Tim Blackwell
AH fanatic
- Joined
- Dec 16, 2011
- Messages
- 989
- Reaction score
- 3,226
- Location
- South Australia
- Website
- www.facebook.com
- Media
- 358
- Member of
- Australian Deer Association, Australian Association of Wildlife Artists
- Hunted
- Australia, New Zealand, Namibia, South Africa
My wife & I have just returned home to Australia, after a month's travelling through England, Scotland and France. The main purpose of the trip was to celebrate her 50th birthday, which we did in Paris with a trip to the Eiffel Tower followed by a night at the Moulin Rouge. But I did manage to sneak in three days of deer stalking in Norfolk, England which was a great experience.
My guide James was a fantastic companion with a lifetime of experience around the globe. And as a fellow Africa addict and deer man, we got along swimmingly.
I hunted for Muntjac and Chinese Water Deer, with a slim chance at a late-season Roebuck if we could find a mature buck still carrying antlers. Over our 3 days hunting we saw Muntjac, CWD, Roe, Pheasant by the thousands, Red and Fallow deer, all free range. I also got to visit a couple of historic estates and view their incredible Red, Fallow and Sika stags.
On the afternoon of day 1, after stalking several woodland areas and passing up a few younger animals, I got my Muntjac after a calling session in a small clearing. He came in behind us of course, so I had to ditch the sticks and shoot over a fallen tree trunk. James' Mauser M03 243 with Z6i Swarovski was spot on. Somehow the buck made it 50 metres into the undergrowth with a smashed heart and lungs, but after a few stressful moments we found him stone dead. A very cool and unique little deer, with his large glands, small antlers and fangs.
Right on last light we made a stalk on a CWD buck in a large open crop. We managed to get into range, but he just didn't quite have the maturity we were after this early on in the hunt.
Day 2 was extremely windy and cold on the back of a big storm front. We moved an hour away to a different area on a dairy farm to target Chinese Water Deer. Long story short, we hunted hard till dark and saw in excess of 50 deer, but just could not find the mature tusker we were searching for. But it certainly wasn't through lack of deer or effort!
These small deer are incredibly hard to judge. Females are a similar size to males, and there's obviously no antlers to go by. The hair on their chin is white, and you're trying to spot white fangs against it, while the head is constantly moving. Add to this, they're quite happy in open cropping country where you can often only see the tips of their ears. Beyond 150 metres, it was a tough undertaking to pick out a mature trophy male through the binos!
Our third and final day dawned wet, windy and cold, and I thought we might struggle to get it done. Game was certainly holding up in thick cover with sightings few & far between. Late in the afternoon, James opted to try a new spot which hadn't seen any pressure in some time. Leaving the truck and circling around a large pastured hill to get the wind right, we saw four deer along the way but none carried tusks. With the wind & rain not letting up, and my hands frozen and barely working, I thought our chances had run out. Right before last light, I was glassing to our left when James tapped me on the leg. "Are you on him?" He asked.
I slowly swivelled to my right, setting the sticks and sliding the rifle into place. Zooming the scope in, a quick look revealed a mature buck with reasonable tusks so I found the red dot at the base of his neck, now alert and quartering sharply on, and fired. He dropped instantly, to complete a nice representative pair of UK trophies. It was dark by the time we'd taken photos and caped him out. He isn't massive but actually had some wear to his tusks and torn ears from fighting, a good mature buck.
I was over the moon with my hunting experience. England isn't one of the first international hunting destinations we think of, but it offers a myriad of opportunities and a rich hunting heritage.
My guide James was a fantastic companion with a lifetime of experience around the globe. And as a fellow Africa addict and deer man, we got along swimmingly.
I hunted for Muntjac and Chinese Water Deer, with a slim chance at a late-season Roebuck if we could find a mature buck still carrying antlers. Over our 3 days hunting we saw Muntjac, CWD, Roe, Pheasant by the thousands, Red and Fallow deer, all free range. I also got to visit a couple of historic estates and view their incredible Red, Fallow and Sika stags.
On the afternoon of day 1, after stalking several woodland areas and passing up a few younger animals, I got my Muntjac after a calling session in a small clearing. He came in behind us of course, so I had to ditch the sticks and shoot over a fallen tree trunk. James' Mauser M03 243 with Z6i Swarovski was spot on. Somehow the buck made it 50 metres into the undergrowth with a smashed heart and lungs, but after a few stressful moments we found him stone dead. A very cool and unique little deer, with his large glands, small antlers and fangs.
Right on last light we made a stalk on a CWD buck in a large open crop. We managed to get into range, but he just didn't quite have the maturity we were after this early on in the hunt.
Day 2 was extremely windy and cold on the back of a big storm front. We moved an hour away to a different area on a dairy farm to target Chinese Water Deer. Long story short, we hunted hard till dark and saw in excess of 50 deer, but just could not find the mature tusker we were searching for. But it certainly wasn't through lack of deer or effort!
These small deer are incredibly hard to judge. Females are a similar size to males, and there's obviously no antlers to go by. The hair on their chin is white, and you're trying to spot white fangs against it, while the head is constantly moving. Add to this, they're quite happy in open cropping country where you can often only see the tips of their ears. Beyond 150 metres, it was a tough undertaking to pick out a mature trophy male through the binos!
Our third and final day dawned wet, windy and cold, and I thought we might struggle to get it done. Game was certainly holding up in thick cover with sightings few & far between. Late in the afternoon, James opted to try a new spot which hadn't seen any pressure in some time. Leaving the truck and circling around a large pastured hill to get the wind right, we saw four deer along the way but none carried tusks. With the wind & rain not letting up, and my hands frozen and barely working, I thought our chances had run out. Right before last light, I was glassing to our left when James tapped me on the leg. "Are you on him?" He asked.
I slowly swivelled to my right, setting the sticks and sliding the rifle into place. Zooming the scope in, a quick look revealed a mature buck with reasonable tusks so I found the red dot at the base of his neck, now alert and quartering sharply on, and fired. He dropped instantly, to complete a nice representative pair of UK trophies. It was dark by the time we'd taken photos and caped him out. He isn't massive but actually had some wear to his tusks and torn ears from fighting, a good mature buck.
I was over the moon with my hunting experience. England isn't one of the first international hunting destinations we think of, but it offers a myriad of opportunities and a rich hunting heritage.
