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Pest Control Diary: Deer Recovery

Pest Control Diary: Deer Recovery

My very first stalk on the does and hinds was to say the least entertaining! My problems included getting hooked up on a fence, freezing cold water up past my knees and a good poke in the eye with a branch. But I still managed to bag my first roe doe of the season before my sling broke causing me to drop my rifle on the scope. Luckily I always carry a spare gun so I was not out of the game for more than a few hours, once again proving that proper preparation and planning pays off!

END OF SEASON

The end of the season went according to plan with no mishaps in five days I accounted for a mixed bag of sika and red hinds and roe does totalling 13 in all. My two friends in the syndicate managed a mixed bag of six sika hinds and roe over ground that is very challenging; putting stalking skills and stamina to the test. Our shoot consists of about 30,000 acres with some hard stalking; however requiring more work is the carcass extraction!

This proved hard going and while these two sat it out in high seats I stalked the wood in the hope I would flush some deer in their direction. It worked with marginal success, but out of the three of us I got the largest bag and the longest drag picking my way through the thick boggy wood to the gate then returning to the wood to stalk again. After four hinds I’d had enough so we returned to the larder to tidy up the six carcasses. I was out again that evening sitting by a rock looking up towards the moor some red hinds made an appearance. I always think do I really want to do this but with the cover and dense forest you have to take them when you can then worry about the extraction later!

Resting on a rock at 200 yards I dropped one with a heart shot with the rest running for cover at the sound of the shot. Now all I had to do was to find my fallen hind. Not easy as the only marker I could use was the rock I shot from, which I had to keep looking back at for a reference. It took me 20 minutes to get to the location then another 10 to find the animal.

SOFT TISSUE AND HARD FACTS

story continues below...

The bullet had done its job making a clean entry and exit resulting in a quick clean kill with no meat damage. Truth is it’s not so much about the calibre but more about where the bullet hits as in flesh, bone or combination of both. I have found a decent 150-grain, .30 calibre bullet on roe will not expand as much unless it hits bone as it would on a larger species. This results in little bruising so good for all deer species.

I have also found that many stalkers tend to read too much about ballistics and end up getting confused. For me it’s not so much about calibre or bullet type but shot placement! As for the range a shot is normally taken between 100 and 200 yards, so if you sight your gun 1” high at 100 then you don’t have to worry about it shooting high or low as the bullet strike will be within the two inch kill zone.

The same thing goes when shooting up or down a hill a bullet won’t run out of steam going up like us 60 year olds or go faster downhill! Aim at your intended target and it will go down. However, I would advise you get to know where the bullet strike is at shorter ranges. It’s these so called easy shots that can result in a miss if you do not know these facts. Nothing more blows your confidence than to miss at these distances. I shouldn’t tell you this but I missed a fox this morning at less than 20 yards my only defence is it caught me by surprise and it was walking but at least it was a clean miss. It wasn’t the rifle or the scope it was me, and I should know where to aim, but it happens to us all.

LIFE’S A DRAG!

Going back to the problem of carcass extraction, quite often even an Argocat cannot get close enough due to unfavourable terrain, so it’s down to man power alone. Which is the reason I make a cut just big enough to enable me to perform the gralloch and no more, so interior contamination is kept to the minimum, as once you start dragging it you never know what will get inside, I also shorten my drag rope too to lift as much of the carcass off the ground as possible for the same reasons.

Though a lot of stalkers go for the full pelvis to chin cut along with legs and head off ; the only time I have done that is when I’ve had a large red that I’ve quartered up on the spot and carried off a piece at a time in a roe sack. For drag ropes I use a length of Para cord with a short piece of plastic pipe for the handle, which makes it more comfortable to haul on. It also doubles up as a leg tie for roe and smaller species allowing me to carry them over my shoulder. Also good it’s great for emergencies such as if my belt or boot lace snaps or like what happened on my first doe stalk when my sling broke and it allowed me to make a temporary one! The beauty of it is the cord rolls up so small when not in use it will fit into any pocket. Like all my equipment it’s practical and reliable with a multitude of uses. It cost me a quid from the Pound Shop and is probably the cheapest bit of kit I have but the one bit of kit that’s done the most work.

 

  • Pest Control Diary: Deer Recovery - image {image:count}

    click on image to enlarge

Pest Control Diary: Deer Recovery

Pest Control Diary: Deer Recovery

My very first stalk on the does and hinds was to say the least entertaining! My problems included getting hooked up on a fence, freezing cold water up past my knees and a good poke in the eye with a branch. But I still managed to bag my first roe doe of the season before my sling broke causing me to drop my rifle on the scope. Luckily I always carry a spare gun so I was not out of the game for more than a few hours, once again proving that proper preparation and planning pays off!

END OF SEASON

The end of the season went according to plan with no mishaps in five days I accounted for a mixed bag of sika and red hinds and roe does totalling 13 in all. My two friends in the syndicate managed a mixed bag of six sika hinds and roe over ground that is very challenging; putting stalking skills and stamina to the test. Our shoot consists of about 30,000 acres with some hard stalking; however requiring more work is the carcass extraction!

This proved hard going and while these two sat it out in high seats I stalked the wood in the hope I would flush some deer in their direction. It worked with marginal success, but out of the three of us I got the largest bag and the longest drag picking my way through the thick boggy wood to the gate then returning to the wood to stalk again. After four hinds I’d had enough so we returned to the larder to tidy up the six carcasses. I was out again that evening sitting by a rock looking up towards the moor some red hinds made an appearance. I always think do I really want to do this but with the cover and dense forest you have to take them when you can then worry about the extraction later!

Resting on a rock at 200 yards I dropped one with a heart shot with the rest running for cover at the sound of the shot. Now all I had to do was to find my fallen hind. Not easy as the only marker I could use was the rock I shot from, which I had to keep looking back at for a reference. It took me 20 minutes to get to the location then another 10 to find the animal.

SOFT TISSUE AND HARD FACTS

story continues below...

The bullet had done its job making a clean entry and exit resulting in a quick clean kill with no meat damage. Truth is it’s not so much about the calibre but more about where the bullet hits as in flesh, bone or combination of both. I have found a decent 150-grain, .30 calibre bullet on roe will not expand as much unless it hits bone as it would on a larger species. This results in little bruising so good for all deer species.

I have also found that many stalkers tend to read too much about ballistics and end up getting confused. For me it’s not so much about calibre or bullet type but shot placement! As for the range a shot is normally taken between 100 and 200 yards, so if you sight your gun 1” high at 100 then you don’t have to worry about it shooting high or low as the bullet strike will be within the two inch kill zone.

The same thing goes when shooting up or down a hill a bullet won’t run out of steam going up like us 60 year olds or go faster downhill! Aim at your intended target and it will go down. However, I would advise you get to know where the bullet strike is at shorter ranges. It’s these so called easy shots that can result in a miss if you do not know these facts. Nothing more blows your confidence than to miss at these distances. I shouldn’t tell you this but I missed a fox this morning at less than 20 yards my only defence is it caught me by surprise and it was walking but at least it was a clean miss. It wasn’t the rifle or the scope it was me, and I should know where to aim, but it happens to us all.

LIFE’S A DRAG!

Going back to the problem of carcass extraction, quite often even an Argocat cannot get close enough due to unfavourable terrain, so it’s down to man power alone. Which is the reason I make a cut just big enough to enable me to perform the gralloch and no more, so interior contamination is kept to the minimum, as once you start dragging it you never know what will get inside, I also shorten my drag rope too to lift as much of the carcass off the ground as possible for the same reasons.

Though a lot of stalkers go for the full pelvis to chin cut along with legs and head off ; the only time I have done that is when I’ve had a large red that I’ve quartered up on the spot and carried off a piece at a time in a roe sack. For drag ropes I use a length of Para cord with a short piece of plastic pipe for the handle, which makes it more comfortable to haul on. It also doubles up as a leg tie for roe and smaller species allowing me to carry them over my shoulder. Also good it’s great for emergencies such as if my belt or boot lace snaps or like what happened on my first doe stalk when my sling broke and it allowed me to make a temporary one! The beauty of it is the cord rolls up so small when not in use it will fit into any pocket. Like all my equipment it’s practical and reliable with a multitude of uses. It cost me a quid from the Pound Shop and is probably the cheapest bit of kit I have but the one bit of kit that’s done the most work.

 

  • Pest Control Diary: Deer Recovery - image {image:count}

    click on image to enlarge

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