Hunting while travelling....

[Pudelpointer]

My wife and I, along with our oldest daughter and her husband, booked a trip to Paris as flights were ridiculously cheap. We landed at Charles Du Gaulle airport early Friday morning and I spent 4 days questioning why I agreed to go to such a busy place, saturated with people and bereft of nature. We hit the Louvre on Monday, which I admit was amazing.

Tuesday morning I strolled the empty streets at 4:30am to get to a train station where I could take a train back to CDG. At 7:10 I was taxiing down a runway and 45 minutes later I landed at Gatwick Airport south of London. A couple hours on the train and my friend Mark met me at the Salisbury Station.



A short 20 minute drive found us at Mark's place overlooking the Ebble River, which I lovingly refer to as "hunt camp; English style".

View from Hunt Camp:


View of Hunt Camp:


I always offer to help out when I stay with friends, and I make it clear that they should take advantage of the offer, as I am likely to eat copious amounts of their food and will shamelessly raid their liquor cabinet. As I have stayed with Mark previously, we finished a cup of tea and then headed out to look at "project list - 2016". Mark had indicated in an earlier email that there was likely some painting to do... but it could wait until I had finished clearing out the septic tank. I had replied that I wasn't much good with a paint brush, but was packing my Speedo and swim goggles for the septic.

In the end it turned out that there was neither septic, nor painting to be done. Instead we looked at replacing a few decking boards on a bridge he uses to get his riding mower across the Ebble. I sourced some tools from the shed and set about pulling a few of the rotten planks and some of the not so rotten planks to see what we were dealing with. Needless to say, 1 1/2 hours later the bridge had been stripped to the stringers, of which only 2 of 4 were salvageable.



Tuesday evening, after a few drinks and much catching up, Mark declared that the weather was supposed to be nice the next morning, so we would go out and see if we could spot some deer (mostly Roe) and if we saw any young cull bucks we would take one, as he had people looking for venison. I informed him that, while I am always up for some hunting, I had a) no appropriate hunting clothes, b) no boots, and c) no binoculars. "No problem" he said, "we'll sort it out in the morning.

At 5:00am Mark woke me from the few hours of sleep I had managed with some clothes and a pair of boots. A quick coffee and off we went. We took his Land Rover (Defender 90) and wound through the insanely tight, no-shoulder bike paths that pass for roads in the UK, until we entered into one of the estates he has stalking rights on. The weather was decidedly foggy, with good visibility in some areas and thick soup in others.

The first field we check had 5 roe, including on young buck that Mark decided we should cull. A quick stalk put us in a decent position for a 150 yard shot, unfortunately the wind spooked two of the deer before I was able to get a clean shot on the buck.

A short up the road revealed lots of pheasants, a few Hare, and another small cull buck. We parked out of the way and started a stalk back to him. I spotted him walking in the adjacent field in the fog and tried to set up for a shot. Unfortunately there was a road behind the buck, and only for a few seconds did I have a clear shot, which I tried to make however, the rifle I was using (a Steyr Pro Hunter in 243, which I had never fired before) had a heavier trigger pull tha. I expected, so a shot was never fired before the switching breeze betrayed us again.

The area we were hunting was comprised of fields from 20 to 200 acres with lots of hedges, ditch lines and fence rows. I decided that the buck may be visible in the next field south, as he didn't look all that panicked when he left the field. Setting up at the intersection of a fenceline and a ditch line, I spotted what I assumed was the buck, standing buy a gate post about 120 yards away in the fog. Settling in behind the rifle I quickly realized that I was looking at a doe, which closed March 31st.

Mark had loaned me an old pair of Zeiss 8X50 binos which I used to scan the fence line she was at, where I spotted another Roe about 30 yards to the east of her. It didn't take long to realize that this was a different buck, and was quite a bit better than the first two. Mark caught up to me and I told him that the buck was a fair bit better than the others, and I was cool with backing out so he could put a client on him. Mark's response was "Take'em". I asked him if he was sure about that, four more times, but his response stayed the same.

The view towards the buck and doe. The doe is visible (as a tiny speck) in the gate opening between the 2nd and 3rd trees from the right.



The buck was on the far side of the fenceline, and for 10 minutes I tried to find a clear shooting lane. The buck was fairly close and off a bipod, so I was quite willing to put one into the base of his skull, as it was the only part that would come clear, yet between the brambles, fence wire, and erratic movements of a feeding Roe's head, the added unfamiliarity of the rifle made it difficult.

Eventually the buck started walking to the east and the doe followed up shortly. I set up on a small hole in the fenceline brush, but the buck did not pause, he just passed on by. We reset our position to see if they would come out in an adjacent field, but the wind was blowing out scent into it, and the fog was thickening, so I wasn't hopeful.

After a couple minutes we decided to move up to the gate to see if we could spot them in the field. As we reached our original position again, I spotted them running west behind the fenceline brush. I dropped and threw out the legs of the bipod, flipped open the scope caps on the Schmidt & Bender 8x, and gave a quick whistle. The buck stopped broadside and looked back. I flicked the safety forward and squeezed the trigger. Crack....whop! I saw him jump up and run out of sight.

Despite the shot being about 180 yards and taken quite quickly, I knew the bullet had hit his heart. Mark, however, has had enough clients to worry about every shot. I assured him that the buck would be dead in the field, but followed his direction to quickly reload and move up to where we could see into the field.

After a bit of searching I found the impact point, as evidenced by a fair bit of hair and a big spray of blood. 80 yards later we found him piled up in the new green grass.



You can see the same two trees from the last picture behind me.

I'll post some more as I have time, but it is midnight here and I am tired from pressure washing the deck and packing lumber down to the river. I have to get up early and butcher a deer.

[lannie]

Wow! Different from what we do here for sure but I would really enjoy doing that one day. Nice shot!

[albertabighorn]

Sounds nice. What about tags?

[Pudelpointer]

Originally Posted by albertabighorn

Sounds nice. What about tags?

No tags. The opposite of Alberta; deer belong to the landowner. There are seasons, and minimum cartridge requirements, but that's about it.

[Hugenuge]

Congrats sounds like a great adventure!

[ex811]

Yep, definetly Not a cull buck, nice long tines with decent mass.
Congrats on a nice Roe Buck and thanks for the storey.
Be carefull, Roe Stalking can become Very addictive.

[H380]

Good job Ian , nice write up and post . Not as big as your elk but decent ..lol .

[DieBoer]

Love a colourful story!!
The experience always trumps inches of antler....and then sometimes it doesn't.!
Great hunt!

[J0HN_R1]

Congrats & thanks for the very enjoyable read...!

It looks like a miniature Whitetail, without any face makings.

[Gopher Zombies Inc]

Beautiful Buck! True sing of a real Hunter... Goes on a family vacation, and ends up in a field wearing camo!
Enjoy the shi&t out of every moment!
Brett

[Pudelpointer]

Thanks all. H380, it is almost at the complete opposite end of the deer spectrum from elk. 45lbs hanging weight (hide on, legs, head off and gutted), iirc my elk was just over 450, quartered and hide off. Smaller yet are muntjac and CWD (Chinese Water Deer).

To add to the story, when I asked Mark why he wanted me to take what was obviously not a cull buck, he explained that we were close to the edge of the estate (so he was likely to wander on to other lands) and this particular area had a significant poaching problem. It was his opinion that it was unlikely he would be able to get a client onto him before someone else killed him. Had the buck been more central, we would have left him for sure.

After we got the deer into the truck, we drove past the ruins of Wardour Castle.



Off to see if the geese laid any eggs last night, then some bridge work.

[newguy]

Awesome adventure for sure!

[livinthedream]

Great pictures, great story. Thanks.

[albertabighorn]

Originally Posted by Pudelpointer

No tags. The opposite of Alberta; deer belong to the landowner. There are seasons, and minimum cartridge requirements, but that's about it.

Neat. Have fun!

[Zuludog]

Cool story ( & pics) thanks for sharing it with us.

[Gerv]

awsome story, thanks for sharing!
cool looking little deer.

[walking buffalo]

Originally Posted by Pudelpointer

Thanks for sharing the adventure Ian, that looks like a great time.

Quite an ecclectic mix of equiptment and animals.

[catnthehat]

Originally Posted by walking buffalo

Thanks for sharing the adventure Ian, that looks like a great time.

Quite an ecclectic mix of equiptment and animals.

Am I wrong or is that a fairly substantial Roe?
Cat

[sns2]

Fabulous. Just fabulous. What an awesome trip you are on. How did you meet up with this fellow that lets you stay and work off a hunt?

How do they taste in relation to a whitetail?

[300magman]

Man that sounds like fun, thanks for sharing!!

[Pudelpointer]

Originally Posted by catnthehat

Am I wrong or is that a fairly substantial Roe?
Cat

He is not huge Cat, but he isn't a "two point" either. I guess he would be the equivalent to a 140 class whitetail.

Originally Posted by sns2

Fabulous. Just fabulous. What an awesome trip you are on. How did you meet up with this fellow that lets you stay and work off a hunt?

How do they taste in relation to a whitetail?

We met about ten years ago, when he tagged along as an observer when a mutual friend came to AB to bow hunt for elk, and we hit it off. I have hunted England with him before in 2008, taking 2 young cull roe bucks; one on Mark's access,


And one with an associate of Mark's, Mike Small, who does the stalking on a huge estate in Dorset:


Mark joined me for an antelope hunt in Wyoming in 2008

As for "working it off", we joke about it, but that is entirely inaccurate. I help Mark with projects around the home he shares with his wife, because I like to help out. His wife cannot garden and help out the way she used to, so I help out where and when I can.



The hunting is never expected on my part, just enjoyed when the opportunity arises.

Last evening and this morning I tagged along on a roe hunt with two clients. A buck was taken last evening which I helped pack out, and I spent about an hour this morning crawling around inside a hedgerow looking for blood from a poorly hit buck.



Then we worked some more on the bridge.



Yesterday involved stalking, goose egg collecting, and putting some Wood pigeon in the freezer.

[catnthehat]

What can you say about shooting a dipressed gun?
Like it , not like it, and why.
I know Southerman has them on s few of his rifles .
I hope you were shooting those roof pigeons with a SxS!!
Cat

[Pudelpointer]

Originally Posted by catnthehat

What can you say about shooting a dipressed gun?
Like it , not like it, and why.
I know Southerman has them on s few of his rifles .
I hope you were shooting those roof pigeons with a SxS!!
Cat

Well Cat, the rifle is a Steyr Pro Hunter in .243 Win; so it's Austrian.... and Austrians are somewhat serious, but not necessarily depressed.

As for the suppressor, other than being bulky, it definitely reduces noise for the shooter, and neighbouring residents in this densely populated country. While the noise suppression is significant, shots are still loud. I clearly heard the shot of both the clients' rifles, 270 Win and 308 Win, from 300 yards and from ~ 1 mile. The shot were clearly audible as just that, rifle shots.

As for shooting behind a suppressed centre fire, hearing protection is completely uneccessary in a hunting situation. I sat directly behind a client as he shot his suppressed 270 and it didn't 'hurt' my ears at all.

Unfortunately, the woody was taken with a suppressed Brno .22 shooting sub sonics; now THAT is quiet!

[Twang]

Seems some had a great adventure here.. I jealous you

[albertabighorn]

Thanks for posting more, what a great adventure.

[Pudelpointer]

Update 3.

Been working on lots of odd jobs around the place, but finally got the bridge completed today. Had a minor setback with some old cement that wouldn't set on Sunday, so I had to scrape it all off and start over on Tuesday.





On Tuesday, after some concrete work, we hopped the train to London, landing at Waterloo Station and walked over the Thames to Parliament. A quick chat at the gate, through security clearing (more thorough than the airport by far) and on in we go, through the main house past the armed guards and into a committee room. We were there to hear a lecture hosted by the European Atlantic Group (from what I can gather, a 'think-tank' with members of government politians and former military leaders), and given by a former military colleague and retired diplomat, on the strategic military and economic importance of Gibraltar in the modern age.

Much like the borrowed hunting gear, the only items of mine in this pic are the shirt, underwear and socks; surprisingly the suit fit only slightly snug.



We made it back to Salisbury at a reasonable hour, so Mark decided that in the morning we should go look at some ground that I had looked at last time I was there. In the 8 years since, Mark had lost the stalking rights to a neighbouring estate, which proceeded to kill virtually every deer on it in 2 years. Mark got it back 3 years ago, and has pretty much left it alone to repopulate.

The land is completely isolated, consisting of a series of small valleys and woods, with no public paths or roadways that can look into it. We immediately saw 4 bucks together, one of which was a small buck still in velvet. We opted to drive around a bit first, as they weren't overly concerned with our presence. In the next hour, we saw three very good bucks, one of which would likely medal (equivalent to "make book" in NA). In all we saw 27 roe deer, three of which I attempted stalks on. In the end I took a little cull buck which we have to the landowner.

The shot was an interesting one. As some know I am a lefty, at least with the rifle and shotgun. I had run into a small group of roe after blowing a stalk on the four bucks mentioned earlier (damn wind). The deer had crossed a track and moved to the right onto the field edge and bedded down. I had to poke my head through the hedge row, and had a small buck at 35 yards, bedded and facing my direction. I managed to get my upper body clear of the hedge, with the deer to my left. I contemplated moving farther out to get myself into position, but was pretty sure that would fail. In the end I chose to shoot right handed, which I haven't practiced, and have never done while hunting before.



The buck I took was the only deer standing, as he fed while the other two bucks, a doe and a yearling rested. While waiting for just the perfect shot, I felt that all to familiar sensation on the breeze on the back of your neck as the wind shifts. I took the shot with the deer facing me, head to the ground, hitting him just below (above?) the base of the skull. The 100 grain .243 Lapua bullet drove through the spine, exited the throat, and almost completely took off the left back leg just below the hock. The shot was about 85 yards.

My phone fogged up while crawling through the wet grass, so no "trophy shot" unfortunately. I do have some pics of the other deer after the shot on my Nikon, but they'll have to wait till I get home.

Mark pulling up in the ubiquitous "Landy". For those who are unfamiliar with the Defender series Land Rovers, they are no frills, go-anywhere work trucks. The 90 series (pictured) comes in a few configurations, but most are 2 seaters with a small cargo area.




More cultural info: this is "proper bacon" according to Brits; I must say, I couldn't agree more!

[Pudelpointer]

Well my adventure is almost over. I am ensconced in a hotel near the Charles Du Gaul airport, about to grab some supper, and then some rest for a long day of travelling tomorrow.

Got out stalking one last morning yesterday. The weather wasn't great, with a cold front coming down from the north, and rain starting about 7am. We spotted a buck across a small valley, in the first open fields we came to. He was too far to judge as to quality, but I commented to Mark that if he was visible as a buck at that distance, chances are he was a pretty good buck. About 20 minutes later we got a look at him over a hedge at about 60 yards. He was a very good deer, and I didn't even ask.

We watched him for about 10 minutes, until the wind swirled our scent around and he booked it out of the field. Turning around there was this amazing oak tree, hundreds of years old. I got Mark to jump in so I could show the scale of it. Looking closer it turned out to be completely hollow inside, with only two narrow cracks where you could see inside. A 350lb guy could easily have stood inside it if he could somehow get in!



We drove around for a bit, then hiked up a ridge to check on a high-seat (ladder stand) Mark has nearby. We were almost run down by a young Roe deer doe who came tearing along a trail like a pack of wolves were on her tail (actually, Roe deer have almost no tail whatsoever). We also ran into a buck and a doe, but they had the drop on us in the timber, so we never got a decent look at them.

This stone gateway from the 1800s was located nearby. I can't remember the name of the family crest on it.



We continued on to another estate that I hunted 8 years ago, where we saw a few more deer, including two more bucks, one of which was quite good. Mark wanted to drive back to look at a buck we didn't judge, but I explained that I was not worried about it. I had had some good stalking, and took a fine buck which was unexpected, and thanked him for the opportunities.

We returned to the house and finished cleaning up the skulls from my deer and the stalking client from the weekend. Did some reloading for his 30-06 AI, walked the dogs, and then settled in for a few glasses of Scotch before we wandered down to the nearby pup for supper.

Mark's house was first built sometime in the middle 1600s iirc. The original structure was added on to a few times times over the next 300 years. It is all stone, and has the original hearth / fireplace still intact. The picture doesn't really do it justice, but it is huge, probably 8 feet across. You could have roasted an entire red deer in it! The wood lintel is almost 400 years old.



The two Roe deer skulls cleaned and ready for bleaching.



Mine is on the left. The client's is the biggest he had ever taken, so he was quite happy with it. I posted mine back to myself in AB, as I don't have any (and don't want any) checked luggage. I threw some of my clothes in the box as well to reduce my pack a bit. Cost $36 CAD, so it wasn't bad.

Speaking of cost, this is from a shooting supply catalog - the numbers on the right are in British Pounds Sterling; about $2 CAD per BPS, so ~$90 per pound of powder!!! Next time we start complaining about the cost of reloading supplies, remember this!



I'll post a few more pics when I get back.

Thanks for reading.

[brazeau]

Thanks for sharing. Great adventure and the pictures are awesome.

[Huk]

Looks awesome

[Shrike]

Thank you for the tastefull well executed and interesting expose of your trip.
You proved there is much more to hunting then go out filling your quota and blow some critter to smithereens.
An overall great experience in beautifull surroundings, good friends and lovely food plus the experience how you got those two beautifull bucks.
Congratulations.