Hi people
This thread is a bit of a risk as I am sure many of you will not entirely agree with shooting (or fishing for that matter sports) but they're important to me and yesterday was a memorable day.
If you don't like the idea of shooting game, please don't read.
I make no apoliges for brand name-dropping in this. Some equipment just works and it's worthy to mention. I've had some crap coats, and some great gloves in my life.
3:15 am the alarm went off. I slid outta bed, and crept into the spare room where all my shooting clothes were ready so I didn't awaken the family. It was gonna be cold this morning and I knew that by 5:30 am I'd be sat in a lush & green, but cold and potentially damp valley.
It's all about layers, trapping the warm air and being able to move and hold a rifle or a shotgun.
Thermal long sleeved vest-> micro fleece-> stretchy long sleeve tight thing I bought long aog in Lidl that I love -> Jack Murphy Fleece (heavy)
Seeland Marsh trousers (no thermals today, it's spring!)
Bootliner socks (skiing ones v thin) -> Peter Storm hiking socks (best I've ever owned, £9 a pair mind you!)
Seeland Marsh jacket over shoulder, and down the stoars as quiet a mouse... well.. a mouse with two air rifles slung over his shoulder and too much kit on!
Bag down stairs was ready. Barbour leather and waxed cotton : contents - new camo net from Amazon, Scrim (ex army), Gloves (musto, the best I've owned) and cap (your head really DOES lose the most heat)
Toast and cereal.. hard to deal with at 3:30 am, two cups of tea and then trainers on (for driving) and Seeland Neoprene Lined boots into the car with the guns and off....
45 minutes drive to Dak's
Had a present for him ... Amazon's finest cheapo magnetic LED lamp for the back of his van which, in the dark, with no original fit lamp is a damn liability)
Met him outside his house and loaded his armoury in and my two air rifles and off into the night again, headlamps cutting through the dark but clear morning.
Park up in the farm track, cap on, gloves on, scrim tight round my neck, Seeland jacket zipped tight, choose two guns .22 rimfire (with magazine) for bunnies and a .243 Winchester for the deer.... and off we walk quiet as soldiers.
Along the top of the v shaped valley and down to a small stand of rough hedges and bushes one side of the V
The other side is bunny land.. and normally the lower wide part of the V is where the deer walk through.
I bring an old foam camping mat to sit on, same as I use for working under my car and it's unrolled and I sit
Dak has a lovely tripod which you can squeeze a trigger and the legs drop and it's a one handed affair, so in moments we're sat, tucked up under the hedging and the cold night lightens to a bronze then a gold as the false dawn plays across England
I'm happy say there. I know he is too. We fidget a little as we become part of the countryside and he's comfy faster than me. It's not a car seat the wet ground. But I'm happy.
Sadly.. somewhere else.. the deer are happy... just not here.
Golden sun comes over the hill and we find we're covered in frost! This is when yuo know the layers worked.. your outter jacket is cold enough to have frost on it, and you're warm! Neoprene boots are working too... Dakky isd suffering a bit.. not such good footwear.. but he's impervious I think. Years of this.. and digging mole traps in frozen ground with bare hands, and tree surgery in pouring rain and howling winds.
Today I thank my lucky stars for the right kit...
but no deer....
however.. a large bunny is hopping about over the other side of the valley and we know there are LOTS over there. It's alone, no young ones with it.
Now as an aire rifle boy, which I am, I am still always surpised by how quiet a silnced .22 rimfire is. I mean.. my gun has a spring and a piston. His .22 rimfire is explosive, right? Makes no odds.. these .22's are soo quiet.
Dak's shot.. I hate his scope.. but he's had it for ever and he knows exactly where to put the lead and bunny down.
We sit quietly... binoc's used to make sure it's dead.. as a dodo as it goes. Awesome shot... over 100 m in twighlight Fair play.
Leave the bunny. They've normally got fleas so best left for a few hours for the "guests" to leave before picking it up.
Time passes and now the sun is high enough to warm my left shoulder. I siggest we tuck into the bush a little more but Dak thinks we're ok here.
The golden town in the distance is busy now.. trains passing in the distance. And distant building work kicks in. I can hear some poor sod grinding steel.
I'm ok though.. sat in the now warm sun and waiting .. waiting.
Waiting....
No deer....
Now it's at this point that Dak and Zak realise that we're be better off down in the woods shooting pigeons.. or,.. hell.. say HERE shooting the pigeons that ocasionally whoosh over head. We know we're hidden well.. the greens and brows we wear are good.. and when a pigeon crosses over head occasionally I move an arm wide in an ark and the pigeon takes instant evasive action.
We;'re hiddel alright.
Half an hour more..... we wait....
and just as we stand to leave this spot... Dak does what I normally do. He spots a deer.
It's just above the rabbit warren, stood on a slightly darker patch and fdor a second I think he's made. I whip the scope up and .. oh my word... he''s right!
Now.. I've got the Winchester, I've got the Tripod and I know it's my shot. We've been building up to this for a long time. Normally I'mn the spotter, and to be fair I'm really good. I spot deer and movement fast and he takes them down. It's his license and his guns and it's a massive responsibility, but I know I can hit it and he does.
I'm trained on the deer.. I can see it's a Roe :)
The UK has two native breeds.. Red and Roe. I wanted my first to be tradiotional :)
But I must wait. Dak has to tell me its the right one to shoot.
A) Seasonally no does (girls) now.. only bucks (males)
B) Is it too special to shoot. Is it a mammoth beauty who should be left to breed.
He whispers.. "that's the one .. al yours" or something similar.. if I'm honest I don't remember....
I just remember thinking "I love this tripod... its awesome"
I draw the cross hairs (and at this range it's nearly bang on his zero, so no need to aim high or low) up the fore leg.. and just where the shoulder joint is.. I move back a fraction to where the heart and lungs are, and notice the deer has massive lumps of coat falling off. Quite normal for this time of year, summer coat needed.
My breathing is calm, and all I get effected by is the fact my damn glasses are steaming up!
I can see what I need to hit and I squeeze the round off.
Lets talk ballistics.
the bullet is a soft point with a copper jacket. It weighs 100 grains (my normal .22 air rifle pellet weighs 18 grains)
It leaves the rifle, through a mammoth silencer, at about 2,400metres per second.
And I see the deer just drop.
Quite literally.. he just fell!
My word... I cant explain how pleased I was :)
NOT as pleased as Dak... now he WAS pleased!!!!!
I quickly reloaded in case anything had gone wrong, fumbled the bolt action for a split second but sorted it and we got across that valley fast!
Good clean kill.. I was very proud! And nbow the hard bit...
not the gutting (gralloching) - I love biology and Dak is excellent at it. Very clean and tidy
No.... the hard bit is....
DRAGGING the deer a very long way up the hills to the van!
Now.. it's at this point that all the clothes are just TOOOO MUCH.....
I've got a photo (which I won't post as people may find it offensive to see a man dragging a dead deer) but it's entlitled ONE MAN AND HIS DEER and I do look knackered in it!
So .. there you have it.
The rest of the day was spent stalking rabbit pigeons and squirrels with my HW95 .22 air rifle and then in the evening back to a different deer site where we awaited and were rewarded, amongst thick conifers, with a perfect shot on a roe.. doe! And she's out of season .. so of she wandered wondering who the two numpties were in the wood!
Don't think HEXUS has ever really gone in for such a thread but it's my hobby and I enjoy it greatly and fancied sharing it.
To assure everyone though: I eat and love venison, as does Dak. On Christmas Day a few months ago I had forsaken damn turkey for a m,untjac haunch which is my favourite and all meat soht my me is eaten by my family (pigeons shot by myself are eaten with some gusto by my yound lad, who happily sits watches as I prepare pheasants and pigeons, he truly loves biology and yearns for his first shooting trip).
Hope no one is offended and if you appreciate the change of tack in this thread please say so :)