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My first experience of roe stalking

Apr 22

KennyBoyGeneral deer stalking, deerstalking, roe, roebuck, roebuck stalking, roedeer, roedeer stalking 4 Comments

Until I was in my early twenties the only deer I had seen were in parks; and I hadn’t seen many of those. And I always considered myself good at spotting wildlife. When we first visited Scotland we passed half a dozen red deer on moorland. When we moved to Scotland, staying in an old farmhouse 20 miles South of Edinburgh, I was delighted to spot a herd of 8 or so deer occasionally feeding in a field about 600 yards from the house, although I could not identify them.

When my wife bought myself and the kids vouchers for a balloon flight as a Christmas present, we ended up flying over Lanarkshire. Looking down from 1200 feet, I was amazed to see hares running around in a panic in a Christmas-tree plantation. Then I realised that they were in fact deer, alarmed by the balloon. An aerial survey by balloon is probably an expensive way of assessing numbers, but may well be better than counting by walking.

Everything changed for my deer-spotting skills after my first roe stalking expedition. I could not for the life of me spot a roe until Rob pointed them out for me. To be honest, having fired off a dozen very loud shots within 300 yards of where we started scanning for a suitable roe, I was convinced that nothing would be seen for hours; possibly not for the rest of the day.

Ten minutes before we came across our quarry, we had walked amongst a dozen pheasants which went cackling off in the direction we were hunting; another good reason for not seeing anything I thought. Then Rob motioned me to stop and crouch; he asked if I had seen the deer; I said not, but he had seen 5 roe; a doe with two mature kids, and a buck with a yearling buck close by.

We were to take the doe; the young were old enough to look after themselves from this point; the bucks were not in season yet. The deer were walking towards us; the wind was in the right direction, moving gently towards us; we had cover to our left in the form of a small plantation of spruce; we moved quietly towards the plantation with the deer about 150 yards away. Once under cover I was able to move in front of Rob, taking a seated position at the base of a tree stump whilst we waited for them to approach within range.

Then disaster; they veered to the left. Their new path would take them out of view within minutes and they were still over a hundred yards away. Rob was cautious, this was my first deer and it was beyond the range we had fired the practice shots. The initial shots were good, but the added adrenaline of the deer was an unknown quantity introduced into the mix. I had been practicing my marksmanship for weeks with the air-rifle in the garden; aiming to take a consistent approach to every shot. The rifle we were using was far more accurate than the air-rifle I had been practicing with, as was the telescopic sight. I was ready for the shot.

After a whispered discussion I took the shot but didn’t see the impact – I think I must blink. Rob was pleased with the shot and said the doe was down and not likely to get up; but to put another cartridge into the breech in case so I worked the bolt; then it was a case of waiting for ten minutes to give the deer time to bleed out. The principle seems to be to not rush in when a deer is first down because you can give them an incentive to run. After ten minutes, if they have not got up then they are unlikely to.

When we moved up after what seemed an age the doe was stone dead. The shot which was a fraction high, had gone through both lungs and the deer would have bled to death within seconds. Rob tried bleeding the carcase further, but got no more blood out.

We then fetched up his young HPR which he was training up as a stalker’s dog. After letting the dog find the deer and praising it up, Rob set to to prepare the doe by gralloching. Pulling on the gloves he briefly covered the diseases he was going to look for; anthrax, TB & foot and mouth amongst others. A thoroughly fascinating autopsy later, we made our way back to the truck.

After this expedition, I started spotting roe; in fields near my home; next to the Edinburgh bypass; and close to our home. The record count so far is 24 in two fields – and I suspect that was not all the deer there at that time. I base this claim on some photos we just took; at first glance I thought there were four deer; but it turned out I had been counting one twice. However the photo revealed two extra deer – one in the rough grass on the edge of the field, a second in the next field. Apologies for the quality of the photos, they were taken at 150 yards in a car travelling at 50 mph…

Roe deer are often visible from the motorway

I thought there were 4 deer in this picture, looking I think I can see seven!

Roe deer feed throughout the day, even where cover is limited