Another Melanistic Tonight

[sussex 5,776]

Was over the pheasant shoot today helping out on the day , the birds flew brilliant even though it was clear blue sky and warm , so well in fact we had the bag and some a touch earlier than expected ..With my help no longer needed I fancied the deer would be out early as well , catching a few rays in the afternoon sun ..Drove home a tad faster than old boys normally drive and was indoors 45 min later at 4 ..with the quad on , dog and gun I was back over the same place as yesterday on the Ashdown forest ..parking by the offices we crossed the early morning field with the intention of getting down to the back field were I managed a couple yesterday ,and get to a new highseat I'd put up after I finished with the deer .

As we worked through the tree line we nearly bumped a small bunch of doe's just coming into the field from our right , we stopped for twenty minutes to let them move off , sat behind a big oak they had no idea how close we were and we had no idea a pricket was ten yds away from us until he walked out of the bracken , the gun was behind me on the bipod and I couldn't move to pick it up , even if I had there was bracken between us so wouldn't have got a shot , he sensed something wasn't quite right and trotted down to the doe's who were filtering down the field .Once he was clear we carried on out of the trees keeping low we got to the banks of a new pond were I decided to lay down on the raised bank and see if I could get a chance at the pricket about 150 yds away but by the time he was clear and the shot was safe they were 240 + , I let him walk , staying put twenty min later a dozen or so doe's and fawns came out to my left at about a 100 m , at ease they started grazing then two or three all turned to look at the opening ....out walked a little melanistic pricket , just the job ! Quick look through the range finder 112m ..the 6.5 is zeroed at 100 ...of the bipod , red dot on the chosen spot , a crack instantly followed by a loud hollow thud ...it never even twitched ..checked to make sure and back for the quad and gralloching kit ..small animal it went just 64 lb in the chiller ..the other pricket is the one from yesterday that I couldn't get on yesterday's post ...

[beast 1,884]

very nice. what weight are you averaging for prickets? the prickets i have been culling for the past month are around 35kg, whilst the 2 year olds are about 45kg. these are in one of the herds i manage, i havent started on the others yet

[Rabid 1,936]

Glad to see the 6.5 still doing the business Rich

[sussex 5,776]

Beast , the prickets , in fact most of the deer tend to be lower than weight than on my other places , most of the other farms are arable so the deer tend to pack on weight a lot better than this place , the average weight of prickets is about the same as yours 35k or 75lb .. These are the first two outing this year on this permission as they do a lot of events and I have to wait for clear days .

[beast 1,884]

Beast , the prickets , in fact most of the deer tend to be lower than weight than on my other places , most of the other farms are arable so the deer tend to pack on weight a lot better than this place , the average weight of prickets is about the same as yours 35k or 75lb .. These are the first two outing this year on this permission as they do a lot of events and I have to wait for clear days .

 

yep, one of the other herds shoot will be about 20% more than this group, i am expecting 40kg+ from prickets, and as you say they get on the crops. i have found that those on winter rape in particular tend to do very well, same with chinese water deer