A friend invited me to join him roe stalking on his ground not too far away. Finally we agreed to meet one Staurday morning and spend an hour or two on one of his high seats. I was quite nervous as in case we got onto a suitable animal, it was me who had a rifle… I am not too bad a shot, but it is never easier if someone else is watching…

Anyway, I got to the meeting place just before 6am and he turned up a minute or two later. I moved my stuff to his jeep and off we were on out way to the ground. After just a few minues we parked the car near a few years old plantation. It was still early, but it looked very promising. Not too high conifer plantation with some broadleaves. It looked very “deery”.

We walked 2-300 yards and there was a nice double high seat overlooking open area with mature woodland behind it, and the plantation on the back. We  sat there for maybe half an hour when we spotted a movement between the trees in front of us.

Butler Creeks…

We soon managed to identify a doe with two kids. After a few minutes feeding between the trees, the doe made its way to the edge of the woodland, but the two kids were still playing further away. It looked like there were two buck kids, but no, it was a doe and buck kid. I turned on my camcorder to capture some footage, when suddenly the doe decided to cross the open space. All was going according to the plan, only I was not ready… I quickly put down the camera and reached for the rifle. At this point the doe was half way through the grassy field and the two kids were following. We were after the doe kid, which was the last one to cross the field.

All I had to do was, open scope covers, push forward safety catch and shoot. Unfortunately, even though I usually do it slowly and try to be as silent as possible, the doe was close enough and heard the click when I open the front scope cover… All we could see were three white rump patches and they all run away… 😯

We had a laugh, but it was a newbie cock up…

Fortunately, we still had time to go and visit different plantation. Again very nice area with a mixture of hardwood and conifers with a nice open ride in front of us. We made only 100m from the car when we again spotted a nice roe trio. This time we had to crawl a small distance to get into a convenient position. The deer were between the trees and bushes on the edge of spruce plantation. We again identified a mature doe with doe and buck kids. After a few minutes the buck kid moved slightly away from the trees and was in a shootable position. My friend was happy with me talking the buck kid and I made myself comfortable sitting no the grass with the rifle on the sticks.

Still a  bit nervous after previous cock up I wanted to show my marksmanship  😆

The kid cleared off all the branches and when he paused broadside, I squeezed the trigger aiming just behind the shoulder. He dropped on the spot and the two deer run away between the trees and disappeared. We approached the kid and the bullet hit the shoulder (I wanted it 2″ to the right…), but the deer was down and we were both happy.

YouTube

My friend was happy with me using pictures and video from the outing on my blog, so I uploaded the video on YouTube showing the Butler Creek cock up and the buck follower shot. As I did not take my camera out when we stalked the deer ( I did not want to lose a second chance that day..) I only showed dead deer when we approached. As it had 5-6cm antlers still in velvet it immediately prompted some individuals to insinuate poaching and out of season roebuck shooting…

The fact is, that it was indeed a buck kid and we both identified before the shot and confirmed that during gralloch and examination. However, many of the comments came from ignorants not knowing it is legal to shoot dependant roe kids of any sex in Scotland at doe season. However, I removed the part of the video with the kid off YouTube…

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