A good way to start the season.

[trucraft]

Nothing longrange but a very successful morning in the south of England.

A friend of mine has a big lease with a pretty high annual cull figure dictated by the estate.
Instead of picking off one or two deer each outing throughout the season and then getting to january with still another 20 or 30 deer to make up he has had to rethink the strategy.
So we now have a handfull of deer moves throughout the season. A couple early on and a one or two later in the new year.

We Started the buck season off at 4am on the 1st of August with a few of us in highseats and two guns slowly stalking on foot.
It was a successful morning taking the cull into double figures.
Once the hardwork at the larder was done we headed to the estate range for a BBQ breakfast and a few shoots at paper.
I wish I had a few photos as it was a beautiful hot day and a really nice way to start the season with a few mates.

We were out again this Saturday morning (start of doe season) to get stuck into a big forestry block. A nicely laid out mixed woodland with all the rides on a grid system and a number of established highseats spread out.

The fallow were still rutting and we were under strict instruction to only take cull animals, leaving good prickets and descent mature bucks.
After taking a Fallow doe and a roe and her follower all within 50 yard of the seat I was ready to call it good. The plan was to wait in the seat until I got a call so I sat it out a little longer.
Towards the end of the morning I suddenly saw a big dirty white buck come crashing through the woods towards me. Just before he disappeared into some spruce I manage to bark at him and he stopped long enough to make a split second cull assessment and squeeze off a shot. He ran on into the spruce plantation behind my seat with very little reaction to shot leaving me slightly concerned. Firstly had I made a good call on the quality of the buck and secondly how good was the shot placement. I was itching to get down and get the dog for a follow up but knew better and sat tight. Less than 15min later I heard a noise right behind my seat and turned round to see a glimpse of grey and white through the spruce no more than 10ft behind me. I wound the mag on my scope right down and turned in my seat just as a pricket stepped into full view. I put the very blurred crosshair just behind his shoulder and squeezed.

By now my mag and my ammo wallet were empty partly due to me mistaking 3 empty cases in my wallet as loaded rounds the night before.
I called up my mate to tell him I was heading down from the seat to retrieve the deer and proceeded to follow up the pricket I had just shot. I found him 30 yards in and laid no more than 15 yards up the same tree row I could clearly see the white buck I had shot earlier. Two perfect cull bucks.

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I was chuffed with the results of a good mornings work. By the time I come down from the seat at around 10.30/11am I had taken 3 fallow and 2 roe all with my little Tikka .243 and 95grn BT Noslers.

The rest of the guys had all seen deer and the total for the morning was 13.
I've never been one for going out to drop as many deer as possible but on some grounds with high densities of deer the job has to be done and you have to take your chances.
Helps if you take more than five rounds with you though.

 

[varmintH8R]

It is really interesting to read about and see what type of hunting you are doing "across the pond". I can honestly say I have never seen a creature quite like your white buck. Thanks for posting and nice shooting!

 

[HARPERC]

Thanks, I sometimes forget you folks are still in the game.

 

[LongRangeBangin]

Great story. Nice animals. Sweet rifle. Thanks for sharing

 

[ICANHITHIMMAN]

Great pica and story, how easy is it and how long does it take in england to get a rifle with a moderator?

 

[trucraft]

I don't often contribute to the site though I find myself on here at last once a day reading threads.
I really enjoy reading about how you guys hunt and comparing the differences and similaritys with what we do over here.
It's easy to take it for granted that the way you go about your sport is the same way that everyone must do it. It's actually not the case at all.

The white fallow are not uncommon.
Just not as nice looking as the common colour.
This buck has a very poor head and would certainly have held doe this rut. Not really the quality of sire I would choose to be passing his genes on.

I will try to post an example of a trophy fallow of a similar age.

How do you guys go about population control and improving the quality of the heard on private non fenced land?

I would always take the weak, old and poor quality first. Leaving anything that has potential or is in their prime.
I very rarely take good heads and choose to wait till they are past their best.

If you have a client after a big buck you would have a good idea of which animals and how many you could harvest being careful to leave sufficient beasts for the following rut

Can be frustrating when you manage your ground this way and the guy next door just blasts anything he sees.
This is more and more common as almost every farm has someone stalking on it.

Firearms application can take a matter of week to 6 months.
If you can prove you have good reason to own one then there is no major issues but they will question every calibre and scrutinize the need to own it.
Sound mod are the norm once you have a firearm so no issue there.

 

[trucraft]

Just an example of trophie buck of simular age to the white buck.
To show potential.

 

[redhaven85]

Very good shooting and interesting to read. It is always neat to see how the hunting is different everywhere you go.

 

[dogbuster0006]

Great story and write up!!! Congrats on another successful hunt.

I'm no expert in farm management but in my neck of the woods every one that hunts with us or on our land is under orders to shoot mature animals. It's frustrating to have pics of young bucks with great potential on our trail cams and see them growing only to have the neighbors blast everything with horns. It's sad but this seems to be the case with most places I've hunted and with most people I know. Unless you have a really large tract of land it's hard to manage the animals how we feel is proper.
For now we will do the best we can with what we have and try to keep the animals on our place as much as possible. We have the thickest nastiest cover for a long ways on one of our places and we try to keep feeders full from sept-feb and really monitor the trail cams as best we can. Now that we have the equipment needed to keep food plots in and maintained we will be covering all the open ground we have in winter wheat and clover, and a few high protein crops. Our deer have plenty of corn and soybeans to feed on through the summer and early fall and are generally fat and healthy come season.
I love to hunt predators and we try and keep them in check, there's no closed season in Kentucky for coyotes so there's a rifle kept close any time we are out and about. We manage our "little" places we've got 70 or so acres in one spot and about 30 in another the best we can. With out the cooperation of the neighbors it's just discouraging. We've only had these farms a short time and I'm pretty sure there's heavy poaching in the area which will only stop when I can be there full the time in a couple more years. It's amazing what you can do for a little money and a healthy dose of work.
Our goal is to have a place for all the wildlife in our area to live. We make piles with all our storm damaged trees and each time we re-clear the trails on our places. Keep a few feet on either side of our fence rows grown up for the small game to hide and hopefully the brush piles will hold rabbits and quail for years to come. From everything I've read that's the best thing you can do for them cheaply, we also leave most of the place untouched. We've got a mix of hardwoods which the animals seem to love "I've got a serious squirrel problem", which is great for my niece and nephew and I like hunting them too.

Good luck and happy hunting