Muntjac

[Redgum]

Sometimes you just wished you'd stayed in bed. My biggest permission were I have two high seats is not being very productive at the moment so I decided to check out another piece of ground. Its a small permission, around 15acres but its part of a 1200 acre woodland that has had its stalking rights sold off to the highest bidder if you know what I mean.

The ground that I can shoot( I also do all the bunny control) belongs to small company that sells hedging/small trees and of late the local Munties and the odd Roe have been helping themselves. The ground is situated on the side of a heavily wooded hill, a highseat is not needed for two reasons, firstly the ground is steep so no worries with backstops as long as your shooting uphill of course and secondly the under canopy of conifer is so low that a highseat would put you in it.

Well the morning started badly, for some reason the battery on the truck was just not floating its boat so I fumbled about in the freezing cold with the quick charger then retreated back to the coffee. By the time I arrived at the permission it was half seven and getting light, as the pigeons clattered out of the trees I was wondering if it had been worth crawling out of my bed at 6am. The leaves on the floor were well frosted so moving silently was near impossible but eventually I sat in my position on a limb of a huge fallen beech. My heart raced several times as I heard some might beast heading in my direction, only to see a rabbit. Two hours of sitting motionless in the freezing cold was taking its toll, time to go home.

Then, in the corner of my eye I saw movement, a Munty sized shape was slowly creeping out of the brambles only 20yds away directly behind me and the tree trunk. The buck moved into the open facing me,one move and he would be gone. Luckily he moved behind a tree allowing me to swing the gun and myself to the rear and resting over the tree trunk, but in doing so I caught a twig, snap. Now the buck was in full view again,head up and looking straight at me, any second I would hear a few barks as the animal bolted away with his tail held high.

Very slowly I sunk my head behind the scope and all I could see was a slightly out of focus( he was 15yds away now) Munty head. It was now or never, the moderated Remmy 243 echoed through the trees.The buck dropped on the spot with just a gentle rocking of a hind leg. The 100grain homeload had hit almost directly between the eyes and exited out of the back of the head. He would not have felt a thing, not even panic.

 

 

[stripey999]

We had the same happen to us woth a fox last night, trying to walk quietly through frosted leaves then at the last minute spotting it behind us! Good write up and nice picture there redgum. Well done.

[ollie]

Good result and good write up. Well worth getting up for.