74 SHOOTING SPORTS MAGAZINE
FIREARMS | HUNTING STORY
away the surface to reveal the earth below,
again visual in nature although I have seen
buck’s scent mark with urine and stamp a
hoof print or slot into it, just for good
measure. See one of these and you are on
the right track.PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
But this stalking week did not start off well
as four days in foul weather, which I actually
like as it keeps the foliage under foot silent
when you stalk, made the going hard work
albeit challenging.
I packed up my trusty 30-47L Predator
rifl e but this week I was trialling some new
Leica Magnus scopes, the Predator wore a
1.5-10x42 illuminated model, great for the
terrain I was stalking in and would prove its
worth later in the week.
In the interim I made up my game plan to
hunt the areas where the most fraying was
evident yet keep a safe distance to allow
minimal disturbance and achieve good
observation and then a stalk in. Soundsgreat but Mother Nature does not always
play ball and the wind necessary to stalk this
scenario would be a North or easterly if the
deer were not to smell me.
Guess what, South-Westerly’s all bloody
week! I could not get around the problem
literally due to land not belonging to the
owners so I had to make do. Here stealth,
inch by inch stalking, crawling on all fours is
the name of the game with constant testing
the wind. My only hope that the wind under
the tree line on the ridge I was aiming for
would be different. It was worse! Directly up
the ridge and into prime roe territory. It was
no wonder the fi rst two outings ended in the
bucks barking and running off long before I
even saw them. First round to the roe!TIPPING THE BALANCE
The next evening I was determined to tip the
balance in my favour and in fact fate played a
part as the wind died to nothing. In some
ways it was a god send but in others now the
woods echoed to the merest noise or twigunder foot. I slung the rifl e and inched my way
across the fi eld to the woods edge hugging
the marram grass and tree line as best I
could. The Leica Geovid binoculars were glued
to my face as I scanned every undulation for
deer’s ears, antlers or signs of activity.
Never assume roe are not present just
because you cannot see them, they are there
and it takes a few days for the eyes to
become accustomed to new surroundings. As
my boots squelched on every foot step
across the fi eld I felt really conspicuous but
so far no barking; a good sign but no activity
either, a bad sign. I slowed down to a tree by
tree stop and view as new avenues or vistas
were revealed. Then as I stepped over the
granite out crop marking by midway point a
fl ick of an ear revealed a doe feeding quietly
on a herby plant on the forest fl oor and soon
I spied two yearlings close by. Totally unaware
of my presence some 55 yards away I
watched intently as they played and fed
together. Sadly no buck and I followed them
slowly from tree to tree as they eventuallyLining up the Leica
Magnus scopes reticule
on the buck’s vitals“The Predator wore a
1.5-10x42 illuminated model,
great for the terrain I was
stalking in and would prove its
worth later in the week”
BRUCE POTTS SAYS:
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SS05.15/28/p