North meets South

poulo6.5

hi lads i just want to put up a few words to say what a good day and night we had earlier this week when declan1980 came down for another go for a deer. he enjoyed him self so much last time but didnt manage to get a deer him self.

anyway we met up early on Thursday morning and headed out to the first spot. it was a sheltered area with a high bank of trees on one side and lush grass valley about 200 yards wide and maybe 1000y long broken up into several fields and another high bank of trees on the other side that continued up the mountain. i would have thought it would be the best bet as the weather was a bit rough but there was little or no wind in this little valley.
we stalked our way along the edge of the trees and saw plenty of fresh droppings and fresh tracks. it looked as though we had just missed the party. so we called and headed off for breakfast/lunch.

the awful weather that was forecast didnt seam to manifest its self for more than a couple of hours so once it had cleared up we headed towards our next spot. it was still early and as it was on the way we stopped off at my spot up the mountain for a spot of target practice.
i have a steel deer shaped target out on the hill at 430y and a steel plate at 550 yards. declan got a chance to push his .223 out and confirm his ballistic calculator was working. he took a couple of practice shots with my .243 and i think he is tempted to get one of his own.

on to the deer stalking. we pulled up on our spot no 2 and started scanning the side of the mountain for any deer that might be starting to graze as it was getting close to dark now and they would be on the move.
we spotted a nice buck about 1000y away and unaware of us and he was joined by another pricket or doe soon after. this is what we were waiting for. we checked the wind and analysed the lay of the land to come up with a plan that would keep us out of sight and down wind for as long as possible, this is what stalking is all about, we started off up the hill, out of sight of our intended prey. but when we got there it was a no show. i dont think they winded or heard us but probably just moved off to where they were going to be grazing for the night.
all that excitement and no return left us a bit glum so to keep us going i suggested we try a field where i often see deer on the way back. it was getting dusky now so we hadnt much time. we made our way silently back to the spot and then hurried our way in a desperate attempt to get something before the day was out. as we reached the top of the hill it became obvious that we were out of luck and there was no point in going any further as it would be dark soon. so we stopped for a chat and talked about the excitement of seeing a nice buck and the stalk in to him. and i explained to declan that thats what hunting is all about and some times it works out perfect and other times not so. as we were talking i spotted a doe about 30 yards away just grazing away unaware of us 2 chatting away. i tapped declan on the shoulder and handed him the .243 and said this doe is for you. as cool as you like declan shouldered the rifle and dropped the doe where she stood with a nicely placed shoulder shot.

here is the happy camper


we then went threw the gutting and cleaning process that declan had no bother doing and once we had all that done he insisted on carrying the animal all the way back to the jeep by him self, in his own words he wanted the full experience.
fair play to you deck i would say you enjoyed the whole experience judging from the big grin you had on your face for the rest of the evening.

now you have enough venison to get you over the christmas at least

Longranger

Fair play to you poulo,and we'll done Declan. You'll be going shopping for your .243 soon;)

podge.243

Well done Paulo and Declan:cool: now ur hooked Dec u'll have to get set up for the deer and u'll be in full swing come next year

declan1980

First of all I want to thank poulo for bringing me out on his patch again, he's a very patient teacher, and explains things very well. I had great craic all day and I even enjoyed carrying the deer about a mile back to the jeep. Although my clothes were destroyed in blood.
I really enjoyed going stalking, and I'm definitely going to get into it. I've been asking around, and I should have no problem getting permissions to go stalking, so as soon as I can I'll be bringing poulo, tack and 4gun up for a deer.
I'd say I'll be looking into rebarreling the 223 as a 243 next summer. I'll just get this lamping season out of it first.

declan1980

podge.243 wrote: »

Well done Paulo and Declan:cool: now ur hooked Dec u'll have to get set up for the deer and u'll be in full swing come next year

Deer stalking is like crack, because once you shoot a deer you want to shoot another one.

poulo6.5

podge.243 wrote: »

Well done Paulo and Declan:cool: now ur hooked Dec u'll have to get set up for the deer and u'll be in full swing come next year

i would say we will hear a lot more from declan and deer stalking in the future

4gun

well done Declan,
no going back now