A wildlife walk with the Daystate Huntsman

[Acuspell 329]

Having gone up to Scotland and back for work I had to get a few hours to myself. I took both Fly and Tigs, my lurchers, with me, they needed to get out and do some hunting too. The boys have taken them for walks, but only in the park or up the drovers' road. The Huntsman had a full gauge and I took a pouch of pellets just in case the squirrels were out in force, I hoped.

 

The wood I intended to shoot is about 400 acres, but is mostly larch. At one end there is a good mix of hardwoods, beech, oak, chestnut, ash and sycamore with a good scattering of holly amongst to give cover. The chestnuts and oaks are like magnets to the squirrels and the wind we have had recently means there are plenty of chestnuts on the ground. The leaves are thinning now too, thanks to the frost and wind, so it is finally possible to actually see things in the trees, rather than just where they are by the swaying of the branches!

 

I pulled the car into the pull in and we set off. I didn't wear any camo, just a nice wind proof fleece, moleskin trousers and a boonie hat which is multicam. I got given a Mossy Oak buff the other day and had that round my neck to pull up as a face mask. I soon found that the buff is useless, when I tried to use the binos (absolutely essential for successful stalking) the buff simply directed my breath straight onto the eyepiece lenses and they steamed up - back to the old scrim scarf! Using a good pair of binoculars will put more game in your bag without a doubt. They allow you to dissect the trees,one branch at a time, and you will see that nose sticking out from behind a branch, alerting you of a squirrel that would be impossible to see with the naked eye. It happened to me as we entered the wood. So as to take the edge off the dogs I went the other way first, just for a walk and to stretch their legs. They had free run and could dive through the small copse and go across the stubble in search of a hare, or partridges to their hearts content. After 15 mins I whistled them in tight and we entered the wood in the corner, very slowly and quietly. When I am 'still hunting' it might take me 15 minutes to cover as many yards, only moving from one shadow to another and ensuring I don't break a twig or brush against a branch - the branch moving will immediately be picked up by any eyes and then they will see you! Next time you are out, just notice how your eye is immediately drawn to a fluttering leaf or other movement. The branch moving is usually the first indication you spot of the whereabouts of a squirrel, that or the movement as it scampers through the branches, either way, it is the movement that catches the eye first then the detail is filled in. The same with sound, especially on a windless day like today. A scrunch of a twig will be heard for 50 yards all around alerting everything in the immediate vicinity.

 

A couple of paces into the wood and I started glassing the trees. We were on a bank and looking down on an old, gnarly chestnut. As I scanned the trees a Greater Spotted Woodpecker hunted for insects in the high branches of an ash that has been struck by lightning, judging by the holes drilled all over the upper branches it is a regular hunting ground for him.. He flitted across to an oak and was in view for a good few minutes, tap-tap-tapping away. Wonderful. It calmed me down and I began to work the focus on the binos to use the differential focus to isolate things - you beaut! A squirrel was hunched up on a branch below me sunning herself. I crouched and sat the dogs with a whisper and hand held upright. They dropped to the sit as I inched forward to the nearest tree as a leaning post. I wound the scope up to 14x and measured the range with the front focus on the scope. 35 yards. I took a breath and as I let air out of my lungs the first, stage already taken up on the trigger, the first mildot holdover dropped onto the squirrel at the shoulder. I held my breath momentarily and tightened my grip on the stock. The shot went away and there was a solid thump as the sound of the pellet driving home came back to us, knocking the squirrel clean off the branch. I hissed the dogs forward and they shot down to where it had fallen. As they got down there, from the left by just 20 yards a fallow buck hauled himself out of his bed in the bracken. Tigs forgot the squirrel! he grabbed the buck, a big, old very dark buck, he didn't get hold by the throat though, he grabbed him by the hind leg and the buck turned and lifted him into the air with his antlers. Tigs howled, but as he landed he went straight back in, but instead of driving in, he stood off at bay and started barking. Fly is too old to get involved with such antics. I was within 10 yards of the buck when Tigs moved it an dhe came right past me, not 2 yards and had I been fitter I would have dived on it - but I am still crook so I called Tigs off and the old buck just trotted about 50 yards away, before turning and looking at us. Then he just walked off into the woods. I don't think he is long for this world from his behaviour. I wish I had a camera with me. That was that corner of the wood knackered though. We walked through to another corner with some favourite sitty trees and where there are some squirrels. The sun was on this corner too so I was hopeful. We laid up in a natural hide set in a tall holly and waited for an hour. NOTHING. Not a pigeon, not a squirrel. We did have a pair of ravens come over and there were goldcrests, long-tailed tits, coal tits and blue tits working in the tops and on some firs 20 yards ahead, so I had plenty to keep me occupied. Without the bins I wouldn't have been able to see the golden stripe above their eye, or the pinky colouration of the long-tailed tits - it is amazing the difference a GOOD pair of bins make. Mine are Zeiss 8x30Ts that I got from that auction on the www, cost me £120 and worth treble that. Small, neat and incredibly bright. Don't buy nasty cheap binos - using them is like looking through frosted glass in comparison. Bide your time for when a good pair come up at the right price. These were made in 1986 according to Zeiss records of the serial number, so they still have a couple of years of the 30-year gurantee to run. Zeiss are worth every penny, but I am not sure I would pay the 10x the price a new pair would cost, but for a couple of hundred quid, they are a superb buy. How much do you spend on a telescopic sight that only gets used for shooting - i take the binos all over the place, so they get a lot more use, even when fishing.

 

I decided to make a move as there was so little doing and we went off to another wood. There were some pheasants going up to roost and I hoped to get one or two - but they are wily and I didn't see where they went up, with their cackling. They are there for another day. 10 young fallow came out on the silage field and I was downwind so able to watch them for a while. Moving slowly and quietly well back from the edge of the wood, they didn't know I was there. As I stood, trying to coax a Jay in with my magpie call, a pigeon flew in and landed on a ash on the outer edge of the wood. I managed to find a bead through the branches and planted a .20 FTT through its heart and lung area at 2 mildots range. It tumbled out with a thump as it landed. I left it be as it was dead as mutton. It took another half hour before I added a second from the same tree, but I disturbed a handful that had sneaked in without me seeing or hearing them. Crafty blighters! As I went to collect the woodies I kicked up the first woodcock of the season - again from only a gun length in front of me. A very small bird too, but it is time to buy more cartridges and take the 12 out for a walk round and some flighting. Just after that another squirrel ran through the tops and I swung onto it, kept going and as it ran along a straight branch I swung through and fired. The pellet struck home just behind the shoulders and stopped it, it tried to scrabble up a branch, struggling, but a quick repeat to slide another pellet in the breech finished it off. I collected my fallen pigeons, the second one had burst its crop on impact with the ground, a big ball of clover had fallen out, giving a clue as to where they are feeding. A nice way to end an exciting, if not terribly productive afternoon. Total tally, 2 woodies and 2 squirrels, plus half a fallow buck!

[big napper 3,659]

nice morning out that mate, wish i could have done something like that this morning, but had to work,, ah well maybe on sunday, hopefully.

[villaman 9,982]

Nice guns the huntsman

[j j m 6,627]

Enjoyed the read mate