Redgum Posted March 18, 2012 Report Share Posted March 18, 2012 Had arranged to do a stalk for my DSC2 with my local Acredited witness for Saturday evening, as I left home, running late due to work, the rain lashed down and I had almost cancelled. I had made apologies for time change and it was decided to see what the weather was doing when we got to the farm that was lined up for the stalk. Well the clouds parted and it looked like being a almost perfect evening even though the evening was slowly slipping away. We decided to check out a small strip of woodland that I have shot fallow on before,but it did not look very promising so after half an hour we decided to move to a larger piece of woodland. We had surveyed the pasture below the woodland earlier driving through and for years there has been a white plastic sack stuck in the fence at the edge of the wood,it always draws your eye to it through the bino's. As we pulled into a gate way I scanned the woodland fringe and low and behold the 'white sack' had sprouted legs, was it the light or me being tired, but no it was 'another white sack' this one being very much deer like, followed by a much darker shape. Without chance to make a plan my AW said 'grab your gun'. Before I knew it I was trotting up behind the hedge, there wasnt much time as the light was fading fast. The deer were up hill, about half a mile off and the hedges sparce plus I had to get through three hedges and creep across two wide gateways, being in view of the deer. As I had started the stalk the AW had locked his discovery with a door open so off went the horn, I scanned the deer, they still had their heads down but now about seven in number. Each time I crept past a gateway I scanned the deer, when I was down to 200yds there were now at least 20.The closing stalk was on me belly and eventually I crawled through the final hedge and all its nettles. The deer had been moving toward me and I was surprised how close I was to them, maybe 80 to 100ys. I clicked off the safety on my Tika 308 picked a doe that was the mmost side on and squeezed the trigger, the 150grns of lead was on its way. Twack, the herd ran a short way and stopped to see why one was just standing there. I had already recycled with the cross hairs on the deers shoulders but with what seemed like forever she dropped and with afinal kick of the hind legs was dead. The AW decided it was better to take the deer the short journey back to his barn and do the grollack as by now it was pretty dark, so I bled the deer and we dragged it back to a point where he could get his truck. I have never grallock with the deer on hooks before but it all went really well, brilliant evening, and I nearly did go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silver pigeon 3 Posted March 18, 2012 Report Share Posted March 18, 2012 Well done mate, sounds like a really good evening Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ackley Posted March 18, 2012 Report Share Posted March 18, 2012 (edited) well done for managing a sucessful stalk,but a couple of questions if i may ask,I always thought the AW was there only to observe,he told you to grab your gun,didnt follow you on your stalk and told you to gralloch in the barn which you should have made that decission. as to suspended grolloch I always try to do it that way as gravity will always help,I have a climbing rope system with 2 rings attached will will hoist the largest deer up in the air Edited March 18, 2012 by Ackley Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redgum Posted March 18, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 18, 2012 well done for managing a sucessful stalk,but a couple of questions if i may ask,I always thought the AW was there only to observe,he told you to grab your gun,didnt follow you on your stalk and told you to gralloch in the barn which you should have made that decission. as to suspended grolloch I always try to do it that way as gravity will always help,I have a climbing rope system with 2 rings attached will will hoist the largest deer up in the air Not quite right Ackley, your AW can help you on certain things but you must ask for the help,when he told me to grab my rifle it was as ' you better get moving and I will catch you up when I've locked my vehicle'. The reason the suggestion was to take the carcass back to a more suitable place was so he could visually see what I was doing and ident the apropriate nodes,glands etc, common sense I would say, aging an animal with a mobile phone aint the easiest when your covered in blood. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ackley Posted March 18, 2012 Report Share Posted March 18, 2012 Not quite right Ackley, your AW can help you on certain things but you must ask for the help,when he told me to grab my rifle it was as ' you better get moving and I will catch you up when I've locked my vehicle'. The reason the suggestion was to take the carcass back to a more suitable place was so he could visually see what I was doing and ident the apropriate nodes,glands etc, common sense I would say, aging an animal with a mobile phone aint the easiest when your covered in blood. I see,maybe you should invest in a head torch,the petzel zip car plus is a great item to have in your pocket and can aid working on a carcass in pitch black,I didnt realize you could ask an AW for help,is this something new thats been brought in Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redgum Posted March 18, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 18, 2012 I see,maybe you should invest in a head torch,the petzel zip car plus is a great item to have in your pocket and can aid working on a carcass in pitch black,I didnt realize you could ask an AW for help,is this something new thats been brought in Not sure if its something new as this is the first time Ive done me DSC2 . The AW can assist if asked eg lifting a carcass, you could ask him to shoot the deer if you screwed up but I think this would probably invalidate the stalk . As you said, hes just a witness and his notes are put down, the Accessor makes the final decision and he, or in my case she, could just send it all back and make you do a few more if not satisfied.To be honest I could have grallocked the deer in the field but as it was not far from base it was easier for him to observe me cable tying things off and identifying lymph glands in the grallock. I think it says something in the DSC1 notes that if your not far from the larder its always best to grallock there due to contamination from external sources.DSC or not it was still a brilliant stalk and had the heart pumping, probably a tad more testing than pointing a gun at a park deer and shouting bang as has been mentioned on DSC2 stalks on this forum before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ackley Posted March 18, 2012 Report Share Posted March 18, 2012 (edited) Not sure if its something new as this is the first time Ive done me DSC2 . The AW can assist if asked eg lifting a carcass, you could ask him to shoot the deer if you screwed up but I think this would probably invalidate the stalk . As you said, hes just a witness and his notes are put down, the Accessor makes the final decision and he, or in my case she, could just send it all back and make you do a few more if not satisfied.To be honest I could have grallocked the deer in the field but as it was not far from base it was easier for him to observe me cable tying things off and identifying lymph glands in the grallock. I think it says something in the DSC1 notes that if your not far from the larder its always best to grallock there due to contamination from external sources.DSC or not it was still a brilliant stalk and had the heart pumping, probably a tad more testing than pointing a gun at a park deer and shouting bang as has been mentioned on DSC2 stalks on this forum before. I understand the lifting of a carcass or the passing of the rifle over an obsticle,but the advcie to deal with the carcass threw me,never mind it been a long time since I did mine so iam sure things have changed,yes when the heart is pumping is great its tells you your still keen,when it dosnt its time to pack up.had the old ticker going tonight a lovely row doe 160 yards off on a salt lick,watch it untill dark then went home,I dont shoot does this time of year but still nice to watch best of luck with your next couple of outings Edited March 18, 2012 by Ackley Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redgum Posted March 19, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 19, 2012 I understand the lifting of a carcass or the passing of the rifle over an obsticle,but the advcie to deal with the carcass threw me,never mind it been a long time since I did mine so iam sure things have changed,yes when the heart is pumping is great its tells you your still keen,when it dosnt its time to pack up.had the old ticker going tonight a lovely row doe 160 yards off on a salt lick,watch it untill dark then went home,I dont shoot does this time of year but still nice to watch best of luck with your next couple of outings Once again Ackley, suggesting we moved into more apropriate place to carry out the grallock so the AW could see what I was doing is hardly giving advice on how to deal with the carcass and was soley to make sure the process was carried out correctly. Hat off ta ya for sticking with the olde season on does, Natural England stop at end of Feb. I would much prefer bucks only now but the landowner wants the does cull so............. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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