Shooting Times & Country – 17 July 2019

Stalking

SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE • 25

Some fi ne stags

are too good

to shoot, while

others will be

saved for guests

are a beloved part of the ecosystem.

Each year we carry out a survey of

herbivore impact to monitor the

eff ect not only of deer but also sheep,

hares, rabbits and the occasional

goat. This forms the basis for our cull

fi gures, which are then agreed with

the neighbouring estates to make sure

everyone’s plans fi t together.

I abandon the bike and skirt

around the back of the knoll it sits on.

The wind is good for this approach

and I know that it’ll send my scent

away from both groups of stags. Long

strides cover this dead ground, the

stalker’s name for country that makes

you invisible to the deer. After a good

half-hour of trekking, I ditch the rifl e

and walk about 15ft to the left, just far

enough that my eyes can see over the

rise but the deer can’t see me.

My eyes always linger on the older

deer in these situations — these are

the wise elders that will make the

Sam pauses to

survey the lie

of the land

guests, and some that would fi t the

bill for today. I pick half-a-dozen stags

that I’d like a closer look at and, with

slightly more of them in the group

further away, I look for a way to close

the distance.

To give feeding and protection for

grouse, the land in front of me is a

jigsaw puzzle of patches and stripes,

burned or cut out of the heather. The

deer here occupy a mixed role — the

numbers cannot be too high to impact

the availability of young heather and

blueberry shoots for grouse, but they

distances is using a spotting scope.
I rarely go stalking in open country
without the three-draw Gray’s, slung
in its traditional leather tube. With
a foot on the handlebar I can brace
nicely into my knee in an almost
horizontal position.

Condition
You need that stability for the
telescope — manipulating it with
whatever comes to hand is normally
the best option. Slowly the circle
of vision passes through the deer,
creeping to a stop on certain animals,
picking up on the condition and
features of each beast.
Both groups are male, the hinds
and calves holding the fi ner grazing,
leaving the boys to the harder
country. The closer group is larger
and sweeping through them I can see
some stags too good to shoot, some
to be shot later in the season with