SS05.15/48/p89
PEST CONTROL DIARY | FIREARMS
rock I shot from, which I had to keep looking
back at for a reference. It took me 20 minutes
to get to the location then another 10 to fi nd
the animal.
SOFT TISSUE AND HARD FACTS
The bullet had done its job making a clean entry
and exit resulting in a quick clean kill with no
meat damage. Truth is it’s not so much about
the calibre but more about where the bullet hits
as in fl esh, bone or combination of both. I have
found a decent 150-grain, .30 calibre bullet on
roe will not expand as much unless it hits bone
as it would on a larger species. This results in
little bruising so good for all deer species.
I have also found that many stalkers tend to
read too much about ballistics and end up
getting confused. For me it’s not so much about
calibre or bullet type but shot placement! As for
the range a shot is normally taken between 100
and 200 yards, so if you sight your gun 1” high
at 100 then you don’t have to worry about it
shooting high or low as the bullet strike will be
within the two inch kill zone.
The same thing goes when shooting up or
down a hill a bullet won’t run out of steam going
up like us 60 year olds or go faster downhill!
Aim at your intended target and it will go down.
However, I would advise you get to know where
the bullet strike is at shorter ranges. It’s these
so called easy shots that can result in a miss if
you do not know these facts. Nothing more
blows your confi dence than to miss at these
distances. I shouldn’t tell you this but I missed
a fox this morning at less than 20 yards my only
defence is it caught me by surprise and it was
walking but at least it was a clean miss. It
wasn’t the rifl e or the scope it was me, and I
should know where to aim, but it happens to
us all.
LIFE’S A DRAG!
Going back to the problem of carcass
extraction, quite often even an Argocat cannot
get close enough due to unfavourable terrain,
so it’s down to man power alone. Which is the
reason I make a cut just big enough to enable
me to perform the gralloch and no more, so
interior contamination is kept to the minimum,
as once you start dragging it you never know
what will get inside, I also shorten my drag rope
too to lift as much of the carcass off the ground
as possible for the same reasons.
Though a lot of stalkers go for the full pelvis
to chin cut along with legs and head off ; the
only time I have done that is when I’ve had a
large red that I’ve quartered up on the spot and
carried off a piece at a time in a roe sack. For
drag ropes I use a length of Para cord with a
short piece of plastic pipe for the handle, which
makes it more comfortable to haul on. It also
doubles up as a leg tie for roe and smaller
species allowing me to carry them over my
shoulder. Also good it’s great for emergencies
such as if my belt or boot lace snaps or like
what happened on my fi rst doe stalk when my
sling broke and it allowed me to make a
temporary one! The beauty of it is the cord rolls
up so small when not in use it will fi t into any
pocket. Like all my equipment it’s practical and
reliable with a multitude of uses. It cost me a
quid from the Pound Shop and is probably the
cheapest bit of kit I have but the one bit of kit
that’s done the most work.Simple and
effective; Howard
uses a drag line
made up of Para
cord and a tubular
plastic handleShooting these three hinds was the fun part now you
have to get them off the hill, which is the hard part!