Some Fox Kills 2008

Zilch!

After the previous week I have nothing to report about on the shoot front. Took a client up to the Alton Wood on Saturday morning for a stalk but unfortunately lots of deer sign with no actual sightings. This was a little frustrating as after breakfast back at Winchester I took a tour around the farm to look at the new field and low and behold in the next field was 5 roe, out of range, out of boundary and out of bloody luck for the day!

Recommended

Out of the many mail order shops and internet sites that I have ordered from over the last few years there are two firms that I can highly recommend.
The first being Bush Wear who are very professional and organised. If I have placed an order via phone or internet an email will be sent confirming the purchase followed by another email detailing that the product has been sent.
The other company is John Norris who are always reliable.
This blog was activated by an attempted order to another company who advertise in the shooting press on a regular occurrence. I made the order by phone, waited a week for it to arrive but with no joy. Made the call and was told that there was no evidence of the order plus that the goods were no longer in stock...not impressed! The company starts with an S...you can work out the rest.

That was the week that was!

After the two vixens on Thursday night a doe was added to the weeks success. Three of us got the early alarm call, myself, Stephen and Smudge. We met at the Farm and then proceeded to the wood at Alton. After parking up in an adjacent driveway to allow the gate to be unlocked, Smudge glassed two doe's on the field which then worked their back into the wood, so opportunities looked good. As we tried to walk in stealth mode (not really possible due to the frost, crunchy nut ground) Smudge dropped of on the first ride whilst Stephen and I carried on around. Lots of slots on the track but no further sightings. As we got down onto the bottom track two beasts on the field to the left of us took fright and took off. After a further 50 yards we sat down for 15 minutes to let everything quiet down, apart from a tree rat on its morning petrol for its breakfast nothing else moved. Back on the foot again and within a few yards I got a nudge in the back from Stephen who was bolt still, roe spotted just inside the wood approx 75 yards away. She was aware that something was amiss but decided after five minutes that all seem good and browsed on some foliage, a second roe then also came into view which looked like a decent size buck. The doe took a few steps onto the track and gave the perfect target, side on. By this stage my heart was giving it the heavy metal drum beat and after what seemed an age I managed to steady the aim and fired. It was a good hit as the deer hit the ground but to our surprised after a few seconds she got up and run out of view. We waited a good time to allow the beast to come to rest and walked to the kill spot which was blood covered. Within ten yards to our left the carcass was spotted by Stephen. Upon inspection the bullet had gone in at the top of the shoulder and come out lower side. The heart and lungs were damaged so even if I would of like the shot to been slightly higher the bullet strike did its job.

A big thanks to Stephen who spotted the deer and for the lamping on Thursday.

Two In The Bag

Last nights lamping session proved successful with two vixen's shot. One from the field above the water meadow and the other from the Ring of Tree's field.

The first vixen was paced at 160 yards by Stephen. She would not move to any squeak so took the shot from a standing position using the sticks. We decided not to drive into the water meadow field due to the water logged ground as earlier the truck was giving a good impression a duck landing on ice despite all terrain tyres. I was pleased with the hit at that range off the sticks plus the bullet struck the aim point, the head, thus an instant kill.

The second kill was also instant from approx 100 yards or so in the Ring of Tree's. That was the second visit to that field during the night and was spotted after covering the field from the bottom entrance then up around the tree's along the top hedge row.

No Success

Both myself and Stephen went lamping on Monday night to see if a blanket of snow would be of any benefit, apart from two brief sets of eyes no shots were fired.

Never mind, it was certainly different with the snow.

Rare as rocking horse s**t

Picture taken this morning showing some very rare stuff called snow. It hardly ever snows in my part of the world so hence the picture. We had snow drifts of at least 3" high.

The snow plough was on its way..............

Sardines

Last day of the 2008/2009 season for us on the farm. Not much to report unfortunately as the birds were tucked up away from the cold. The farm Land Rover as always was in demand....at least 4 humans and probably 6 dogs, probably needed the olive oil to squeeze in!