Is It Fiction Or Was It Fact
This is a little tale of a nights poaching from a few years back, you need to make up your mind as to wether its fiction or fact.
Anyway, it was one of them nights that was kind of left until the last minute, nothing had been planned but were due one of these nights, long overdue.
Myself and two mates have a spot were deer are in almost pest porportions and its actually silly the amount that can be taken in a short space of time, we got our dogs rounded up, loaded up the van and headed in the direction of this fantastic peice of ground.
I was driving and although we never said were we were heading for once i hit a small quiet country road the lads knew what was on for the night.
The craic picked up from here on in, the talk was dogs and had been quiet for the first duration of the trip but now we knew what was ahead of us the buzz began to flow through us, tales of times weve had were discussed but nothing would have been able to tell us what lay instore.
As we got closer the mood really picked up, you know how it is, each of us with a well primed seasoned dog, getting closer to the addiction that lies in our veins, something thats always been there and will never leave us.Is it in everyone and only comes out in some?? Thats another thing and probably best left alone.
We get closer and now the atmosphere has completly changed, all thoughts are now completly fixated on the task in hand, we want to fill the freezers tonight as the stocks of venison have got low over the last few weeks.
Tonight involves little or no walking or physical action for me, im driving and were running open land with no ditches, just a road running through this land for several miles, the usual approach to this land is one driving, one in the front lamping and one in the back rotating the dogs.
On arrival the lamp is flicked across this open land of deer heaven, there are plenty about but there way out on the heather and as its early in the season the vegetation on the land is still fairly high and will favour the deer.
We move along slowly on the road and the first deer of the night is spotted, one dog slipped and the chase is on, he is gaining rapidly over the heather and has an almost perfect techniuqe having run this land many times, he gets up to his deer about 70 yards off the road and strikes, this one comes down easy and the lads run out to finish the job as quickly and humanly as possible, first run and we have one in the bag.
This one is pulled to the side of the road and will be collected at a later stage, we continue on about 100 yards down this country lane when we spot about 8 grazing in the moonlight night. Its the next dogs turn, this could be tricky as he will have to single one out, he is out of the van in a flash and has his sights set on one, the group breaks and he is heading for a brace that have just hopped off away from the others, he is gaining fast and the deer have yet to put the foot down, he gets up behind them and the pair breaks, he makes his decision and bang, he takes hold of a hock dropping this yearling like its not even there, as soon as its down he makes his way up to the neck and the job is over, the lads again run out to be sure things are dealt with fast, this land is not what you would call cold, it can get tricky at times and many a night the two runners have spent hours in a drain waiting for the lift to come back after things have got heated.
The runners and dog are loaded up and its now time for the third dog to get his turn, its got easy for these dogs as they have run this land several times and they know how to cover the ground as fast as possible, they kind of use the vegetation to spring over ground rather then try and run through it.
About a half mile down the road we have passed a few as runs are plentiful and you can pick and choose, the lights of the car tell us there is one close to the road ahead of us, we dim the lights and get a bit closer before we use the lamp, this one is on its toes but the dog is out of the van and eating the ground like its not even there, he gets up close to this beast but its not going to be easy, this one twist and turns and starts heading back towards us, the dog hot on his heals while the deer is running straight towards the beam, he gets up along side and makes his move, this one is taken down by the neck not twenty yards in front of us, an easy one to retrieve for the lads and in less then 40 minutes we had one a piece.
Now its amazing what you witness when your out with the dogs, as the lads quickly made there way towards dog and deer this deer was making a bit of noise, you know the sound of the high pitched bleat they throw out, well whilst this was going on there were deer making there way towards the dog and deer, they didnt seem to be fazed by the lads and lamp and were only standing about 20 yards from what was going on, we could have had another from this group if we wanted but we had enough and luck is needed at times and decided to call it a night.
The dogs were dropped off and tended to whilst two of us took another motor to go up and take home our nights catch.
The bellys had been dropped out of them were we killed them to make it easier to carry back to the car, all three were loaded up and taken home were they were prepped for the table, some of the meat and bones goes to tyhe dogs some we eat ourselves and the rest is given to the neighbours for putting up with the comings and goings at unsociable hours.
Could you get a better night, three runs three deer three happy dogs three happy owners and loads of happy neighbours eating best cuts of venison for a few days.