First Doe of the season.............at last!

re'M'ington · November 26, 2009

I haven't posted for a bit,cos I've been a bit off kilter lately,but,I am still alive and here we go.............

I have been having a really hard job coming into contact with a Doe so far this season,and,after 4 blank stalks and only bumping one Doe during those times I was starting to wonder where they had all gone. :pondering:

So,when a mate asked me if I was doing anything today,I jumped at the chance(we do take it in turns to visit each others land),and,after an early start we drove to the first farm,and,my mate was sure we would see one or more,and we tramped down over the fields to where we would set up our ambush.The sky at this point was pretty clear,and,we had a spring in our step.

But,as they say.......all the best plans of mice and men go tits up,and,the field where we were expecting the Roe to come out into had a small herd of cattle in there,so,my mate slowly walked up the right hand side of the hedge(cattle side)and I set up on the sticks on the left hand side looking up towards a small copse in the hope that if they were staying just inside the copse he might push them out towards me,and,as he got to what must of been half way up the hedge an amazing Muntjac wandered out and trotted away from me back towards the copse,so,I gave a bark,and he stopped dead still,but,never turned round enough to get a decent shot,so,another bark,and he did turn just as he got to the copse,but,for no more than a split second and he just merged into the undergrowth.....as they have a bad habit of doing.But,as I told my mate that had had a fleeting glance of him on the other side of the hedge,he was almost certainly a medal Buck and one to keep an eye out for.

Anyway,by this time the light was well and truly up,and as the heavens opened up we decided to go on to another farm a few miles away.We got to the farm and had a chat in the truck for a little while until the 'Flash Flood' style downpour abated,and we then set off with a bit of blue sky and even a sight of the sun coming out.This farm usually has a few cattle on,but not a lot else,but,it does have a plantation right at the bottom which is next to the railway line.Although the plantation has 7' fencing,the farmer isn't allowed to fence off the railway side.......I know,a ####### joke!but that's beaurocracy for you........twats! As you can imagine the deer just walk along the rail lines and drop down over into the plantation to help themselves like a drive-in Macdonalds.We did bump one in there,but,she just disappeared not to be seen again.We were slowly running out of land,and,isn't it always the same......you see them in the last field,well this was nearly right today,it was the last but one field.As we came up to a gateway my mate spotted a Doe on the far side of the field,and,he very graciously gave me the nod,and I slipped the rifle onto the sticks,but,she was very jumpy and trooted off down the hedgeline where she met up with another Doe and a Buck that was by the way still in hard antler.I tried to get into a better position,but,they sprang off,and went through the hedge into the next field,and,I must admit to thinking that they would by now be long gone,but,we headed across the field to a break in the hedgeline,and,lo and behold there they were,and they were settled again,and just graizing as they wandered slowly across that field.I again set the rifle on the sticks and picked my Doe,I took a quatered shot at about 100yds,and,she ran(quite determinedly)about 30yds taking the others with her,and then she sat down and keeled over.By this time my mate was also on target and took his Doe at more like 125yds and he had almost exactly the same result a long run which ended in a very dead animal.Both were lung shot with almost no damage at all.So,I had broken my duck for the season,and,hopefully now they will come a bit thicker and a bit faster.