Muntjac

[Murph 30]

We've been seeing several muntjac whilst out lamping over the last couple of weeks so this week I have had enough time to be out for a few mornings to try and thin them out a bit. First morning was about a week ago, I started around 6 o'clock and had been over 1 field without seeing anything, then down through a woodland ride to drop on the next field which offers a superb view, straight down to the pen wood at the bottom. I couldn't see any muntjac but spotted a fox outside the pen. She had spotted the pheasants on the top hedge and was sneaking across the middle of the field towards them. All my calling was in vain and I tried to get closer to where she was heading and lay down. She paused for a second and I took the shot for a clean kill at 246 yards. Saw nothing else that morning.

I was out again on friday and exactly the same stalk showed nothing although the hedges looked as if there was a muntjac motorway running along them. I climbed an ash tree and decided to give it till 9 o'clock before packing up. With quarter of an hour left to go I spotted 2 munties heading down the far hedge. Too far and not giving a safe shot as there was a farm track running behind the hedge to the pen gates. They were not hanging around and disappeared into the hedge to re-appear at the bottom near the side of the pen marginally closer, one was out in the grass and provided a better opportunity than the other. Dead steady up the tree I took the shot and it dropped, a doe paced out at exactly 370 yards. I was pleased as I had a mate coming from Birmingham on saturday morning to stay and he ideally wanted to shoot his own but at least he was now guaranteed some venison to take back with him.

 

 

Satuday morning was too foggy to see anything round here but I tried anyway, seeing nothing.

Sunday morning saw me and my mate out to repeat the same route I'd been taking round this farm, sure enough in the same field I spotted a muntjac buck around 400 yards away. My mate has never shot a centrefire at live game before so I wanted to get him as close as possible to try and ensure sucess and a clean kill for him. Stalking a munty is hard enough at the best of times but is a nightmare with 2, despite this we managed to get within 70 yards but my mate was still not steady enough to be confident in the shot, there was nothing to lean up and the lie of the land made a prone shot impossible. We squatted and waited but I though the slight breeze would give us away, it came another 20 yards closer, he stood up slowly and took the shot, dropping the buck on the spot. To say he was over the moon would be an understatement, I talked him through the gralloch then we went back to mine where I butchered mine from friday whilst he watched what I did and did his own. Got the ferrets out for a few hours saturday and sunday too so had a cracking weekend's sport.

 

[Llanshooter 0]

Great stuff! Bet your mate was well chuffed.

 

No Munties here in North Wales,all these stories on here are wheting my appetite for FAC and DSC as I love a bit of venison too

[outdoors kid 1]

great stuff mate,

 

what rifle were you using ?

 

if you got any tips on munty hunting could you please help me.

 

as the land i shoot on has a fairly good population of mutys but they are very difficult to get with in range off or as soon as you see them they dissapear in to the thickets again.

 

is there an ideal time to hunt them??

 

or is there anything you can do to draw them out of the thickets ?

 

any advice would be much appreciated

 

thanks

[Murph 30]

great stuff mate,

 

what rifle were you using ?

 

if you got any tips on munty hunting could you please help me.

 

as the land i shoot on has a fairly good population of mutys but they are very difficult to get with in range off or as soon as you see them they dissapear in to the thickets again.

 

is there an ideal time to hunt them??

 

or is there anything you can do to draw them out of the thickets ?

 

any advice would be much appreciated

 

thanks

 

I was using a Remmington 700 in .22-250, I mostly shoot foxes with it so I use federal power shok 55 grain. The rifle shoots about 1.5"high at 150 yards and the drop on the 370 yard shot was about 2". I have shot munties at both dusk and dawn but find I get better results in the morning. I tend to go from dawn and stick it out around 3 hours, sometimes mooching about and other times sitting in high seats or convenient trees. Nearly everything I shoot is moving between one wood and another and a lot of the time I don't shoot as they rarely stand still. If they disappear into a hedge etc I will always wait around 15 minutes as they often re-appear, provided they haven't been spooked, the one my mate shot had disappeared into the hedge but we knew he would still be there as all the hares birds etc were still around us and hadn't been spooked during the stalk. I have fed them in places with split maize but that has only ever been if I've had someone coming a long way to try and ensure they see one, I like the uncertainty and the fieldcraft needed to get one so I never feed them out myself. I find them more difficult to stalk than anything else and that is what I like about them, plus they taste delicious.

Hope this helps, other people will probably have other ideas but this is how I've always found it.

[Squirrel_Basher 17,100]

Good going mate .I was watching a buck following a doe at work today and was captivated as usual .