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The hard way


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On my tod down in Dorset this weekend to work on the cull at my new permission which surrounds the 12 acre patch I started with 10 years ago. 

I was in my old high seat at 6 to be ready for dawn. There has been some muted whistling first thing but it’s still a little early for the rut here. When it was light enough to see the reticule I  decided on a quiet stroll alone the tracks and rides towards where the sound came from. 

After a few hundred yards I had the feeling I was being watched. Scanning with the bins I saw something that looked like two white antlers tips. Rubbing my eyes and looking again it became obvious that they were indeed antler tips and were attached to a sodding great stag. He was slightly quartering towards me and it was obvious he was on the verge of flight so I got the rifle on the sticks as quick as I dared, ran the bead a touch right to account for the angle and let him have it. Whomp! He turned and ran but the shot looked and felt good. I have him ten mins and then went to find the strike spot, convinced I’d find a large slosh of blood and him be close by.... Wrong! 

The only sign I could find was a scuff on the ground where he’d cut a divot as he turned away, no paint, no pins. After 20 mins or so I eventually found a tiny drop of blood which made no sense at all given the shot placement which I was positive was good, anyway, followed the drip here, drip there and marked each place with some blue kitchen towel. After over 100m to my enormous relief I found him, dead, and he was a lump!

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The drag to my truck back was slog as I ended up going 80m out of my way as lost my bearings but getting him in the back of my Landy was the next level! 52kg in the chiller which involved a clear-and-press type lift onto a rail above my head... I was in bits afterward!

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After a spot of lunch with the landowner it was back out for an evening wait up at another permission which is hilly to say the least. The stags has been pretty rangy here as the grass is in such poor condition after the hot summer so I picked my spot, got comfy and waited for one to wander past. 7pm and a young staggie did just that keeping to a hill top headland of gorse above the field I was in. The sheep that were in my field were a total pain so the approach was tricky but eventually I got to within 120m of him and was relieved when he dropped on the spot at my shot. 

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I got him up and over the fence and left him ungralloched as there as a little light left and there was another promising spot around the corner.

Nudging round the corner of the field I didn’t even need to bins to see a big black shape far off at the far end of the next field. It was working towards me fortunately so I put a scrubby bush between us and made my way to a high spot which would allow me to take a prone shot that would still clear the wire fence. At 140m he stalled and started browsing. Light was fading and I didn’t want him running so I went for a high shoulder shot and bang, straight down. This chap was too heavy to chuck over the fence and I was shagged from the other two so I dragged it a few meters at a time along to a gateway, gralloched it and went to get the truck which was miles away.

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More fun and games lifting them into the Landy, then out again at the game dealer, and then up onto that bloody chiller hanging rail. As rewarding as it was I can truthfully say I’ve never been so happy to get home from a days stalking - It felt like I’d done everything the hard way and I was exhausted. 

Out again this morning to the first place as I’d left my sticks leant against a tree and I saw a couple of hinds and a few does. Nice to stretch my legs in the nice cool wood and I wasn’t disappointed at not having to drag anything back  this time.

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2 minutes ago, forest of dean redneck said:

Fair sized beast ,?

He was mate - I found the bullet just under the skin on the other side. Hardly any expansion at all. Absolute shite! I was very lucky to find him. I cut it out and it’s in my truck somewhere so if I find it I’ll put a pic up.

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5 minutes ago, C.green said:

First one is a good beast well done. 

 

Out of interest when does there rut normally start and are they as aggressive with each other as the other deer ? 

It needs a good chill to get it cranking, mid October ordinarily but maybe with this high pressure and clear night sky’s the temperature will get down enough overnight a little earlier. I’ve never seen two stags fighting but shot plenty with damaged antlers so guess they must have a fair knock about.

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After reading that Matt I had to have a lie down ?..The days of dragging them by hand are long gone ..I’m just having a coffee ready for the start over my place after a summer of events ..had a drive through yesterday and even with the fellas pulling down the last of the marquees we see 120+ laying out in the sun mid afternoon ..

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1 hour ago, Yokel Matt said:

Good numbers about then. Hopefully their familiarity with people after the summer will make the start of the cull a little easier.. until they get too switched onto it. 

Had a couple of hours before the lads turned up , beautiful morning , but to many little bunches of deer and typically anything that I wanted to shoot was either impossible to get at ,no backstop or in the couple of fields out of bounds , one buck that did present what would have been a fairly simple seventy yarder was a four year old with a nice symmetrical head , nice bit of palmation good size but with precious few quality bucks about I let him walk by ..all last years master bucks we’re rubbish including a white one the estate owners thought was wonderful, it was in fact a lop sided and undersized buck that wouldn’t have stood a chance had any of the year befores master bucks managed to survive , which sadly they didn’t ..9BEE3C3E-F3ED-42D0-A2C3-513B448F01CB.jpeg.4971b67413423565ff3519c7d77999f7.jpeg

two years before this was taken he was within a second of getting culled but turned away just in time and after that I never got another chance ..He’s the owners family favourite so if he returns he gets left unfortunately...I’m hoping a decent buck or two turns up to push him out ..

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What a beauty! I guess judging the quality of stock in an area comes with experience. The biggest (come to think of it only) fallow I’ve ever shot was the fella currently adorning my cutting room. Was a big deal for me at the time but not even fit for dog chews compared to that one!

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He’s actually a poor beast Matt , if he had a matching pair he would be a tidy buck , but one antler has a huge fishtail and is much smaller , his one saving grace is he’s white and the family like him , !    I’m really hoping he dosen’t make it back this year , he will only ever breed his like , the four year old I see this morning has the potential to be much better .Ill try and find a pic of one of the big bucks from a couple of years ago , they make him look like a spotty teenager.?

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Here’s one , it’s a little blurred because it was taken on the iPad while sitting on the quad , he just stood there as a

i did a little vid of him , I drove off after a good three or four minutes watching him ..he wasn’t the best that year but I was hoping he would make it back last year , sadly he never ..

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66kg is - biggun! This fella wasn’t very old and I think his best years were ahead of him but with a forestry grant in the offing its more about the numbers at the moment. I think the biggest I’ve had here was 58kg.

Would like to see a pic of your stag when you have a chance ?

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