Post by Brithunter on Dec 4, 2003 4:34:17 GMT -5
Hi All,
This was last Mays Roe stalk, I brought it over form the old forum for those who did not frequent it to see, I had to split thought to post it.
Well the day went rather well, started out when I left home with stars in the sky so no rain:p as the sky lightened behind me as I drove West some wisps of clouds started to show against the full moon. At about 04:10 whilst speeding through the sleeping village of Bisley two foxes about 3/4 grown were playing on the road, as the car approached they went to the near side/left and I slowed down some, but at the last minute they decided to run across to the right!:\ I braked and swerved but hit one at about 30 mph and went right over it. As I braked to a stop I looked in the rear view mirror to see the live one looking rather forlornly at it's still companion:\
I backed up to make sure it was actually dead and not just injured and the live one ran off into the edge, when I got out to look I had ran right over it's middle:rolleyes so it was certainly dead, I picked it up by the ear and put it in the side off the road and then continued on my way to meet Cliff:p . I found the meeting place with no trouble at all and Cliff was already waiting although I was 15 minutes early.
On the short drive to the farm entrance three Fallow crosed the road ahead of our two vehicles:D once in the farm yard we both donned wellies as it was rather wet from the previous days rain and I got out the BSA CF2 in 7x57 and got my camera bag which also has my ammo and binos in it and transfer to cliffs pick up. The drive in the pick up took us back out of the farm drive way and back up the road to another entrance to some fields where we left the truck to stalk in on foot though the fields and tracks around the woodland edges on the lookout for Deer. On our left were some more farm buildings and another farm house, we were near the boudary for our start as this was dictated to by the wind direction.
I loaded the rifle with 4 rounds, I was using RWS factory 173 grn H-Mantle for a change, as I had picked up some boxes from a shop that was closing down, and can report that it works superbly;) :lol
closed the bolt an applied the safety then put one other round in my handwarmer pocket of my jacket and did the jacket up against the wind. then we were off:D Cliff told me to close the truck door very quietly and only talk in whispers as Roe have ears like radar dishes, that thay can swivel about in all directions and unlike Muntjac are very twitchy about strange noises. So we moved off with me following Cliffs footsteps down the tack trying not to make a sound which was difficult on this part as the track has some gravel on it:rolleyes We made the first juction of the fields and glassed the field, it's edges and the edges of the woods a few fields over.
On the second or third pass over the wood edge about 200 yards away cliff spotted a Roe which turned out to be a fairly nice Buck, but also an almost impossible stalk:rolleyes so we moved on further into the estate to see what else we may spot, all of a sudden after we had gone but 50 yards, a Deer steped out of the hedge onto the track which we were on, It was a Muntjac Doe, we froze and I got a chance to put the binos on it as it turned away and went down the track away from us apparently not seeing us:p We waited a little while then continued until we could again see through the hedge and take alook at the Buck feeding, he was still there but it now seems that he was too good for me:rolleyes A price is levied by the estate for each Buck and the price goes up regarding on how good they are, due to this we needed a 4 point max for me and we were looking at a 6 pointer, not a brilliant one, but a 6 point no less;) so we moved on to continue the search for a likely candidate for me:p
After glassing a couple of more fields and only seeing a Roe Doe we were coming up to a major junction of tracks, Cliff was moving on to look at the wood ahead and for some reason I stopped by a gap in the hedge to look over toward the wood where the 6 point was feeding, but he was out of view now as the wood edge curved round and he was round the curve;) I saw a reddish blob so I put the binos on it and low and behold I had a buck in my view. Quitely I called Cliff, it took several attempts to attract his attention and I signalled him to come back and look. He was only about 5 or 6 yards in front and he came back and I pointed out the Buck which was now a bit further from the woodland edge, it must have just come out after Cliff had passed the gap and looked through it:eek
He glassed it for a while and then said well it's a good sized buck but only a 4 point that I can see from here, shall we try for it? or at least get closer so we can have a better look at it! The Buck was about 500 yards away as the crow flies:p but we would have to cover more ground to stay out of it's sight to get closer. I agreed that we should at least try and we moved off carefully and then nearly ran smack into that Muntjac Doe, she bounded off barking at us:rolleyes we thought that must be it:eek but on looking back the Buck was still feeding with his head down:b luckily for us the wind was in our favour and taking the sound of her away from him!
We waited a little while for the Muntjac to move off and then began out swing round to get up closer to the Buck, the first bit would be be awkward as we had to cross about 20 yards of open field to get behind some cover crop:rolleyes this went well and we did it whilst his head was down feeding:p now around the edge of the field and the wind was about perfect blowing almost straight into our faces:D we moved around the field and to my surprise into the next one rather than continue around the one we were in, which I thought would bring us further round to see the Buck, now we were the wrong side of a hedge to see or get at him, so I thought:o but Cliff knows his ground and we carried on along this hedge row always towards the buck and now directly into the wind:D after covering about 250 yards I could hear water running noisily in a brook and there was a fair sized Willow tree and next to that a gap in the hedge, the other side of the gap was the woodland edge which the Buck came out of:p so now we only had to stalk around the curved edge to get within a good range of the Buck which could be seen from the gaps left edge. This is where we finally glassed him and made the decision to actually try to take him, if fine condition overall he had slightly uneven antlers as one brow tine was noticably smaller than the other. Apart form that they were of nice shape and size, so we moved to the wood edge and began the final part of the stalk. Close to the wood edge we closed the distance, the gap had been about 150 yads form him but from that position behind him in the distance was a farm building:rolleyes so we moved closer and with the curve put the building to one side of him. As we were about to move I looked to my right just in time to see a head pop up out of the corn (wheat) crop:eek I slowly put the binos on it to see it was a Roe Doe, I softly called Cliff back and pointed it out to him, then we slowly moved into the gap;)
Although from a distance the curve of the woodland edge seemed a smooth one, it of course was not! and at one point it became just that a small point jutting out and that was the end of our stalking, we could get no closer but luckily we did not need to as at this point we were only 60 yards away from him:p but the problem was to get the clear shot required moving out from the edge into the field margin for some yards because of that building and the fact that as he fed he was moving also, just now he was facing away from us do we moved slowly and quitely to position. I felt uneasy about that building but Cliff quietly assured me it was OK and safe to take the shot. I must have stood with my rifle ready resting on Cliffs stalking tripod of canes for several minutes whilst the Buck fed on accasionaly looking up but not really our way and then he turned nearly broadside on facing to the right;) I had the scope recticle just behind the right fore leg and squeezed the trigger, the rifle lifted slightly in recoil and I never saw him drop:eek he went down so fast he just dissapeared:eek Cliff said good shot and as I ejected the empty case and reloaded the rifle Cliff said put the safety on and hang it on the tripod and let's get him gutted! Which is what I did, we had to get to within about 15 yards to actually see him as the growth of the grass and clover was that high.
Taken after we moved him near the stream.]
For the rest of the tale see Part 2!
This was last Mays Roe stalk, I brought it over form the old forum for those who did not frequent it to see, I had to split thought to post it.
Well the day went rather well, started out when I left home with stars in the sky so no rain:p as the sky lightened behind me as I drove West some wisps of clouds started to show against the full moon. At about 04:10 whilst speeding through the sleeping village of Bisley two foxes about 3/4 grown were playing on the road, as the car approached they went to the near side/left and I slowed down some, but at the last minute they decided to run across to the right!:\ I braked and swerved but hit one at about 30 mph and went right over it. As I braked to a stop I looked in the rear view mirror to see the live one looking rather forlornly at it's still companion:\
I backed up to make sure it was actually dead and not just injured and the live one ran off into the edge, when I got out to look I had ran right over it's middle:rolleyes so it was certainly dead, I picked it up by the ear and put it in the side off the road and then continued on my way to meet Cliff:p . I found the meeting place with no trouble at all and Cliff was already waiting although I was 15 minutes early.
On the short drive to the farm entrance three Fallow crosed the road ahead of our two vehicles:D once in the farm yard we both donned wellies as it was rather wet from the previous days rain and I got out the BSA CF2 in 7x57 and got my camera bag which also has my ammo and binos in it and transfer to cliffs pick up. The drive in the pick up took us back out of the farm drive way and back up the road to another entrance to some fields where we left the truck to stalk in on foot though the fields and tracks around the woodland edges on the lookout for Deer. On our left were some more farm buildings and another farm house, we were near the boudary for our start as this was dictated to by the wind direction.
I loaded the rifle with 4 rounds, I was using RWS factory 173 grn H-Mantle for a change, as I had picked up some boxes from a shop that was closing down, and can report that it works superbly;) :lol
closed the bolt an applied the safety then put one other round in my handwarmer pocket of my jacket and did the jacket up against the wind. then we were off:D Cliff told me to close the truck door very quietly and only talk in whispers as Roe have ears like radar dishes, that thay can swivel about in all directions and unlike Muntjac are very twitchy about strange noises. So we moved off with me following Cliffs footsteps down the tack trying not to make a sound which was difficult on this part as the track has some gravel on it:rolleyes We made the first juction of the fields and glassed the field, it's edges and the edges of the woods a few fields over. On the second or third pass over the wood edge about 200 yards away cliff spotted a Roe which turned out to be a fairly nice Buck, but also an almost impossible stalk:rolleyes so we moved on further into the estate to see what else we may spot, all of a sudden after we had gone but 50 yards, a Deer steped out of the hedge onto the track which we were on, It was a Muntjac Doe, we froze and I got a chance to put the binos on it as it turned away and went down the track away from us apparently not seeing us:p We waited a little while then continued until we could again see through the hedge and take alook at the Buck feeding, he was still there but it now seems that he was too good for me:rolleyes A price is levied by the estate for each Buck and the price goes up regarding on how good they are, due to this we needed a 4 point max for me and we were looking at a 6 pointer, not a brilliant one, but a 6 point no less;) so we moved on to continue the search for a likely candidate for me:p
After glassing a couple of more fields and only seeing a Roe Doe we were coming up to a major junction of tracks, Cliff was moving on to look at the wood ahead and for some reason I stopped by a gap in the hedge to look over toward the wood where the 6 point was feeding, but he was out of view now as the wood edge curved round and he was round the curve;) I saw a reddish blob so I put the binos on it and low and behold I had a buck in my view. Quitely I called Cliff, it took several attempts to attract his attention and I signalled him to come back and look. He was only about 5 or 6 yards in front and he came back and I pointed out the Buck which was now a bit further from the woodland edge, it must have just come out after Cliff had passed the gap and looked through it:eek
He glassed it for a while and then said well it's a good sized buck but only a 4 point that I can see from here, shall we try for it? or at least get closer so we can have a better look at it! The Buck was about 500 yards away as the crow flies:p but we would have to cover more ground to stay out of it's sight to get closer. I agreed that we should at least try and we moved off carefully and then nearly ran smack into that Muntjac Doe, she bounded off barking at us:rolleyes we thought that must be it:eek but on looking back the Buck was still feeding with his head down:b luckily for us the wind was in our favour and taking the sound of her away from him!
We waited a little while for the Muntjac to move off and then began out swing round to get up closer to the Buck, the first bit would be be awkward as we had to cross about 20 yards of open field to get behind some cover crop:rolleyes this went well and we did it whilst his head was down feeding:p now around the edge of the field and the wind was about perfect blowing almost straight into our faces:D we moved around the field and to my surprise into the next one rather than continue around the one we were in, which I thought would bring us further round to see the Buck, now we were the wrong side of a hedge to see or get at him, so I thought:o but Cliff knows his ground and we carried on along this hedge row always towards the buck and now directly into the wind:D after covering about 250 yards I could hear water running noisily in a brook and there was a fair sized Willow tree and next to that a gap in the hedge, the other side of the gap was the woodland edge which the Buck came out of:p so now we only had to stalk around the curved edge to get within a good range of the Buck which could be seen from the gaps left edge. This is where we finally glassed him and made the decision to actually try to take him, if fine condition overall he had slightly uneven antlers as one brow tine was noticably smaller than the other. Apart form that they were of nice shape and size, so we moved to the wood edge and began the final part of the stalk. Close to the wood edge we closed the distance, the gap had been about 150 yads form him but from that position behind him in the distance was a farm building:rolleyes so we moved closer and with the curve put the building to one side of him. As we were about to move I looked to my right just in time to see a head pop up out of the corn (wheat) crop:eek I slowly put the binos on it to see it was a Roe Doe, I softly called Cliff back and pointed it out to him, then we slowly moved into the gap;)
Although from a distance the curve of the woodland edge seemed a smooth one, it of course was not! and at one point it became just that a small point jutting out and that was the end of our stalking, we could get no closer but luckily we did not need to as at this point we were only 60 yards away from him:p but the problem was to get the clear shot required moving out from the edge into the field margin for some yards because of that building and the fact that as he fed he was moving also, just now he was facing away from us do we moved slowly and quitely to position. I felt uneasy about that building but Cliff quietly assured me it was OK and safe to take the shot. I must have stood with my rifle ready resting on Cliffs stalking tripod of canes for several minutes whilst the Buck fed on accasionaly looking up but not really our way and then he turned nearly broadside on facing to the right;) I had the scope recticle just behind the right fore leg and squeezed the trigger, the rifle lifted slightly in recoil and I never saw him drop:eek he went down so fast he just dissapeared:eek Cliff said good shot and as I ejected the empty case and reloaded the rifle Cliff said put the safety on and hang it on the tripod and let's get him gutted! Which is what I did, we had to get to within about 15 yards to actually see him as the growth of the grass and clover was that high.
Taken after we moved him near the stream.]
For the rest of the tale see Part 2!
