Last day on the doe’s

[sussex 5,777]

This was going to be my last day on the doe’s this year and my stalking pal asked if his son could come along , not a problem he’s a very competent shot with all calibre of rifle . Usual middle of the night start , well seems middle of the night , for a 5am start , no wind but a tidy frost we meet up same place as the other day with more or less the same scenario except we could see the deer in the top paddock before we went anywhere .

I stayed put and sent my mate and his son back up the drive and into the  farm yard where they could work through the empty building and come out above the deer , by the time they were in position I couldn’t see them or the deer which had dropped of my horizon , but would be good for them if they hadn’t bumped them ..the heavy barrelled .243  tika T3  ( which only a young fella could carry about all day ) cracked into life , thirty seconds later it cracked again and a minute or so later another shot ..my initial thought was a misplaced shot with a follow up ones to finish it given how the deer bolt after being pressured all season  chances of multiply kills are quite difficult right at the end of the season .Then the phone rang , we have a runner , it had gone down with the first shot but had got up and gone , they could see it but now had no back stop .With no wind at all to work round I went down the road , through the open gate into the field with a copse to my right , the deer should have been standing more or less level with me but a hundred metres into the field and around a slight corner , sticks open and rifle ready I moved forward ..she was down , as I approached it was fairly obvious she wasn’t going anywhere , touching her eye with the sticks confirmed it .I rang my mate to tell him , a few minutes later they appeared looking relieved , they had seen it drop but didn’t do anything till I confirmed it . 

His boy said he couldn’t believe how it had got up , I said he did well getting a second and third shot off at it to finish it , I never got a second shot that was the third deer ....

It was know 5:25 and time to go stalking ..he added another one ( three legged buck fawn ) by 8 am and I should have had one but I waited to long and the chance was lost ..meeting up at the appointed time and place I set up for the gralloch they went and picked up the three from the top field and dropped them off , I set about about the job while they went to get the young buck , I had two done and started on the third by the time they came back , ten minutes later we were packing up to head home for breakfast ..and the afternoon bucks only slot at the other perm ..in the chiller they weighed in at 78lb , 81lb 68lb and 47lb for the buck ..the afternoon slot for prickets and young bucks drew a blank but we must have seen close on two hundred deer . 

Thats me done apart from the odd buck in April , looking back it’s been a very successful year but in all honesty looking at the amount of deer I’ve seen today on ours and the surrounding land I haven’t made a dent in the fallow population ..no wonder we hardly see any roe .

I forgot to take a picture of the injured buck ...

[j j m 6,539]

nice going bud ,good write up