Tuesays outing, full story plus piccies.

[Brithunter]

Hi All,

Thpought you might like to see what was shot and what we saw, so here you are:-


My pair, a young Buck & Doe, Doe at top!


Bucks head

Does head


Another young pair




This is what Muntjac look like at 300 yards!

I drove up first through fog which turned to drizzle then the last 20 miles through sleet and snow! Arrived at Cliffs at 06:45 and went in for a cuppa, we got ready and left as the light was breaking, it was fairly light by the time we got into the wood but as we rounded a corner on the ride(accesstrack) to go the final 350 yards to the hich seat which we would be using this morning, there was a Muntjac Buck feeding on the edge of the ride about half way to the seat. We sneaked up the edge of the ride till we were about 120 yards from him.

Cliff glassed him and said he's a young Buck take him, now do you want to do it prone or do we try to sneak across to that tree to use as rest, I decided to go prone and use my day pack for a rest. Trouble is the ride is not level and as he turned broadside and still moving as he fed, he started to go just into a small dip, Cliff squeaked him and he stopped to look up, I squeazed the trigger and down he went, but I saw a cloud of spray or something come up, well I reloaded and we approached the Dead buck and found to my dismay the bullet had gone high and broken his back, there was a whole cloud of hair from him. I can only assume that the bullets flight was affected by the closeness of it's flight to the ground on the rise in the ride about 15-20 feet in front of the Buck.

Any way we left him where is lay for the moment and carried on to the seat hoping for the chance of a Fox, but moments later a Doe appeared to our left, after glassing her it was a go and I shot her at about 120 yards, a clean lung shot, she turned and ran the 20 feet to the edge of the ride where we found her nose first in the ditch on the edge to the woodland, didn't see any Foxes, although we sat for an hour then came down to retrieve te carcases and clean them for the larder. this is the first time I have ever shot two Muntjac Deer on the same outing let alone so close together.

At about 15:00 we returned to the wood and disturbed a couple of Deer getting into the high seat, saw 9 deer but only two offered a reasonable shot and one was a suckilng doe, the other crossed the ride to quick for anything other than identification as ashootable small Buck. A good day none the less!

Edit_ Whoops got the days mixed up with the holidays and all

[Bucktales]

Congrats Kevin, looks like you had a great hunt. I still say those are cool looking critters.

[Shorthair]

Sounds pretty cool cuz. Those are some odd looking little dudes. I bet they eat pretty good don't they?

[flhuntress]

what a way to end a year...congrats...and they are funny lookin' critters...do they taste the same as a whitetail?

[Biggie]

Congrats! Those guys are just too cool.

[Brithunter]

Hi All,

Yes they tatse a bit similar to Whitetail, perhaps a bit milder, and it has been a fitting end to a wonderful hunting year ;D The down side is that I may never be able to hunt there again the woodland has been sold and the new owners have then broken it up into small blocks and been selling them for recreational use, so the chances of getting permission or a lease from all the new owners is next to nothing.

Most of them are town dwellers who are probably against hunting, they are certinly foolish as they have paid about 5x what the woodland is worth commercially but even if the shooting rights have not been sold with the woods, the chances of te Deer remaining with al the disturbance that will be most likely no is very small. Cliff is gutted about it, after all the years he has put in maintaining the woods as a good habitat for the widlife, he has quite a few Woodcock there as well, Brown Hares by the score but al that effort is now to be wasted

Although he has other ground to shoot over, it's not local like this one which he has known since a child being a local lad it also means my days will be different, we always had breakfast after the mornings outing then often wnet visiting the local gunshops or out workers that he knows which is alway fun then a real wonderful dinner in the evening before I start off for home, now that will not happen as the other shoots are too far away form where he lives to do that anymore The end of January we will find out for sure whether he still has a lease on it or not and what it entails, so fingers crossed

[hunt4fun1]

What does on of them critters weigh on the hoof?
How much meat do you get out of em?

Looks like a whole on would fit in my smoker.

[GAPORKCHOP]

yep those are neat looking. What caliber gun do you use on them?

[Treedog]

Great story and sounds like a blast.

[Brithunter]

Hi All,

Well I boned the doe out mostly, I did not bone the hind quarters nor the front shoulders, although I will bone the front shoulders later. I will cook the hind quarters as roasts which is why I have left them as is just taking the lower legs off at the joint, and I have ended up with 10lbs of meat in the fridge, now the hide, head and the backbone+ribs weighed in at 8lbs, so this Doe weighed 18lbs cleaned so she would have beem about 21-22 lbs on the hoof I guess. Yes these are small Deer! which makes shooting them challenging at times and always fun, stalking them in woodland is neigh on impossible as you can't see them most of the time!

Calibre well I used my 7x57mm BSA CF2 rifle with handloads of 139 BTSP Hornady bullets at about 2850fps, more than is needed yes but it works. You have to use a minimum of .240" calibre by law which must produece 1700ftlbs muzzle energy in England and Wales. Scotland has different laws and stipulate a minimum bullet weight of 100 grains for all deer except Roe deer where you can use .22 centrefire with minimum bullets of 50 grains producing 1200ftlbs muzzle energy and 2450fps velocity.