havgunwilltravel
Active member
A good mate and i have just finished up a fortnight in the UK hunting their deer species with friends we have throughout the country. Its been a great trip with the only issue being trying to hunt deer in some of the shocking weather the UK has had recently. But its all part of the experience and as we were winding up our hunt we only had two 'stalks' left to try for Chinese Water Deer. They live near one of our mates is located and the first afternoon stalk had us on top of a hill glassing fields, hedge rows and bush edges hoping to get a look at a deer. The wind was fierce and getting stronger and we knew we were up against it. We thought it best to split up and my UK mate said to cut through a field and sit till dark on a grassy paddock that might have been out of the wind. A minute later as i was almost there my phone vibrates and a picture comes through of my Kiwi mate sitting with a nice mature Chinese! I was ecstatic so headed back to congratulate him, take some pics in the last few minutes of light and glass the edges incase any more fed out. Apparently the buck had walked out of a small hedgerow right in front of them and they took the opportunity. No antler on this deer species but a decent set of downward pointing fangs/tusks. Which apparently they use to fight other males and defend themselves with. No other deer were seen so we had back for dinner.
Next morning we had a sleep in, our first for the trip, to get a few skulls boiled, bleached and antlers tidied up for the trip home. We had lunch then waited for my friends mate to come pick me up. My kiwi mate would sit in a stand trying to get big muntjac male that was in the woods he was hunting and i would give the Chinese a go. We made it to this new location with two hours of daylight left. Making our way around the field we noticed plenty of tracks, but there was also lots of grass and heavy cover on the edges to offer security for the animals and they certainly liked this habitat. A male and female Chinese were located one field over from where we could legally hunt so we kept stalking into the wind.
We then glassed a good muntjac male feeding on acorns, but i had shot a few of these guys and was holding out for the Chinese not wanting to disturb them. Around a corner we glassed a Chinese feeding under an acorn tree. I snuck in to 80 metres, and looked real hard trying to see if it had tusks. It was hard feeding in and out of the long grass and in the shade of a tree i wasn't sure, in the back of my mind was advice from mates saying if it was on its own it was most likely a male. I gave it plenty of time for either a fawn or another deer to join it but nothing did (if they are in pairs then one will typically be the male and slightly larger in body size) so put the crosshairs on its chest and shot it. I walked up to it, lifted its head and didn't see fangs, it was a large female. Quite legal to shoot, but not the male i was trying for. It was great to have taken one though and my mate joined me, congratulated me and said lets go find a male, we will pick it up on the return to the vehicle.
Easing through a hedge we came out to a field and glassed a deer down a corner. We had 20 minutes of daylight left and moved fast. In to 100 metres and we finally seen a glint of a tusk when it turned its head and had the right background for the tusk to be visible. The buck got up and started walking along the edge to us. I lay down with the bipod out and as i was about to shoot he entered a slight depression, top third of body visible bottom 2/3rds not. I waited, he milled around, eating and looking for danger. The field was flat and i couldn't find a higher spot to elevate my view of the bipod. My mate got the shooting sticks ready to use in a sitting position, i swapped over to them and just as i got set up he walked into the tall grass. Oh crap, we were down to the last ten minutes of possible daylight and waited five minutes to see if he came out. He didn't and all we had was to walk through the waist high grass hoping to relocate him. 50 metres into our walk he burst out into the field, turned and stopped to look at us front on, my 40 metre shot missed, most certainly the worst miss of the trip for me and i was shattered as he ran off on the skyline. Normally i would have tried a few running shots, but not on the skyline and not over here with lots of houses and general public around in the area we were hunting. Then the buck circled around and came to the edge of the grass at 200 metres. I thought no way will he stop again, but he did was side on working out where to escape to. This was it, my final chance before flying home the next day, i put the crosshairs on him a few inches below the spine and touched one off. Boom, thump, and down he went. Oh gosh, that was a bloody sweet sound to have drifting back and we made our up to him in the last minute or so of daylight. Luckily my mate had a Swarovski Z6 on his rifle, and these optics really do stand tall for european hunting when a lot of animals are taken in the last ten minutes or so of the day. When we got to him we were quite excited, we had a roller coaster of an afternoon and now had a splendid buck to take home from a very unique species.
Here is a few pictures from our stalks for one of the other little species of deer over there that also has tusks, but these guys have antler as well. The muntjac.
Typical edge of cover where you shoot muntjac.
And one to show the size of the Munjtac.
Next morning we had a sleep in, our first for the trip, to get a few skulls boiled, bleached and antlers tidied up for the trip home. We had lunch then waited for my friends mate to come pick me up. My kiwi mate would sit in a stand trying to get big muntjac male that was in the woods he was hunting and i would give the Chinese a go. We made it to this new location with two hours of daylight left. Making our way around the field we noticed plenty of tracks, but there was also lots of grass and heavy cover on the edges to offer security for the animals and they certainly liked this habitat. A male and female Chinese were located one field over from where we could legally hunt so we kept stalking into the wind.
We then glassed a good muntjac male feeding on acorns, but i had shot a few of these guys and was holding out for the Chinese not wanting to disturb them. Around a corner we glassed a Chinese feeding under an acorn tree. I snuck in to 80 metres, and looked real hard trying to see if it had tusks. It was hard feeding in and out of the long grass and in the shade of a tree i wasn't sure, in the back of my mind was advice from mates saying if it was on its own it was most likely a male. I gave it plenty of time for either a fawn or another deer to join it but nothing did (if they are in pairs then one will typically be the male and slightly larger in body size) so put the crosshairs on its chest and shot it. I walked up to it, lifted its head and didn't see fangs, it was a large female. Quite legal to shoot, but not the male i was trying for. It was great to have taken one though and my mate joined me, congratulated me and said lets go find a male, we will pick it up on the return to the vehicle.
Easing through a hedge we came out to a field and glassed a deer down a corner. We had 20 minutes of daylight left and moved fast. In to 100 metres and we finally seen a glint of a tusk when it turned its head and had the right background for the tusk to be visible. The buck got up and started walking along the edge to us. I lay down with the bipod out and as i was about to shoot he entered a slight depression, top third of body visible bottom 2/3rds not. I waited, he milled around, eating and looking for danger. The field was flat and i couldn't find a higher spot to elevate my view of the bipod. My mate got the shooting sticks ready to use in a sitting position, i swapped over to them and just as i got set up he walked into the tall grass. Oh crap, we were down to the last ten minutes of possible daylight and waited five minutes to see if he came out. He didn't and all we had was to walk through the waist high grass hoping to relocate him. 50 metres into our walk he burst out into the field, turned and stopped to look at us front on, my 40 metre shot missed, most certainly the worst miss of the trip for me and i was shattered as he ran off on the skyline. Normally i would have tried a few running shots, but not on the skyline and not over here with lots of houses and general public around in the area we were hunting. Then the buck circled around and came to the edge of the grass at 200 metres. I thought no way will he stop again, but he did was side on working out where to escape to. This was it, my final chance before flying home the next day, i put the crosshairs on him a few inches below the spine and touched one off. Boom, thump, and down he went. Oh gosh, that was a bloody sweet sound to have drifting back and we made our up to him in the last minute or so of daylight. Luckily my mate had a Swarovski Z6 on his rifle, and these optics really do stand tall for european hunting when a lot of animals are taken in the last ten minutes or so of the day. When we got to him we were quite excited, we had a roller coaster of an afternoon and now had a splendid buck to take home from a very unique species.
Here is a few pictures from our stalks for one of the other little species of deer over there that also has tusks, but these guys have antler as well. The muntjac.
Typical edge of cover where you shoot muntjac.
And one to show the size of the Munjtac.
