Buck and Stag

[kyle304 5]

Headed to my family's farm north of Inverness on Tuesday for a stalk with my uncle and little cousin. Leaving the house at the back of 6pm expecting not to get a shot off after 9.30pm. It was a calm dry night, but was delighted with the tiny breeze that there was, just to keep the midgets away.

 

Within five minutes of heading down track through the wood we spotted our first doe, she didn't seem to be bothered by us, so we carried on. There has been a growing herd of red deer on the ground over the past 3 or 4 years, as the land, although low ground mixed farm, is next to open hill. It wasn't long until we bumped into two hinds, who then proceeded to trot off barking towards the field we were headed for. We thought we would try anyways, and as soon as we were over the brow of the hill we could see the reddish summer coat of a roe feeding head down in the reeds. On inspection it was a doe though, so we gave a few calls with the buttolo but nothing appeared so we moved on.

 

The next field we would try involved us crossing a swampy bit of ground with a burn through it, and negotiating some gorse bushes. In doing this we now had the wind coming across us, so not completely ideal. As it happens, as soon as we had crawled under the hedge, there was a big 6 pointer buck 100 yards away, although he had winded or heard us before I had the chance to get the rifle on him and he was off. We gave some calls, however nothing was happening so we moved on again.

 

The next field has always provided my best stalking results, and in one instance 4 does in one stalk. Whenever we go to stalk this field, I always feel as if I'm garaunteed to get a result, and it didn'd disapoint however not the way I had expected. The reason we didn't just come here straight away is that I like to cover different areas of the ground,so as not to hammer the roe in one particular area. This field provides a feeding area for alot of surrounding woodland so is always a like spot. We got ourselves into position in a corpse of wood about 200 yards into the field looking on to the edge of the main wood. As there was nothing when we were scanning, I started to call using the buttolo. Although we shoot many bucks, we had never really found the buttolo effective, the only other time was when we called in a field of long standing grass and a buck stuff his head up, we had never really called one in to us. It was now about 7.45pm, prime time for deer to appear at this time of year where we were. I had been calling for about 10 minutes, and the three of us watching the edge of the wood for any signs. I gave a look over my shoulder in the opposite direction over the more open corpse and caught the sight of a buck, without the other two noticing. I quickly proceeded to adjust the bipods so I was in position. I was still calling it towards us, the closer it proceeded the more I started to feel the 'buzz'. The buck was moving steadily, not fully commiting to the call. However he had got to within 90 yards now, before he stopped dicectly facing me. I took him under the chin with the 243, dropping him dead on the spot. A medium sized buck for our area with a medium sized 6 pointer head. I guess his sex drive had sent him on to the plate haha. I was delighted with the result, as it was quite a lengthy stalk and always awarding to take something home. I was especially happy with calling him in.

 

After gralloching the buck and leaving the reamins as fox bait for later that night, we phoned for the jeep to come and get us. However little did we know we would be in for a bonus. As we left the field heading for the track to meet the jeep, my uncle spotted something on the other side of a hedge, I was thinking it was a cow that had got into a barley field, how mistaken was I. It was a large stag, the one we had been after for the previous two seasons but to no avail. My uncle stalked him and dropped him from forty yards as he was just over the hedge. WE had wanted him not only for his gigantic body mass, as he had been feeding on low ground woodland and fields, but because he had a dangerous head to other stags, big two straight antlers, so not locking antlers, he would just spike other stags to death on confrontation. The next problem we had, was how to get him home, as he must have been 20 stone dead weight. After a back breaking trek we got him to the truck, and it took the three of us, all by no means small guys to get him in the pickup. Getting him hang up was the next dilema, we had to use a pulley, and tie a rope to his rear legs and put it on the tow hook and drive away to raise the stag. The photo shows the buck next to the stag, about 6 times the size haha. All in all a great result, and good signs that the rut is on up here.

[toby1066 413]

good write up that mate well done

[bob.243 7,508]

Great write up.

[Guest stewie]

good shooting mate but why you covered you faces up when its all done legally???? you gun men are so lucky im sick to death of rats and rabbits

[LBJ 11]

Nice buck and a very good story.

Dont u have any better photos of the stag? My first impression is that its not a very old stag so it could be fun to see him a little bit better.

[Bobo 135]

It was a calm dry night, but was delighted with the tiny breeze that there was, just to keep the midgets away.

 

 

MIDGETS! Thats heightist is it not,lol. Good do though by the sounds of it.

[Yokel Matt 918]

Fantastic result - A nice summer buck and a big old unit of a Red that was a good cull. You need some space to hang em' when they're that size

[bagforthebadgers 0]

Good result there mate and a nice read too!

It's good when a plan comes together!

 

Cheers

 

BFTB

Edited August 6, 2010 by bagforthebadgers

[consett lad 43]

great report that mate well done :clapping:

[NOOK/ANNA 96]

Well done pal.

[dave1372 83]

Headed to my family's farm north of Inverness on Tuesday for a stalk with my uncle and little cousin. Leaving the house at the back of 6pm expecting not to get a shot off after 9.30pm. It was a calm dry night, but was delighted with the tiny breeze that there was, just to keep the midgets away.

 

 

Do you have alot of problems up there with midgets ? They are particularly annoying around panto season I agree .