The mentor and the muntjac

My great friend, who is also the head keeper on the estate, and I wandered off to one of the BASC's talking stalking evenings a few months ago. The agenda looked interesting, there was Martin Edwards doing a piece on the UK's "deer problem", another chap on lead free ammunition (I say lead free as opposed to non toxic as copper and others have their own questionable traits), the UKDTR guys were there so all in all some interesting listening. Unless you are my companion. He despises deer! They run through his game covers mid drive, spend there lives in what he is convinced is some sort of campaign of annoyance towards him personally by upturning his feeder lids and generally hanging around causing him much irritation. I of course by no means add to this by telling him how fantastic our kidney fat scoring is on the estate's deer and thanking him for providing them such a varied and nutritious diet. This does not go down well but provides some entertainment for me. 

Anyway, we attended this event, some more enthusiastically than others, and after my grumblings regarding the so called "deer problem" and what seemed like an eternity discussing lead free and terminal ballistics there of we hit a few points that resonated with me. It was around introducing people to stalking and how best to nurture and encourage their appetite for it.  I like this. I like the idea of taking a total novice with no experience with either a rifle or around deer and mentoring them through their journey into stalking nirvana! In principle this is a great idea, after all we have a deer problem you know! Don't get me started on that. My concern is I am fussy. Fussy is probably a gentle adjective for my insistence on things being done a certain way and my love of etiquettes that are probably now out dated and beyond concern. I am Downton Abbey's Carson. I read books made from actual paper. I am fascinated by the origins of the traditions and practices associated with stalking and I believe you have to have a genuine love for deer to do what we do well and to produce the very best carcasses possible. It would be a tough ride for any stalker's apprentice coming under my wing. Never the less I liked the idea. 

Is there hope?

A month or two and a fair few deer later I had a message from one of the beaters on the shoot. He and his father were avid scatter gun shots and they are in the selection of  beaters that the keepers feel happy to delegate trusted jobs to. The text message in a nutshell said that he really wanted to move into stalking and wondered if he could accompany me to learn more about it. He had air rifle experience but no centerfire or rimfire. I am a huge air rifle fan and there no better way to hone marksmanship in my opinion so that sat in good stead with me. His motives fitted my own narrative and I thought this maybe and opportunity to follow up on my previous considerations to try and mentor someone. So I agreed for him to accompany me on a foray for roe bucks which we did with no success bar a fleeting sighting of one in by now very tall maize and another chap who managed to place himself in a field that is criss crossed with no less than 4 footpaths. Bugger. This did not deter him at all. We walked back to the larder empty handed but full of conversation about everything else we had seen on our evenings jaunt. The birds of prey, hares and others that is can be a real privilege to spend time in the company of.  "It's not all about killing for me" he remarked. I was pleased at this point.

If you call them they will come, sometimes. 

We recently had another trip out. This time into a patch of woodland that in the last two years has been thinned and the newly encouraged pools of sunlight had sent the ground cover into overdrive. Muntjac are a constant presence and we now operate an almost zero tolerance of them so I thought we would try and call some. I love calling muntjac. Their bobbing an weaving accompanied by the odd foot stamp and head nods all coupled to one of the most curious little deer in the world. If you hit the right tone - they will come. 

Rifle on sticks and butollo slightly muffled in pocket I explained what we were going to do and he listened intently to the principle, without a hint of scepticism he watched. A pheep here and there and along bumbled a little muntjac doe which quickly fell to a neck shot at about 50 meters. I was told along time ago by a stalker I began my time with that you should wait as long as it takes to roll and smoke a cigarette before approaching your fallen quarry and I passed this on to my accomplice. During this time I noted in the thermal spotter the presence of another muntjac, this time a buck. I gave him a lip squeak or two and caught his interest. A shot was tricky the ground cover provided little opportunity so I wanted to get him to a small clearing at around 50 meters again. In he came tasting and sniffing the air during brief pauses in his journey. Patience is the key, hold for the right shot. He ambled into the clearing and with a bawr bawr noise from me stopped and looking directly at us and fell to another neck shot. 

There are many right ways. 

To briefly address shot placement, it is not a subject I particularly entertain. Shoot within your own limits is my advice and I have some cracking recipes that include sous vide and pulled muntjac should so I would rather not lose them. Rant over. This is the moment that deer becomes food. The minute it is shot and deceased and this is where great carcasses are made or lost. I explained bleeding and its necessities and went on to carry out 2 suspended grallochs. Many questions were asked and covered during this process from lymph node location to signs of disease etc. Most of which will have completely left his head after just one visit to the subject. I explained observations pre shot and external checks for foot and mouth etc. He is keen. Mustard keen and I really enjoyed the company of a truly interested party. Carcasses collected and viscera disposed of it was back to the larder and ultimately into the chiller complete with tags and larder data sheets completed. I explained the temperature I run my chiller at (2C) and my reasons for doing so as well as the importance of accurate data gathering. He gratefully accepted one of the carcasses and I said I would have it skinned and ready for him after some time to stretch out and hang, everyone has different thoughts on hanging and it could be an article all of its own, however muntjac and roe for me are 4-5 days in the fur and 24-48 hours out of it. 

I would like to keep writing about this journey and diarize it through my writings on here. I am really pleased with my companions apparent interest and drive. There is a huge thirst for knowledge that I really hope to feed going forward. For a first time out I couldn't be happier. I will continue to update as we go so please comment and critique where needed. We can all learn from each other and I love to read other peoples methods and suggestions and it doesn't all have to be on actual paper I am getting quite used to this computermerbob!