Since years I've been shooting Sika deer in Ireland and never bothered with red deer. Mainly because we have so little in the areas I shoot and we just leave them alone, hoping they'll multiply. Last Sunday we planned on shooting some hills on the west coast of Ireland where red deer are more plentifull.
We set off at first light and the typical rain shower greeted us after a few hundred yards....it's rained every Sunday since beginning of September. After the rain shower the wind dropped and the sun came out. We had planned to cross the valley below us and meet our friends over the next hill but glassed a red stag and hind above us up the hill. Terrain was very wet and slippery after weeks of rain so stalking into the deer took a while. We must have overseen another stag lying in the grass as this different stag took off and took the Hind with him across the hill. The initial stag who had only one horn was trotting to the right of us moving slowly up the hill. Red stags are protected in our area and can't be shot but he might lead us to some female deer. Sure enough he passed three hornless deer and stopped to watch the valley. The laser said 420m. The direction that the deer were at was open terrain meaning we couldn't get any closer without upsetting them. For weight reasons I didn't have a bipod along but had taken my 308 that is always reliable. I dialled in a little over 10MOA and 2 MOA for windage and settled on my Rucksack as a rest. Normally we don't shoot big game at longer ranges but this was going to be the closest we'll get to these. Anyway I chose one of the Hinds and she dropped on the spot with a nice neck shot. Getting her back to the car was a different story as we kept her in one piece.
shot taken from the red x
edi
We set off at first light and the typical rain shower greeted us after a few hundred yards....it's rained every Sunday since beginning of September. After the rain shower the wind dropped and the sun came out. We had planned to cross the valley below us and meet our friends over the next hill but glassed a red stag and hind above us up the hill. Terrain was very wet and slippery after weeks of rain so stalking into the deer took a while. We must have overseen another stag lying in the grass as this different stag took off and took the Hind with him across the hill. The initial stag who had only one horn was trotting to the right of us moving slowly up the hill. Red stags are protected in our area and can't be shot but he might lead us to some female deer. Sure enough he passed three hornless deer and stopped to watch the valley. The laser said 420m. The direction that the deer were at was open terrain meaning we couldn't get any closer without upsetting them. For weight reasons I didn't have a bipod along but had taken my 308 that is always reliable. I dialled in a little over 10MOA and 2 MOA for windage and settled on my Rucksack as a rest. Normally we don't shoot big game at longer ranges but this was going to be the closest we'll get to these. Anyway I chose one of the Hinds and she dropped on the spot with a nice neck shot. Getting her back to the car was a different story as we kept her in one piece.
shot taken from the red x
edi
