Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie
Hi there,
There is an issue with role permissions that is being worked on at the moment.
If you are having trouble with access or permissions on regional forums please post here to get access: https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058365403/you-do-not-have-permission-for-that#latest
There is an issue with role permissions that is being worked on at the moment.
If you are having trouble with access or permissions on regional forums please post here to get access: https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058365403/you-do-not-have-permission-for-that#latest
Plans for the Last Weekend?
-
26-02-2011 12:03pm#1
Comments
-
-
-
-
-
-
Advertisement
-
-
-
-
-
-
Advertisement
-
-
-
-
Tackleberrywho wrote: »Give me a shout Monday.
Might go for another bambi in a place you and I both know
Ssssh
It's a secret!
50/50 Split if you help me
im bringing out daithi for a shot. Im curious to where your talking about. Did you get new permission around my townsland? Thats all i can think of?0 -
-
-
-
Arrived at the farm on top of the hill a little later than planned this morning, about ten past seven. Was a damn sight colder and a lot windier than I thought it would be, so I was feeling a bit rough. Parked the car behind some bushes, got out and loaded up. I had a borrowed pair of Zeiss 10x42s to try out (Which I think I'll be buying - wow! Nothing like this glass out there) so looked over the bushes and down the hill towards the trees to see what I could see.
There's a couple of fields of rushes and boggy ground between the trees - which separate the farms from the reservoir - and the fields, which are home to sheep or cows, depending on which farmer they belong to, but they were fairly empty this morning. Anyway, immediately I discover yer man from the last day wasn't talking out his arse. While it may not have been "walking with deer" there was a nice big hind down in the first field at the bottom. (If you're reading this, cheers for the tip!) She was alone but looked to be pregnant.
As I said, it was blowing a fair bit, so I reckoned my best bet was to get in close to the hedge (which also has a stream running under it) and use the noise to cover my approach. Took me a while to cover the seven hundred yards or so downhill to get to the next field over, and as I climbed into the hedge between the fields to sit and watch for a few minutes, I couldn't see her, and figured she'd probably moved off into the forestry with the daylight.
I wandered into the first boggy field and carefully made my way to the next hedge, where there was a gap I could look through. As I got to it, a woodcock burst from under my feet. Never even saw him while moving up. A quick scan of that next field showed nothing visible, so I moved back over some of the bog to the drier ground to make my way right to the next field over. Was navigating a chunk of nasty grabby ground when I look up and that hind had just stepped out from behind a bush (I think she'd been lying under it after feeding, which is why I couldn't see her while glassing), and there's me stuck in a Twister position, one leg over there, the other behind me and me precariously balanced while I look for somewhere useful to put it. She's looked over to see me, and I'm frozen, trying not to spook her. She's a big animal, very big for a sika hind, and I'm keen to get her, but she gives one rough bark and trots off, disappearing down a ditch and into the forestry, before I can get the rifle to bear.
Ah well, I thinks, and heads over to have a quick look around. There's the sign of movement, hair on the fences and tracks in the mud, but I figured she wasn't coming back in a hurry. Decided I'd have a quick walk to familiarise myself with the ground, as it's a long time since I've been down this far on the farm. Usually shoot rabbits up at the top of it. Walking back up that ditch to the next gate, I flush another woodcock! Wish I'd been here a month or two ago with the shotgun now. Oh well, another thought for next year.
There's a second broadleaf treeline at the top of the next field, out of the weather, with good views of quite a lot of the land the deer are on. There's some more over to the right, too, but there's a house about half a mile that way, so I'll probably confine my efforts to these couple of fields. I'll attach a few photos below. Might build a blind here for next year, with a decent rest. It's a big field, so shots could be quite long. There's certainly a three hundred yard shot down into the bottom corner, and if the deer are in the next field, it's longer, but there's nowhere closer to build a blind. I've no intention of taking a shot beyond three hundred yards, but I expect they'll be feeding in that field earlier in the season next year when there's plenty of light to shoot them.
So no deer this morning, but lots more information on the land, a decent prospect for this evening (if I get out after the match) or tomorrow, if I don't go anywhere else, and certainly a good spot for next year if it still has the deer on it, which it should, as it's not hunted that much. Photos below, taken from the treeline of the biggest field.
Figured I owed you lads a hunting story even if I didn't have a deer to show for it.
Maybe tomorrow. Certainly next year if not. 0 -
One shot on kill wrote: »lookin forward to it dont really know what to expect
curiosty??????????
ya know now mate
will post a few pics later and write up a story0 -
-
Advertisement
-
-
-
-
-
Sadly, no deer today either. I was sitting watching a field with some adjacent woodland when the farmer's son turned up in the tractor to spread fertiliser, but these things happen. Should have had a bunny gun with me today though, beautiful evening for it and would have had half a dozen without any real hassle. What really makes stalking special is the experience of the environment. In the last two days, only counting animals I would shoot under various circumstances, I have seen rabbits, pheasants (cocks and hens), woodcock, foxes, pigeons, deer and an assortment of corvids. The fox was bothering a sheep (in broad daylight) so I know where my hunting is going to take me over the next while. Got someone who wants to go hunting, so methinks I have a new lamper.
Evenings like this evening also make me want to pick up a little CZ in .17 HMR for bunnies, so watch this space... If this season has taught me something it's that I need to get more reactive with my shots. If the gun were in my hands and ready more and I were prepared to take shots instinctively that I know are well within my comfort zone, I'd have shot about five deer this year, rather than none (not counting the one I missed), so for next year, it's practising snap shooting in various field positions and states of readiness. I'll get practice on a summer's worth of bunnies. 0
Advertisement