PICTURE:
ROB GREENWOOD
I
t’s always great to do a cashless deal. Having
recently started fly fishing in earnest, I’ve been
able to make deals with lifelong fishermen who
are wishing to take up deer management. The
other evening, such a pal and I met up after work.
We chatted through the trials and tribulations of
each of our days and pinched ourselves that we
were lucky enough to be off out to the local
countryside to look for a roe buck or muntjac.
Richard has previously shot over 40 deer,
including muntjac, roe, fallow and a leucistic sika
pricket. This has generally been done from a high
seat with the ready-made backstop of the ground
to offer confidence when taking the shot, so my
intention this May evening was to set him up for
his own foot stalk, which would hopefully be a
memorable one.As ever, after we’d crashed around, changing
shoes for boots and sorting out sticks, dogs and
loading rifles, we looked up and spotted a young
buck cross the main ride, so we scuttled down the
ride quickly to where he had crossed, only to spy
him drifting off into the hazel coppice. We had
both brought our Pulsar handheld TI spotters and
tried to follow him further, but lost him while
stalking him through the wood. Instead, we
stumbled on a young badger over his sett, who
was noisily foraging about. He was easy to
approach as we were upwind of him, and of
course, badgers have poor eyesight too.
We continued with my intention, which was to
get out to the edge of the wood, where we could
perhaps intercept deer as they began to feed in
the fields. With the Labrador helping by raising hishead and scenting, we squeezed through the
hazel and hawthorn hedge and negotiated a
rather dilapidated ‘Tiger trap’ style hunt fence, to
enter a youngish plantation with dappled shade.
Sabbath, the Lab, was now very intent and
stood peering into the cover, so we squatted with
him and scanned the area with our spotters... the
scene was illuminating. Four heat sources glowed
ahead. Using our binoculars, we concurred it was
a family group of muntjac and a roe buck.
Sitting with the dog, Richard was sent off to
stalk and cull the roe. While he was gone, all three
of the muntjac approached us and stood with
their noses in the air trying to ascertain what we
actually were: dog or man or both? After a short
while, there was the resounding ‘bang... thwack’
of a well-placed shot. It must have been fairly
close as the sounds were almost
indistinguishable. We waited until Richard
appeared with a broad grin and an accomplished
look on his face.
It was the perfect opportunity to use some of
Napier’s Apex Range, as they have asked me
to be one of their Field Masters – a new
group of industry professionals,
dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in
fieldsports. For some time, Napier of
London has benefited from feedback
from around the world, and has always
sought consumer comments to aid the
development and improvement of its products.
On this occasion, I used the Apex 46 knife, which
fresh out of the box and sheath easily grallochedBuck tales
Rod Greenwood puts some vital pieces of stalking kit to the test and reminds us of some
useful follow-up techniques on an outing for roe buck and muntjac
To view
Napier’s range, visit
http://www.napieruk.comGAMEKEEPING
WITH ROD GREENWOOD
Richard catches up with this roe buckNapier of London Apex Tree Hugger