First roebuck 2014

A friend invited me for a stalk. I was really looking forward to it as it was only 10 minutes from my house and in the area I never stalked before. We met at 5am at the known spot and went to the farm. I was going to spent couple of hours in a high seat while my companion was stalking around the wood and surrounding fields. He had had a trail camera set in the wood and counted 4 different bucks: nice clean 6-pointer, nice 4-pointer and couple of spikers in velvet. He also mentioned he saw a good medal buck nearby to raise my blood pressure 😆

I got detailed instructions how to get to the high seat and was on my way. It was very misty, but I found my way to the wood ok and soon spotted a tall high seat. It was inside the wood overlooking a small clearing, but there were other largish gaps between the trees where I could squeeze in a shot if opportunity arose.

I was in the seat for about an hour when I heard two shots. It looked like we would not be going home empty handed. The deal was the farmer gets the venison if we manage to shoot something, so he should be happy. I was keeping my eyes open, but nothing was moving through the misty wood. Occasionally I could not see further than 40m, then with a fresh breeze the mist would move and I could see further on.

Eventually I spotted a movement to my right. Quick look through Minox 8×56 binos and good news – a buck. It was not the big 6-pointer though, just a small cull buck. Since venison for the farmer was the reason we were out, it was perfect buck for the freezer.

I aimed my camera to the larger gap between the trees as it looked like the buck could be moving that direction. I only had to be patient and lucky enough to stop him there. It took him a couple of minutes to move from where he was feeding into my chosen spot, but he was going where I wanted him to be. When he entered the gap between the trees I barked and he stopped. Since it was for the freezer I aimed behind the shoulders to save them and squeezed the trigger. The bullet strike looked good and the buck umped in the air, dropped and went up again. It looked like I broke his far shoulder anyway… 🙄 He only made 5-10 meters and dropped.

I went down to check him, and it was a good heart shot, but he paused with his far front leg stretched behind him and the bullet caught the corner of the shoulder, but from the .223 there should not be much meat damage anyway.

I went back to my seat and soon a doe appeared, but I soon got a phone call to gralloch and come back, so I went down with the knife to perform the gralloch. Soon my companion turned up and he managed to shoot a bronze medal buck. We had two bucks in the motor at 7:30am. Not too bad going.

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