My roe deer hunting setup. Tikka .223 Rem rifle and Zeiss Conquest scope

May 182012

I was asked about my setup, so I made this short video and write up. At the moment this is my favorite setup that consists of Tikka M595 rifle in .223 Remington caliber with Zeiss Conquest 4.5-14×50 riflescope and A-Tec CMM-4 ALU sound moderator. Because .223 is only roe legal here I use it from April till July when red stags come in season and February-March when only roe does are in season. I also use it for some target shooting as everyone needs some practice from time to time…

Tikka M595 .223 Remington rifle

I was always a fan of German/Austrian classic deer stalking rifles. However, when we moved to the UK and I got my FAC I struggled to find nice Sauer or old Mannlicher in decent condition at affordable price. I then bought Steyr Pro Hunter which was a compromise as I would prefer one of the older S/M/L models, but nothing interesting came up at the time and I needed rifle quick. Then I stated looking for the .223.

I looked at a few rifles when I spotted Tikka M595 setup on one of the forums. It looked decent condition with rifle, Leupold scope in Optilocks, T8 moderator with some ammo and case for about £1,000. I don’t like Leupold so made an offer of £500 for everything minus scope. The guy wanted £600, but it was too much for me. I waited a bit and he contacted me again if I still wanted it, but as he was in Wales I would need RFD transfer. A few emails later he offered to deliver it to me. That looked a bit desperate, so I agreed to take it for £400 delivered… Even if it needed re-barreled it was still a bargain for stainless M595 action with custom stock, T8 moderator, Optilock mounts, case and 60pcs of ammo.

The rifle had a barrel cut to 17.5″. It was threaded 1/2″ UNF that matched my other moderator, so I still have T8 as a spare. When I tried the rifle I could get 0.5″ groups with factory ammunition, so barrel is not too bad. Short barrel was ideal for my A-tec CMM-4 ALU sound moderator. Because A-Tec is end-of-barrel type and extends the overall length by about 6″, the whole setup was more or less like regular rifle with 24″ barrel and very well balanced. I think also trigger was worked on a bit as it is very light (I think it is less than 2lbs as stated in the menual as lower limit) and perfect for both stalking and target shooting. No need for set trigger in this rifle.

This rifle shot well some Remington and Federal 40 and 50gr ammo I got with it, but I use Sako 55gr soft points on roe deer. The rifle is grouping well with this ammunition and roe usually drop on the spot. Not much meat damage either.

Zeiss Conquest 4.5-14×50 riflescope

The Tikka used to have Minox ZA5 2-10×40 riflescope on top, but I moved scopes around and now it is Zeiss Conquest 4.5-14×50 I used to have on my .308. The scope is not available in Europe and I bought it from the states. I must confess I really do hate European dealers and their prices. Brand new Zeiss Conquest from US was much cheaper than anything else from the top optics manufacturers at that time. It also has side parallax and target turrets which are nice features. Not really needed on hunting rifle, but I still have ambition to practice more long range shooting… but never seem to find time to do it…

The scope has #4 reticule which is in second focal plane. I think this is absolutely brilliant reticle and at the time only Zeiss Conquest offered that. It is thick enough for low light and I shot deer at very last light with it and the middle of the cross hairs is thin enough for precise shots. Nowadays, Zeiss introduced Duralyt range of scopes on European market, but I still think Conquests are better. #6 reticule is thinner and would not be in as good in low light as #4 on my Conquest. I also prefer lighter 1″ tube from traditional European 30mm size. Also choice of scopes is limited in Duralyt series with 3-12×50 being closest to 4.5-14×50 I have. I agree 3-12×50 illuminated #60 reticule must be great, but it is still twice the price of the Conquest… so Zeiss Conquest it is. I never had a problem with mine and when I lost a screw from one of the turrets Zeiss US just send me some free of charge, so can’t complain. I would love another one, but now not all dealers want to ship scopes outside US and second hand are not easy to find… There are plenty S/H riflescopes with useless #20 plex reticle that Americans for some reasons prefer, but #4 are not popular out there…

Video review

Good morning

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May 112012

I went out after roebucks again with a friend. Weather has been not great recently and we postponed it, but agreed to go out that Saturday morning. We met at 4:30 and it was quite light already as full moon was just setting and sun would be coming up around 6:00. After a short while we were driving a ride through young plantation. There was hard frost on grass and ice on puddles… It did not feel like May… We jumped off the car and I was glad I put a jacket on top of my usual fleece. After a short walk we were on top of a double high seat.

It was 5:00 and still early. I was not expecting anything moving before the sunrise it was that cold… Free standing high seat was very comfortable with wide rails and we had a good view on the ride both ways. There was mature thin woodland not far in front of us and plantation behind the seat. We agreed I would be shooting if anything comes to my right-hand side, and he would take any buck to our left. It was very quiet with almost no wind, so we had to be extra careful not to spook anything coming from the woodland in front of us. Not to be tempted, I kept my camcorder in my pocket.

We sat for about 30 minutes when two does (I think…) run across the ride from the woodland to my right to plantation. It was too fast to have a look through binoculars and they soon disappeared between the trees. Well, it was still early and my friend was quite positive something else should be moving that morning.

It was 6:00 and the sun started coming up. Great, as I was getting really cold… Suddenly, I spotted movement on my side of the seat. A young buck was coming to the ride out of the plantation. He was looking straight at the high seat, but soon moved on and I managed to shoulder my .308 Steyr Mannlicher rifle. The buck was standing on the middle of the ride, but was quartering towards me and I would have had to shoot him through the front shoulder and knew the bullet would have done a mess at that distance (to be honest it was close enough for a neck shot… but somehow I never thought of that… ). The buck moved again and a friend barked to stop him. Now I got him in a bit better position, put the cross hairs behind the shoulder and squeezed a shot.

I could see the bullet strike, the buck jumped and run for about 20m. It staggered for a few seconds and dropped dead. I could see the exit wound was a bit too far back… but he was down.

When the buck dropped we spotted another one on the ride. A friend was on him, but he moved off before he could pull the trigger. Another bark stopped the buck and a second later 6.5×55 dropped him on the spot.

We went down the seat to do the gralloch (well, I left my knife in the car… ). The bucks looked like twins with ear-long spikes still in velvet. Good cull bucks to take and in good condition. They soon would have been pushed off the area by territorial bucks anyway. Half hour later we were in the car driving home and I was home before 8:00. Very good morning.

6-pointer

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May 092012

Weather has been quite bad for the last two to three weeks. Very cold with easterly and northerly winds, temperature dropped below freezing at night and it did not feel like May. I went out stalking anyway just to have a look after any new signs of roebuck territorial activity. They started to move about, but it was still not in full swing. Usually in May there are fraying marks everywhere,every corner and every young tree near deer paths get scratched, but not yet this year. It would be good to have a few dry and warm weeks as all roe does I have seen were quite big and would be fawning any time now.

I went for a walk but the wind was too strong and it was cold. Only when the sun was coming up, it was not too bad. I decided to sit down in some sheltered place. I sat down under a tree at the bend of the ride as it was not too bad. I sat for about 30 minutes when I spotted a movement to my left. It was a young hind walking out the trees maybe 10 yards away from me. She saw me and the camera, but the wind was from her to me and she could not figure out what I was. I was trying to keep still and only to move the camera a bit to keep on her. She was no more than 10-15 yards away and was stretching her neck to see me and sniffing the air, but I was lucky for some time and she was not convinced what I was. Eventually, she caught my wind and run away barking… Nothing else showed up and I went further up to the road.

I bumped on a few does, but could not see any bucks. The wind was too strong and it was looking like the rain was coming as well… It was still not 8pm when I decided to finish early as the weather was getting worse. I went back to the forestry track and headed back to the car when I spotted a roe feeding.

I set up sticks, but one of the telescopic legs collapsed and I could not find comfortable position… My sticks are on last legs anyway and will need replaced soon… So I moved a bit forward trying to find firm higher ground to set up the sticks when the buck spotted me. I was not in his full view and he could not figure out what I was. The wind was also in my favor. He made a few steps forward stretching his neck, but it was not a nice broadside position.

I managed to make myself more or less comfortable on sticks and when I felt the wind on my back I decided to shoot when he was facing me slightly quartering. I squeezed the trigger and he disappeared. I thought he dropped on the spot but was not sure. I gave him a few minutes when it got really dark and big dark clouds came in and it started raining…

I went to the spot where he was and the buck was there. I checked for eye reaction, but he was dead dropped on the spot. The bullet entered as I wanted low neck/front and exit just behind the far shoulder. The buck was not great, just average six pointer. After a quick gralloch I packed him to my Harkilla roe sack and went to the car before the rain got worse.

He was 11kg larder weight, so not the best condition for this time of year.

First roebuck on deer syndicate ground

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May 022012

I have not had much luck on our syndicate’s ground this roebuck season. It is usually like that in April and as the forestry is on the hill it is much colder and all is delayed in comparison to lowland. Roe rut is later than anywhere else and also bucks really start moving in May. I have not seen any fraying marks since this past weekend.

Weather really was not promising with bitterly cold easterly wind I was not too optimistic. We have easterly wind very rarely, but when we have, usually hardly any deer are moving about… I was out very early, maybe 16:30 and soon bumped on the first clean buck this season. He gave me no chance of a shot, but it was good to see him anyway.

I went for a long walk as strong wind was making stalking easier. I bumped on a few roe, some red deer as well, but that was it. I was on my way back to the car when I spotted a roe just behind the bend of the track. I set the camera on a tripod, but it looked like a young doe, however as soon as I switched the camera on I noticed movement behind the deer. There was another one coming out of the woods, and another one that looked like a buck. I had to leave my camera as it was, dropped on the ground, and then moved a bit to the right to have a better view.

Just as I thought, there was a doe and a buck. They looked like 2 years old siblings, but they could see the camera on the tripod and possibly caught my movement, but because there was a roe feeding between them and me, the doe soon calmed down and the buck also started feeding. He never stood broadside clear off the doe, and to make things worse the roe that was close, got even closer and started catching my wind…

Only at that time I had a good look at it and to my surprise it was a button buck! I was too busy looking at the other deer, when I had this little yearling closer all the time…

I would not feel good taking a better buck of the two, so when the button buck stood broadside I squeezed the shot just behind the shoulder. He jumped high in the air and dashed to the trees. The other two also did not hang around… It could have been much better video, but unfortunately the camera was focused on the second buck, but the one that I shot actually got much closer than expected and went out off frame… well… this is one person hunting and filming…

Speer 180gr SPBT second sample

The buck ran only 10-20m. The bullet went straight through the ribs and made really little meat damage and bruising. I was quite please with that. Little buck was only 7kg larder weight and had quite a few ticks, but apart from that was healthy.

Video

How to boil out deer skull tutorial.

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May 012012

I had a few enquiries on YouTube to post a tutorial how to boil out roe deer head, so I filmed how I do it. This is one of the two methods I use. I use this method for non-medal heads as it is a bit quicker, but it is still more like full skull than popular on British Isles short nose cut. The other method is slightly more time consuming, but necessary for trophy heads when every gram of the trophy counts. I will try to post another tutorial when I find some more time…

Part 1 – Preparation

When the head is cut off, it is desirable to skin facial part of the head. It is not 100% necessary, I sometimes skip that part and boil the hole head, but for someone who is not very experienced with boiling out it gives a good indication how long to boil the head for. When the skin from facial part and bottom jaw is removed, the meat that is left “cracks” and falls of the bone. This is good indicator when it is ready to be cleaned.

Another important step is to let the head soak in cold water. Water will draw all blood from the meat away and it will be cleaner (nose cavity) and will not smell too bad when boiling. I usually leave it soak overnight, but it can stay in water for 2-3 days if it is not too warm.

To speed things up I usually cut the back of the head and remove brain (Brain is edible and not too bad with scrambled eggs…).

Part 2 – Boiling out

As mentioned before, “cracking” meat falling off the bone is a good indicator how long to boil for. It will be around 25 minutes as on this video for a yearling buck for up to an hour in case of older roebuck. Red deer will be even longer, but it is much easier to look at the skinned facial part of the head and bottom jaw to figure out when it is done than looking at a watch. When it is underdone it will take twice that time to get it cleaned, when is overcooked it is easy to damage the trophy, teeth will fall off etc. Some damage can be fixed with superglue, but not all…

Cleaning should always start from the back of the head. Remove eyes, large chunks of meat and to speed things up I usually do a “V” shape cut with a saw to get into nose cavity. When all the bits from the nose cavity are removed, it is nearly done.

When I am happy with the result, I clean the skull with a brush under hot water to remove all small bits and pieces and fat.

Part 3 – Bleaching

I use Hydrogen Peroxide for bleaching. I got this strong solution off eBay. I usually brush it and cover with paper towels soaked in peroxide for a few hours. How long to bleach for depends how strong is the solution. To be honest it would be enough just to brush it with 35% peroxide, let it dry and then repeat the process, but it is a bit faster when covered with paper towels.

After bleaching I just rinse in cold water and leave the head to dry. It usually takes a few days to dry.

Deer stalking syndicates

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Apr 292012

For many of us joining a deer stalking syndicate is the only way to get into stalking in this country. I have done my fair share of paid stalking and I still do if I only have some spare cash. Sometimes my wife or I treat myself to a stalk on my birthday or Christmas, but unfortunately I cannot afford to do it as often I would like… I have met many good guys this way and had some great time with them and really appreciate that. I do go out with tested outfitters from time to time to maintain good relationship, but for me joining deer stalking syndicate was the way forward. I post this info on the blog now, as many syndicates renew their leases in April-May, and then people tend to join/drop.

How deer stalking syndicates work

Usually someone gets or bids on a piece of ground to gain the right to shoot deer. As it can be quite expensive, a lease holder shares the cost and deer stalking with syndicate members. Also depending on a ground it might be impossible for a lease holder to execute the cull plan single handed, so he/she will need some help.

A lease holder usually gets the lease from one of the major forestry companies or if more lucky it might be private. There is only a handful of forestry companies operating and offering deer stalking leases in Scotland, and they all have various requirements. The lease goes to the highest bidder, however Forestry Commission pretends to have “points system” to select most suitable candidate with various criteria such as access to quad bike and tracking dog, first aid, DSC level 2 and other qualifications. They also supposed to prefer local stalkers, but I am not sure if this is the case.

Where to find information about deer stalking syndicates

If you want to become a lease holder and tender on a lease, main forestry companies advertise available deer stalking from time to time on their websites or via mailing lists.

If you want to join a syndicate, Internet and deer stalking and hunting forums are the best source of information. If you are lucky enough you might find out a lot of information about the ground, lease holder and previous cull figures from ex-members.

Many syndicate places are not advertised as it is quite easy to find candidates to join established and good syndicates, so you have to meet and talk to local people, attend local Deer Management Group or BDS meetings.

Because there is many more people looking for a syndicate than vacancies, some luck is also needed…

What to look for before joining

I have heard many horrible stories about people joining to find out there was no deer, or twice as many members as supposed to be, or the ground is booked all the time… so try to find out as much as possible before joining.

Cost

You will have to do the maths and calculate if it is worth joining. As a rule of thumb Forestry Commission land usually will cost £100 a roe. So with a cull plan of 30 roe deer the guide price for the lease will likely to be around £3000. With a typical syndicate of 6, a member would be expected to pay around £500 per annum. It is just guide price and it might be less if the ground is not too big (below 1000 acres) or much more if red, sika or fallow deer are present. Think about how many times per season you are going to go there, how far it is, cost of fuel etc and just do the meths yourself if it is worth the money.

Cull figure

For me this is most important factor besides the cost. Lease holder will have a cull plan to meet (if not met he/she will likely loose the lease… With a lease from one of the forestry companies cull plan can be exceeded no problems – they really hate deer and want them out…), and previous cull figures give good indication whether there are many deer or not at all. If the cull figures exceed the cull plan it is fair to assume there is a good number of deer present, but it must be confirmed during inspection (you have to go and walk the ground to state the obvious…) before joining. Some leases might include the clause the forestry company might send professional stalkers when cull numbers are not met, so make sure you know what is in the paperwork.

Location/Access

Make sure you know the type of ground and have a map of it. Walk the boundaries and check forestry tracks. It is usually more productive ground if there are some open spaces, restock and clear fell areas. There is not much fun with a mature woodland and only rides and tracks to stalk… Also Scottish mature forestry is often in a shocking state with plenty of wind damage trees on rides and rotten fences… It is green, but not very pleasant to the eye…

If you do not have 4×4 and quad like me, make sure you will be able to get to the forestry in any weather and get the deer out. It is not much fun to drag a stag through overgrown rides or mature sitka/pine forestry. I carried two roe in a roe sack numerous times from the other side of the forestry, and always swear it was the last time… but I somehow to it again… Also several times had to leave my car a mile away from the forestry because of snow or rain… Just be prepared to do that if you do not have 4×4…

Other members

Try to find out how many active members are there and whether they are local or not. There are many syndicates run by people living hundreds miles away and only visiting a couple of times a year. This might be good for you if you are local and can go out frequently leaving weekends for those who have to travel.

I also heard about syndicates with all members local and actively shooting, one on Monday, another on Tuesday, and so on, which must be a real pain and they must disturb the place and make deer nocturnal and impossible to stalk and execute the cull plan…

Do your homework

Listen to other people before you join. Try to get as much information as you can, talk to ex-members, why they dropped and their impressions. And most important: go and walk the ground. If possible ask lease holder to show you around and also walk the boundaries and promising places with map. Look at tracks. Are there tracks of all resident deer species? If it is mainly roe deer you should see fraying marks. Count them to estimate the number of mature bucks. Even though it is not the time of fraying, you should still see fraying marks from the previous year.

In promising “deery” areas you should see deer dung. In mature forestry there should be plenty on rides and boundaries. Count them and mark the places on your map, it is valuable information.

Look for high seats. There should be a few in critical places. If not you might need to build some, adding to the cost…

Look for human tracks as well. Are there many dog walkers, bikers, etc? They might be disturbing deer and out there at any time of day and night…

When you find a syndicate, enjoy it, you paid for the pleasure! Go as many times as you like respecting other members, shoot some deer and spend a lot of time to get to know the ground, your success ratio depends heavily on how good you are at finding deer. And deer will be in different places at different time of year, weather, wind etc. You have to spend a lot of time out there to figure it out.

There is always risk involved, just make sure you know what you are doing and you did all you could to check the ground. Good luck!

Invited roe deer stalking and got my first buck this season!

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Apr 202012

With a good last season finished I was quite optimistic looking forward coming new buck season. Roebucks are in season starting 1st April here in Scotland and can be shot until 20th October when again does become in season until 31st March. This gives unique chance (at least I do not know of any other European country…) to hunt roe deer all year round. Shooting heavily pregnant does in March or bucks without antlers in October might not be to everone’s taste, but at least there is a good reason to go out with the rifle and enjoy countryside. Just no need to shoot them…

Roebucks

On the syndicate ground, there is no deer management in place and it is a forestry company that dictates the rules and they are only interested in cull plan numbers and they do not care about population age structure, sex ratio or anything like that… One also has no powers over what other members shoot, so it all comes down to shooting what one think is shootable…

Good deer management would require a Spring census so you know your deer numbers, get to know some of your mature bucks, bucks to does ratio and make some extrapolation to get overall deer numbers on the area and detailed cull plan, but it is just theory if you do not have your own lease…

So my policy generally is to take any young (yearling, two years old) bucks as early as possible before mature bucks push them off the ground. I would also take some mature bucks if they are clean and leave the ones in velvet for later.

April is not a good month here and bucks usually disappear before they start fraying and marking territories later in the month and in May. I was out a couple of times and saw several mature heavily pregnant does that feed intensely before giving birth soon. Bucks were very elusive and I only saw one buck still in velvet but never got a chance to age him and clearly see the antlers.

Invited again

A friend kindly invited me again stalking his ground. He left in the place where I got a buck kid last time and he went to the high seat where I scared off the deer opening scope covers… :roll:

He made very comfy doe box from where I took the shot last time. It was still early but I made myself comfortable and started scanning the clearing and the edge of the plantation in front of me. The policy for today was to take any buck as there are plenty of them and roebucks this year do make a lot of damage to young trees.

After half an hour a doe appeared no more than 20m away from the box I sat in. She was looking at me but could not clearly figure out what I was, but was clever enough to pass me and get down wind. She sniffed the air and soon was gone barking…

I got text message saying my friend was having three bucks in front of him, soon followed be another text saying he got one.

I was texting him back when I caught a movement behind me. An old beautiful buck was running away from me towards the plantation. He must have caught my wind as he was alert looking at my direction, but clearly could not see me. He paused for a moment in from of the trees just to give me a chance to look at his antlers, but I never had time to fetch my rifle nor the camera…

A few minutes passed when I spotted a movement, again behind me. It was a young 4-pointer still in velvet walking behind the doe box no more than 30-40m away. Wind was not in favour this morning and he soon was alert as the 6-pointer earlier, but being young he was not that quick to run away a paused a few times giving me a chance to take the shot.

He was slightly quartering at maybe 120m when I pulled the trigger. I saw the bullet strike and that he was running away towards me with one of the legs clearly dysfunctioned. By the time I texted my mate he already gralloched his buck and was with me in a few minutes.

Video

180gr Speer SPBT and meat damage

I was keen to try my new reloads on roe deer. I thought they could be a good choice on both roe and reds and despite the fact they made a bit of a mess to try them again. The fact is any bullet that goes through the shoulder would make a bit of a mess. Because the bullet went through both shoulders it left significant meat damage, but it was my fault in the first place, as the shot should have been a bit further back, but due to the position the buck was in, it would have clipped the other shoulder on exit anyway… I will give these Speer bullets another chance to see how they perform in more typical broadside through the ribs shots…

It was a nice buck weight 31lb clean (14kg) and missing one leg as it was nearly shot off… Very good weight for a yearling, and I would be happy our forestry roe at that age to fetch 10-11kg, but they often are not even that…

Aging roe deer

This is a good example showing aging live deer is not as straight forward as some may think. Shooting a buck kid last month and uploading it on YouTube prompted a few people to accuse me of shooting bucks out of season. (To clarify it is perfectly legal to shoot male kid when a doe has been or is about to be shot in Scotland. I was not sure how it was in England and Wales, but after many told me it was illegal, it prompted me to have a look for myself. The Regulatory Reform Order (Deer) 2007 (England and Wales) amended Deer Act 2001 and since 2007 some changes were introduced. Roe doe season was extended, muntjac and CWD could be shot with .223 and such, and… it allowed shooting male roe kids in doe season with very similar wording as in Scottish deer law…)

I knew it was a young buck before I pulled the trigger and had not much time to look at it properly, but would have said it was a 2-years old, not a yearling. On further inspection it looked like a 2-years old being heavier and in better condition than the obvious yearling my mate just shot. Side by side they looked like younger and older brothers, but when I looked at his teeth, it was a yearling after all!

When I shot the buck kid a month earlier we could see he was a part of the trio of a doe and two kids. A nice kid, but not a yearling. This is how he would have looked like in April…

Deer hunting season 2011 – 2012 summary

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Apr 062012

Another deer hunting season ended and new roebuck season in Scotland opens! Time to summarize.

Logbook

I do have a logbook (and encourage everyone to have one!) where I write down all my outings, what I saw, what I got, weather, etc. It often helps me make a decision where to go at particular time of year. I usually have a plan where to go and where I know particular animal I am interested in should hang about, but I also often especially in summer do not have a clue where to go. In that case logbook can be quite useful and I try and go where I saw deer previous years.

Last season was quite good, but I skipped a few things I used to do. I usually got at least one wild boar, but not this past season. I usually also got a few days wildfowling and pigeon shooting, but I had no chance last season either…

My best roebuck

I got a few roebucks, including probably my best so far. It was particularly memorable as it was one of my first outings with camcorder and I got the footage and a shot. It was my first buck that season.

I also got one Scottish stag. It was a good experience and after a 300m drag I was really exhausted. I am glad I never shot any other stag, but let me tell you I was tempted to do that… In comparison to previous year when we had a red rut in full swing late October, this year I never heard any roaring and really missed all the action or it was very quiet this time.

This season was also good on roe does and I got quite a few and our freezer was usually full during winter months, but now I have some free space again

Youtube

This is first time I really started filming and thanks to all who watched, subscribed and cared to leave comments. Many people got in touch and I really appreciate all that. I hope you all like what you see and I will try to improve my editing and shooting (both rifle and camera) technique.

Many people got in touch via YouTube and I also got invited deer stalking and it was a great experience. Thanks again for this, you know who you are!

Next season looks quite promising. I should be able again to film some roebuck and wild boar stalking in Poland as well as deer in Scotland.

Thanks a lot again for reading the blog and watching on YouTube!

Happy hunting!

Why I do not like head shooting deer…

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Mar 292012

I was out a couple of weeks ago just to have walk as weather improved a lot and it really started to look like spring time. It was a bit windy, good conditions for a stalk. I always prefer stalk to ambush, but on this forestry ground it is impossible to walk silently and with no wind it really makes no sense to stalk. However, when it is windy it is much easier to get closer to deer. This morning I wanted to have a long walk.
I covered a lot of ground and saw absolutely nothing and decided to go back to the track and to the car when I spotted a single roe on the ride in front of me. It was 300m away from me, so I watched it for a while and tried to get closer. I could see using my Zeiss 8×56 binoculars that there was something wrong with this deer, but I could not figure out what. The roe was either facing away from me or was hidden in a dip, but there was definitely something wrong.

I managed to get to within 100m, but the deer was hidden in a dip and I did not want to risk getting any closer so I lay down on the heather. I put my Harkila roe sack on the ground and rifle on top of it. I also turned on my camera, but unfortunately there was no time to use a tripod… I was down there for about 10 minutes and thought maybe the deer moved away to the forestry and was tempted to stand up and have a look when the roe kid appeared from the dip on the ride. There was not much time to think about and it conveniently paused broadside. As soon as it paused I squeezed the trigger. It jumped high and I could see the .223 bullet strike behind the shoulder. I knew it was hit, and thought it was down there dead on the spot, but after waiting a few minutes I approached, but to my surprise it was not anywhere to be seen…

I soon found the place where the roe was when I pulled the trigger and there was some lung tissue, so not too bad. It took me a while to find the trace as the deer run different way I expected and was well hidden under the spruce branches.

Now I could see what happened. The roe kid had a fresh head shot wound. It was dry, but not infected, I think it was only a few days old. The deer must been suffering a lot, but its bottom jaw was in fact intact and it was trying to feed. It was a head shot side on when the bullet smashed the top of the head. On further inspection the kid was a bit thin, but with empty stomach and weight only 7kg.

I suspect this is a result of poaching as no one had been shooting this ground for a while or the deer was shot on neighboring ground.

Head shooting deer

I was never a fan of head shooting deer. I must admit I have done it once or twice on wounded deer to dispatch it, but never head shot a healthy one. I am just not convinced it is the best place to put the bullet and am not confident enough in my shooting abilities. I have shot a few wild boar aiming just behind ear, but this is much bigger target than deer’s head and bigger margin for error. If you miss 3-4″ each direction it is still dead wild boar with a bullet hitting neck or middle of the head. In case of deer, it is not so. There is a good article of last BDS’s Deer magazine where Charles Smith-Jones writes about two recent cases where two poor head shots resulted in deer suffering and dying. One case was of a deer shot side on with damaged jaw, but the second case was a bit more unusual. When you ask people favoring head shooting you might sometimes get a reply “I only shoot when deer are facing me or away and it is always dead deer or miss”. However, Charles Smith-Jones shows photos of a deer that was found dead with a bullet that went on the back of deer’s head and out, but not expanded enough to case an instant death. This shows that this kind of shots (as any other shot….) can go wrong.

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.308 Win load development with Speer 180gr SPBT bullets over Vihtavuori N140 powder

Deer Stalking Blog 1 Response »

Mar 252012

When I bought my .308 Win rifle I got 2 boxes of Sako 150gr SP ammo with it and shot a few roe with it. I think majority of deer dropped on the spot with a few making 10-40 yards tops. I was quite happy with it but the bullet clipping shoulder usually resulted in excessive damage to the front or even worse burst rumen. When I got into reloading first bullet I tried was Hornady 150gr SST which was not too bad. I still have a few reloads and it was also very effective, much more accurate but very similar to Sako SP resulting in some meat damage on roe. Following my experience with .30-06 I also use that behave a bit better with heavier bullets I decided to try new bullets. I wanted either something heavier or not as quickly expanding as the SST. I got a few bullets in mind, but as always the bullet choice in local shops verified everything… For some reasons Scots do not like bigger calibers and heavier bullets and for .30 cal there is usually a choice of 150gr and 123gr , but little 180-220gr.

Speer 180gr SPBT

I had a choice of Hornady and Speer SPBT 180gr so I just got Speer to try something different… I decided to use the same powder I used for 150gr SSTs – Vihtavuori N140 and large rifle CCI 200 primers. This time I used once fired RWS brass I got cheap, but I had to full size it before using. So this time I could not use my Lee Classic Loader kit.

Lee Hand Press

As I have limited space at home when I came across second hand Lee hand press with a few extras I bought it. I also got used RCBS dies. I needed a full length sizing die as RWS brass was fired, but not in my rifle so it needed full sized. I used RCBS lube and small Hornady pad which comes with a convenient loading tray for 50 rounds. Lee hand press is another good Lee product I recommend. It takes very little space and even using full sizing dies it is not too tiring to use. You have to find comfortable position and rest one arm of the press on your leg (I know it looks like I am struggling on video, but only because it was not a comfortable position, just wanted to film it the best I could). I used Lee trimmer and chamfer together with Lee primer pocket cleaner to prepare sized cases.

Finding right load

I looked at loading manuals and found recommended starting load to be 38gr of Vihtavuori N140 and 44gr maximum load. I again wanted to use Lee dippers to speed up the process. Both min and max loads where quite close with volume to Lee dippers I could use. So I used 2.8-3.2cc in five 0.1cc steps.

Volume	2.8cc	2.9cc	3.0cc	3.1cc	3.2cc
Weight	38.2gr	39.6gr	40.9gr	42.3gr	43.7gr
Dippers	2.8cc	1.9cc+1cc	2.5cc+0.5cc	3.1cc	2×1.6cc

I made 20 rounds in total, 4 of each powder load with the same COAL and went to try them out. First one 38.2gr group was 1.4″, the same as the second load 39.6gr. The third group was slightly better at 1.2″ and I knew I a bit pulled one of the shots… The fourth group (42.3gr of N-140) grew again to 1.4″ and the last one was best at 1″.

Too Hot

Even though the last group was best, it was close to maximum load and a bit too hot with some rounds resulting in a “sticky” bolt difficult to open and some extractor marks on the brass. So, I decided to work around 40.9gr load as it was safe and most promising. You can see extractor impressions on the photo, these are small circles on the bottom of the brass.

Finding right COAL

COAL	2.790″	2.800″	2.810″	2.820″	2.830″
Group	0.4″	1.2″	1.4″	0.6″	1.1″

As my SST load was not grouping well close to lands I made up 5 different loads with COAL ranging from 2.790″ to 2.830″ where the longest one was about 0.015″ off the lands.

The first load I tried was around 2.790″. I say around as with Speer bullets being soft point they differ quite a bit and I do not have any fancy tool to measure to ogive. I simply measure the whole cartridge and know how long they are on average. The SSTs were much more consistent being plastic tip type. The first group was really good at 0.4″. The second group with COAL of 2.88″ was 1.2″ with the third one (2.810″) at 1.4″. The fourth group was a bit more than 0.6″, but a strange thing happened and one of the bullets was not on the target. I think I got one of the small branches that or grass and the bullet fragmented and hit low below the target… The last group (2.830″) was 1.1″.

I think I will settle on the 40.9gr of N140 and 2.790″ COAL as I do not think I can shoot any better that 0.4″ at 100m. I will make a few more rounds just to see if it is consistent and am planning to test this load on roe and roe deer this coming season.

When I was shooting a few round landed in wet grass and heather that is acting a bit like ballistic gel and I managed to recover some of the bullets. They are not bonded as jacket and lead separated so will see how they work on deer. I hope they are not too quickly expanding but time will tell.

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