feathers on 2 occasions, yet the bird did nothing.