I have not been out much recently. Red deer rut is almost over now and I have not got a stag this year so far, but I am not complaining. I did not go out as often mainly due to the fact that the new baby should be arriving any day now, but is already late… 😆 Our syndicate ground is about an hour’s drive away and inside the forest poor mobile phone reception in case something happened. However, my local DMG manage roe deer on a young plantation and I was allowed to have a go myself. The ground is only about 40 minutes away and there is no problem with mobile phone reception in case I was needed home.
Plantation
This is definitely something different from the forestry lease I usually stalk. First of all it borders a busy motorway and traffic noise can give you a headache after a while. 🙄 This is post industrial terrain and the trees are not really doing that well. I don’t think this type of soil really suits the trees planted. 🙄 If deer get in they could do some damage to already quite poor quality trees and management plan for this area is quite simple – shoot everything that could be legally shot on sight. This means whole year round roebuck season and 1st September – end of March period when shooting does.
Despite being couple of years old, trees on this plantation are not very tall. Some still not even grew up from their protective tubings. Some are doing a bit better than other, but it is not like these trees are good cover when stalking. You can see deer – and deer can see you – from a long distance and they know they are not welcome here. When I come here I usually take bipod and sticks with me. I generally hate bipods when out stalking as they are useless in woodland stalking, but here actually they can be used and looks like longer shots could be required.
I managed to go out one evening and had a walk around the plantation checking out the usual places where roe like to hang about, but could not see a thing. Only on my way back to the car I spotted a single roe about 300m away. Wind was swirling a bit but I managed to get closer. However, the deer was off before I could squeeze the trigger… 🙁
I went back following evening. Weather was horrible. I planned to sit out in the cover at the edge of plantation where I thought it would appear again, but wind and rain made me move and I went to stalk the stripe of mature wood bordering one side of the plantation. The rain eased a bit and I came back to my original spot and the deer was already there… 🙄
I had to crawl for a while to get to a position I could get a safe shot. It was still a bit far and the deer moving away, but it paused long enough for me to squeezed the trigger.
Tracking
The deer ran away fast, but I thought it stumbled at the shot. I suspected the shot was a bit low heart shot that broke the leg, but when I got to the place where the deer was when I squeezed the trigger I could not find any blood. That was not good. I searched for a while unsuccessfully with torch and went back home. I gave a friend from the DMG a call and he kindly offered help in the morning.
I was back there at the first light, waited for a while and started tracking again. I found the place where the deer was at the shot, but no blood. After a while I found a piece of short pins stuck to one of the tubes. It looked like a leg hair, but no bones anywhere. Also not a drop of blood. I had to go back to work but marked the spot for the friend with a Bavarian Mountain Hound to check up later on.
The dog found the deer not too far away, but it ran away at speed on three legs when approached… It was not badly wounded as it was seen feeding and wondering around. I hate loosing deer, but at least I did my best to recover it. I will do my best to catch up with it again.
Deer hunting video
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