A Cold Mornings Stalk

[kip270]

Sorry it’s a long account.

 

Made a phone call to my mate to see if he was free this week for some Deer Stalking, but with the recent weather we have had, the two Severn bridges being shut on Friday through till Saturday I was hoping the weather would get a bit warmer.

The bridges were shut again on Tuesday morning, not sure if it was because of the weather or an accident, but if they were going to be shut again in the week, my stalking trip would be out.

“How about Thursday morning, be here for 6am†so an early start was on the cards as it’s an hours drive to my mate’s house.

 

The weather here has improved, a lot of the snow has gone, but as I drove over the bridge and got to Bath turn off, the fog set in and from what I could see there was still snow on the ground and it was like being in another country, there was still roughly 8-10 inches of snow, and the roads were dodgy, glad I got my little Suzuki Vitara in weather like this.

I got to my mate’s and the fog was gone thank goodness, so we loaded up his Land rover and headed off for the estate, we were after Roe Doe’s and any Muntjac we came across, but with all the snow still on the ground Stalking anything was going to be tricky, especially since the snow had a crust on it, making it crunch under foot no matter how gentle you tried to be.

So the plan of action was I would make my way to the high seat, while my mate would do a clockwise stalk and come back down a ride on the left hand side of the high seat, and hopefully any Deer in the area would make their way towards me.

 

Thankfully my mate hand some thick camping foam for me to sit on (I left mine in my car!!!), so I safely climbed the ladder and got into the seat and waited.

There were a lot of tracks in the snow below me, ranging from Roe to fox to squirrel, so there was plenty of life in the wood.

A movement caught my eye to my left, a Hare was slowly making it’s was through the wood, and then about 30 yards beyond that another one, I spent a few minutes watching them, and then a squirrel made an appearance in the tree next to me, off to rummage in the snow for some snacks.

It was nice to be sat there watching the world go by, and the animals didn’t have a clue I was there.

After roughly half an hour a movement caught my eye in front and to my left, I got the bins up and scanned the area, but couldn’t see anything between the trees, so I kept the bins trained on the area, and waited, then it moved, but I could only see its legs. It was a Roe, but was it a Buck or a Doe, so I followed it until I could identify what sex it was, then I could see clearly it was a Doe.

She kept stopping, but there was always a tree or a branch in the way so I couldn’t take a shot, then she stopped 70 yards away with only her head and neck showing, but kept looking to her left, so I scanned with the bins and there was a nice Buck following her.

I checked her again in the bins, and could see a clear way through for my shot, so I settled the cross-hairs and was about to take the shot when I could hear something running through the snow behind me.

Looking to my right a Roe Doe was making off, but to try and get a shot I would have to twist around slightly, which I did hoping the Doe would stop for a shot, but it didn’t.

I then looked to my left and could see my mate making his way towards me with a small Muntjac, I signalled to him to stop, but he thought I was just letting him know I saw him.

I signalled again and pointed to the Doe, and he stopped and waited, I picked up my bins and checked her again, and she was in the same spot, so I settled the rifle and put the cross-hairs on her neck and waited for the right moment, then squeezed off my shot, “Thwack†the bullet found it’s mark and the Doe dropped on the spot, I cycled the bolt and out another round in the chamber and checked she was down, after a few kicks she stopped.

I emptied the chamber and slowly made my way down, my mate had managed to bag another Muntjac further up the ride which we would collect on our way out of the wood.

We got back to the Land rover and slowly drove along the track on our way out, I had my rifle with me (UNLOADED) hoping to spot some more Muntjac, then about 30 yards along we spotted one up in the wood 60 yards away. I got out and chambered a round and snuck to the back of the Land rover, I could see the Muntie in the ride, it was looking at me, so I placed the cross hairs on its shoulder and squeezed off my shot, I saw it drop at my shot, I put another round in and walked up to where the deer was a Doe.

My shot had not entered where I aimed, the deer was facing the other way to what I thought, due to the low light in the conifer trees, it looked as if it was facing me but in fact it was facing away from and looking back at me, it was a raking shot, but resulted in a kill, it was a female, I carried out the gralloch and put her in the back of the landie.

 

Off we went again, when we spotted another one in front of us, coming from the left to our right and into the wood, so I was off again on a stalk, but this one had different ideas, and gave me the run around. I carefully watched it, and it walked behind a tree and I was ready for when it reappeared on the other side of the tree, but after 5 minutes nothing, so I checked with my bins and couldn’t see anything, so gave up and got back to the landie again.

We moved only 10 yards when my mate spotted the Muntie, so off I went again, trying to slowly stalk it, but the crunchy snow wasn’t helping, but I slowly made progress, but the Muntie was moving between the trees and not stopping for a shot, so I slowly made some ground, and lost sight of it again behind some fallen branches.

I kept still and then it came into a clearing, 40 yards away, I had to take a free standing shot, at my shot I saw another Muntie run to my right!!! I was sure my shot was good, so chambered another round and made off to where the Muntie was when I shot, and after 10 yards I could see it laying on the ground, another Doe, so the one I saw run off was a different one.

Cleaning this one out I got back to the landie and off we went again, then at the end of the track we spotted another one, 70 yards away and looking at us, I got out, chambered a round and took the shot of the bonnet, shooting it in the neck. We drove up the track and I went over and collected the Muntie, another Doe, and one of it’s front legs was missing, but was a nice fat Doe, so having only 3 legs had not made that much of a difference.

 

 

So a great day out with 1 Roe Doe and 5 Muntjac Doe’s.

[shot shot]

great write up and some excellent deer. what calibre were you using?

 

all the best

[Spaniel]

Looks like you had an excellent day, I was up that way yesterday and was surprised of how much snow was still around.

Were you up Lansdown way, as i know there is quite a bit of stalking what goes on up there,

 

Cheers

[kip270]

great write up and some excellent deer. what calibre were you using?

 

all the best

 

.270

[magman]

Well done kip

[Holland&Holland]

Congratulations, enjoyed reading that.

 

Myself and two mates of mine are going to Suffolk on a swaphunt for muntjac in March. My british hosts are coming in the end of March for wild boar to Germany. Will be fun.

[Pedro]

Excellent write up, sounds like a great day out

 

P.

[shootingmagpie]

Great write up.Enjoyed reading it and it sounds like a good day out.