Post by Brithunter on Jan 28, 2004 9:31:27 GMT -5
Hi All,
Yesterday, Tuesday that is, I went up for a days hunting to my friends Cliff after some Munjac Deer. The weather here has turned cold, frost and they keep threatening us with snow, but we will have to wait and see if their right on that one. Monday finished work at about 22:30 and drove home to take the dog out and then get to bed, the alarm was set for 03:40:eek it's just over 100 miles to Cliffs place and I was supposed to be ther by 06:15.
Well things got off to a bad start, couldn't find my new hat:rolleyes so I finally picked up my stuff and put it in the car with the dog and set off, now only having an hour and a quarter to get to Cliffs having only about 4 hours sleep. ignoring the sped limits a little put on the Motorway at 05:08 and I set a crusie speed of 85-90 MPH, all went well until juction 13, damned roadworks again>: slowed me down so once I got clear 5 miles later I sped it up again and held this criusing speed most of the way till we had to come off the M-Way onto lesser roads. Got to Cliffs 15 minutes late, but it's still pitch black:p
So after the normal chat and cup of tea we head out to go to the car, it's still dark so he decides, well we stil have another 20-30 minutes still so another cup of tea is in order:lol . So after more tea and chat, it's again out to the cars and off to the woods a few miles away, as we drive up to the entrance gate, Ricky who is driving sees a nice Muntjac on a stubble field to our left about 30 yards out broadside to us. Problem No1 it's not "our" land so we continue and go into the wood, park up and get ready to stalk to the high seat which Cliff Has chosen for this morning for himself and me, Turns out it's the same one that I shot the two Muntjac out od in Decembar Ricky is off to another part of the wood to use another seat.
We have an uneventfull stalk to the seat, a distance of about 1/2 mile seeing NO deer:eek only seeing 1 Brown Hare which is unusual. Well we climb up into the highseat and wait and watch, after 2 1/2 hours in a raw wind we have seen one small Yearling Muntjac at about 175 yards for approx 45 seconds:rolleyes , lots of grey Squirrels, Rabbits and few Pheasents, so it's time to come down and stalk back towards the car. The wind and cold is keeping the Muntjac holed up in sheltered spots, this makes it very difficult being so small, when they do come out on the rides they scoot across to get out of the wind:rolleyes
So after a seeing nothing on the way back we head back for breakfast and some more hunting/gun talk and then run some errands. The afternoons outing was different, but not by much for me. We set off for the woods again this time Ricky's girlfriend is with us, on the way Cliff tells me that he is sending me off to a single seat on my own, now I normally hunt along side Cliff so this is a mixed blessing, one it tells me that he trusts me, but I still have trouble telling the younger Muntjac sexes apart, and do not want to shoot an older Doe which is not heavily pregnant so as to orphane a youngster which is unlikely to survive.
This afternoon it's colder still, the seat I am to use is not boxed in like the others but it looks over a dip leading to a gate to the field which we always see Muntjac in this area from the box tower at the rides junction, but it's too far from that seat to get a shot being about 350 yards or do, the seat I am to use is only about 175 yards away form this gate:p I get to the seat and climb up into it, problem No1 this afternoon is that the trees on the left have grown up and restrict the shot to a narrow lane, Dammit. The wind is whipping up the ride from my left and I saw No Deer, 4 brown Hares, 1/2 a dozen squirrles and 1 Male Pheasent, the wind is such that I didn't even hear the two shots fired by Cliff and Ricky:eek
Cold and now it's getting dark, I climb down busrting for a wee:rolleyes slowly stalk back up the ride to the junction where we are to meet, I see nothing except the 2 Hares which passed me a while ago in the seat. using my Binos I see a glow from the car to I head slowly towards it glassing as I go in hope of catching at least sight of a Deer, but nothing. It's now totaly dark so I approach the car using a torch and go to put my pack in the boot but can't beacuse it's got Two Muntjac Does in it!
They ask me " didn't you get a shot?" I tell them all that I have seen which them find hard to believe, I too for I have always seen Deer down that bottom dip before, I can only assume it was that wind keeping them in the thickets for shelter:rolleyes so we head home to Cliffs for some food.
When we got to Cliffs I am heading in with my pack and rifle when Ricky calls out, "have you got your keys?" me thinking he is ribbing me, because I lost my keys in the wood once! we never have found them:( but No! he wants me to take one of the Does:D so I came away with some venison after all;)
Over the meal we disscuss the day, and then the conversation turns to rifles and in particular my Medwell & Perritt which I took that day. Though Cliff has seen it and even held it before, even seen it Harvest Muntjac before. He has never closely examined it, so we go over it. Turns out he has seen a few more of them now and likes what he has seen and has even met to Husband & Wife team that make them. Me I didn't know they had gotten married even:( We also disscussed his Mannlicher GK and Ricky's Sauer 202, Ricky making lowley comments about having to buy my rifle for a low price:lol the Medwell with the handload I stumbled upon simply shoots very well, far better than he has managed with the Sauer, and he is a better shot than I am. My Medwell will shoot 1/2"-5/8 3 shot groups with 130 grn Hornady's, the only thing that put's Cliff off is the calibre as it's a 30-30 bolt action! e even disscussed the problems with re-chambering it to another cartridge like the 308, trouble is when Medwell & Perritt say it's built to order, they really mean it, this rifle is built around the Wincheater 170 grain 30-30 round. The Magazine will only accept cartridges to this length and the bolt face only accepts the undesized Winchester cases, HP wont cnamber as the rim is full size and won't fit in to the bolt face reccess:rolleyes I will ahve to speak to Medwell & Perritt about altering it.
Well I didn't get to shoot myself a Muntjac, but I brought one home, spent some time wiht good friends and got to spend to cold time out in the woods, it sure beats working:lol now when can I go again? that's the question:p
Yesterday, Tuesday that is, I went up for a days hunting to my friends Cliff after some Munjac Deer. The weather here has turned cold, frost and they keep threatening us with snow, but we will have to wait and see if their right on that one. Monday finished work at about 22:30 and drove home to take the dog out and then get to bed, the alarm was set for 03:40:eek it's just over 100 miles to Cliffs place and I was supposed to be ther by 06:15.
Well things got off to a bad start, couldn't find my new hat:rolleyes so I finally picked up my stuff and put it in the car with the dog and set off, now only having an hour and a quarter to get to Cliffs having only about 4 hours sleep. ignoring the sped limits a little put on the Motorway at 05:08 and I set a crusie speed of 85-90 MPH, all went well until juction 13, damned roadworks again>: slowed me down so once I got clear 5 miles later I sped it up again and held this criusing speed most of the way till we had to come off the M-Way onto lesser roads. Got to Cliffs 15 minutes late, but it's still pitch black:p
So after the normal chat and cup of tea we head out to go to the car, it's still dark so he decides, well we stil have another 20-30 minutes still so another cup of tea is in order:lol . So after more tea and chat, it's again out to the cars and off to the woods a few miles away, as we drive up to the entrance gate, Ricky who is driving sees a nice Muntjac on a stubble field to our left about 30 yards out broadside to us. Problem No1 it's not "our" land so we continue and go into the wood, park up and get ready to stalk to the high seat which Cliff Has chosen for this morning for himself and me, Turns out it's the same one that I shot the two Muntjac out od in Decembar Ricky is off to another part of the wood to use another seat.
We have an uneventfull stalk to the seat, a distance of about 1/2 mile seeing NO deer:eek only seeing 1 Brown Hare which is unusual. Well we climb up into the highseat and wait and watch, after 2 1/2 hours in a raw wind we have seen one small Yearling Muntjac at about 175 yards for approx 45 seconds:rolleyes , lots of grey Squirrels, Rabbits and few Pheasents, so it's time to come down and stalk back towards the car. The wind and cold is keeping the Muntjac holed up in sheltered spots, this makes it very difficult being so small, when they do come out on the rides they scoot across to get out of the wind:rolleyes
So after a seeing nothing on the way back we head back for breakfast and some more hunting/gun talk and then run some errands. The afternoons outing was different, but not by much for me. We set off for the woods again this time Ricky's girlfriend is with us, on the way Cliff tells me that he is sending me off to a single seat on my own, now I normally hunt along side Cliff so this is a mixed blessing, one it tells me that he trusts me, but I still have trouble telling the younger Muntjac sexes apart, and do not want to shoot an older Doe which is not heavily pregnant so as to orphane a youngster which is unlikely to survive.
This afternoon it's colder still, the seat I am to use is not boxed in like the others but it looks over a dip leading to a gate to the field which we always see Muntjac in this area from the box tower at the rides junction, but it's too far from that seat to get a shot being about 350 yards or do, the seat I am to use is only about 175 yards away form this gate:p I get to the seat and climb up into it, problem No1 this afternoon is that the trees on the left have grown up and restrict the shot to a narrow lane, Dammit. The wind is whipping up the ride from my left and I saw No Deer, 4 brown Hares, 1/2 a dozen squirrles and 1 Male Pheasent, the wind is such that I didn't even hear the two shots fired by Cliff and Ricky:eek
Cold and now it's getting dark, I climb down busrting for a wee:rolleyes slowly stalk back up the ride to the junction where we are to meet, I see nothing except the 2 Hares which passed me a while ago in the seat. using my Binos I see a glow from the car to I head slowly towards it glassing as I go in hope of catching at least sight of a Deer, but nothing. It's now totaly dark so I approach the car using a torch and go to put my pack in the boot but can't beacuse it's got Two Muntjac Does in it!
They ask me " didn't you get a shot?" I tell them all that I have seen which them find hard to believe, I too for I have always seen Deer down that bottom dip before, I can only assume it was that wind keeping them in the thickets for shelter:rolleyes so we head home to Cliffs for some food.
When we got to Cliffs I am heading in with my pack and rifle when Ricky calls out, "have you got your keys?" me thinking he is ribbing me, because I lost my keys in the wood once! we never have found them:( but No! he wants me to take one of the Does:D so I came away with some venison after all;)
Over the meal we disscuss the day, and then the conversation turns to rifles and in particular my Medwell & Perritt which I took that day. Though Cliff has seen it and even held it before, even seen it Harvest Muntjac before. He has never closely examined it, so we go over it. Turns out he has seen a few more of them now and likes what he has seen and has even met to Husband & Wife team that make them. Me I didn't know they had gotten married even:( We also disscussed his Mannlicher GK and Ricky's Sauer 202, Ricky making lowley comments about having to buy my rifle for a low price:lol the Medwell with the handload I stumbled upon simply shoots very well, far better than he has managed with the Sauer, and he is a better shot than I am. My Medwell will shoot 1/2"-5/8 3 shot groups with 130 grn Hornady's, the only thing that put's Cliff off is the calibre as it's a 30-30 bolt action! e even disscussed the problems with re-chambering it to another cartridge like the 308, trouble is when Medwell & Perritt say it's built to order, they really mean it, this rifle is built around the Wincheater 170 grain 30-30 round. The Magazine will only accept cartridges to this length and the bolt face only accepts the undesized Winchester cases, HP wont cnamber as the rim is full size and won't fit in to the bolt face reccess:rolleyes I will ahve to speak to Medwell & Perritt about altering it.
Well I didn't get to shoot myself a Muntjac, but I brought one home, spent some time wiht good friends and got to spend to cold time out in the woods, it sure beats working:lol now when can I go again? that's the question:p
.Sounds like a successful hunt even if you didn't bust a cap on a deer.Any day in the field is better'n work any day ;D.
