I thought I would share a few pics of the stag season this year.

Larry was the lucky (he may disagree after walking that hill!!) winner of our DSC donation hunt this year and opened up the account with a right and left on these two great stags:





The rut was early this year and was in full swing by the last week of September but we had stags roaring and responding right through the season.

After all the clients were finished I decided it was time to address my lack of a personal stag and go up the mountain for one last time. I have a somewhat chequered history where red stag stalking is concerned. I have been on stag hunts for the last several years and tend to defer to friends when opportunities arise allowing them to take the beast. When I have been behind the rifle, it is generally the case that me, the stag, the lack of light, the wind, my rest, the universe blah blah blah have resulted in me coming back empty handed. I know this is a tough crowd so don't think I'm after any sympathy, but this year I decided it was time for the bad run of luck to end.

A recent diet had me 25lbs lighter than I was at the end of July. I would not have been able to walk out there let alone guide anyone to stags, if I was in the type of shape I had been in during the summer. This is tough country and there is no such thing as a solid footing. Dense tussocks of grass make for tricky walking especially when they hide thigh deep holes full of water!! (you know who you are...!! )

I headed out with Jake who was after a stag that we had seen the night before but the client had not managed to get a shot off. I decided to head up to the top ridge to overlook a bit of forestry that had seen some traffic. This was tougher than most bits to access but was the only way to get a look at the forestry without spoiling jakes chances or winding the whole hill.

I got up to the top ridge and settled in for a glass, (binos not whiskey), and within half an hour I was looking at a hind and calf followed by one of last years hinds at 170m. They looked well and were grazing up the boundary line, on the wrong side of the stone wall, quite contentedly. After an hour and having checked the lone hind at least several thousand times to make sure here were no lumps or bumps that should make it male, I gave up and settled for the fact that I might have a long walk home without a shot. At some point I glassed the area again to see if they had crossed over and there in the middle of them stood a whopping great stag. To say that a mature red stag is an impressive looking animal is frankly stating the obvious, but these Galloway stags with they huge black manes and larger than average body sizes make for quite a spectacle, and I enjoyed watching them everyday of the hunts we guided. This one however was different as I was carrying the rifle. I however was still hampered by the small problem of him being about 5 yards on the wrong side of the wall.

In answer to what most of you are thinking, yes. I would be lying if I said it didn't cross my mind but I didn't. My penance would have been to have to throw 180kg of stag over a 6ft wall and I'm frankly just not man enough for that kind of lark. He slowly made his way up the glen another 50yards, to a section of wall that was fallen down and crossed over. This was it!! He was on property and in a 20ft window where he was visible for a shot. The rifle came up on the boulder and he reacted to the movement, looking suspiciously in my direction and slowly raising his head and foreleg. I found him quickly in the scope and put the cross hair on his shoulder. The safety came of and with a solid yank of the trigger, I felt the rifle move and the cross hairs slip down the body. As my farcical history with red stags unfolded further, my only saving grace was that the gun had not gone bang, and the pin had not clicked. I hunkered down behind my rock to check the rifle confirming that the safety had been off, (now reengaged) and there was indeed a cartridge in the chamber. No time to think further I popped an eye over the boulder to see where my friend with the headgear had gotten to be met with a barren landscape, devoid of red deer of either sex.

Now, I can't claim to know a lot about roaring in stags. I had conversed with a few the previous week and it generally ended up acceptably, so I took a deep breath and did my best impression of a red stag crossed with an asthmatic highland cow/donkey.... You get the picture? A few seconds later I was responded to from the forestry with a long drawn out roar from my departed friend. I thought "what the hell" and gave him another succession of roars that left me somewhat breathless and with a partially collapsed lung, but rather proud of my self nonetheless. Sadly there was nothing.... Not even a cough of acknowledgement for my attempts to speak his lingo.

The next thirty seconds worth of emotions, consisted of a mixture of self berating, petulance (how dare he not make himself available to be shot), and trying hard not to chew my protruding bottom lip whilst grinding my jaw in frustration. All the whilst I was searching in the lowering light feeling sure that if I stared hard enough he would appear... I was startled from my intent gazing into nothingness by a succession of deep roars 20 feet away as Staggy boy decided it was time to put paid to whoever this intruder was.

Well, if they are impressive when standing in a meadow grazing, I have to say that the sight of him climbing onto the rocky bluff below me, with torn up vegetation hanging from his antlers was a sight to behold. He climbed higher and stood looking for this imposter that apparently had sad unsavoury things about the hind that had given birth to him. All the while I was trying to get the rifle round and on to him without moving too much. A quick twist of the scope to its lowest setting still had him filling the field of view at this distance, so I picked the centre of the shoulder high up on his left flank and squeezed the trigger. I didn't even hear the gun go off, but I saw him fall to the shot . As I approached him he made to take off, but was done for. I put a bullet high in his neck nevertheless to bring the matter to a conclusion, and there ended one of the best thirty seconds of my hunting career. A great 11 pointer.

Here are some pictures of my stag and some of the others, and I will add more of some of the other stags as I get them sent through to me this week.

Enjoy.

Kiri,

Very nice looking Stag. Waidmannsheil!!

Don

Congratulations Kiri

Congratulations,
makes me wanna go back for another couple of stags

Thanks for posting the photos and congratulations!

Beautiful stag and congratulations, Kiri. Looks like you took him in the same area where I took my 2 stags. How did you bribe Diggory into going up on the hill?

Are those my 2 stags on the trailer in the photos with Jacob?

Larry

Those are your stags Larry- I recognize the good looking guy with the hood over his face.

quote:

Originally posted by SFRanger7GP:
Beautiful stag and congratulations, Kiri. Looks like you took him in the same area where I took my 2 stags. How did you bribe Diggory into going up on the hill?

Are those my 2 stags on the trailer in the photos with Jacob?

Larry

Larry,

It was easy. I told Dig I would guarantee thre was a stag up there but forgot to mention it had already been shot...

Jakes quad helped too.

It was about 500-600 metres past the fence line where you shot your two mate. After gralloching I started to walk off and another stag roared at me from the gully in front of me so the machines are obviously pushing all the animals up that way.

K

congratulations Kiri, I will try for one, some day

quote:

these Galloway stags with they huge black manes and larger than average body sizes make for quite a spectacle

We are in agreement, sir. Gorgeous stags there.

Kiri,

Waidmannsheil, Pal - way to go!

I consider your stag recovery vehicle the only way forward.

Thanks guys,

Solvi you know where we are mate. Some friends hunted reindeer in Iceland this year and from what they tell me you have plenty of opportunities for fun there too!!

Keep well,
K

Well done on your first Kiri! Roaring it in yourself is quite an achievement too.

What was its larder weight?

Congratulations Kiri, looks like you had a great time

Brilliant. It must have been a great stalk for you to wax so lyrical...

Other observations:

You look starved bud, you need to eat more...

Did you actually kill that brute with the 6.5mm pop gun? The shame if it...

Stalking stags in Scotland is one of the world's greatest hunts. I plan on returning next fall.

Brian,

I can't claim much of a stalk. He came running towards me shouting blue murder. It was less of a hunt and more shooting in self defence!!

I'm another 6lbs lighter than I was there now with a total of over 28lbs gone. I had to do something as people kept thinking I was you!!

You going to come play roe does and long range gongs with us next month?

K

quote:

Originally posted by AnotherAZWriter:
Stalking stags in Scotland is one of the world's greatest hunts. I plan on returning next fall.

AZ Writer,

I have you pencilled in to choose some dates if you still want to come next year? Some are already full up.

K

quote:

Originally posted by Fallow Buck:
Brian,

I can't claim much of a stalk. He came running towards me shouting blue murder. It was less of a hunt and more shooting in self defence!!

I'm another 6lbs lighter than I was there now with a total of over 28lbs gone. I had to do something as people kept thinking I was you!!

You going to come play roe does and long range gongs with us next month?

K

Would love to, but my brother is getting married in the middle of the month.

When were you thinking?

You need further lessons in how to negotiate boggy ground....

Whenever you like mate.

I spoke to Griff this week and it looks like we will be planning a few weekends during the Doe season for a get together, a couple of evening stalks on the Roe Does and a day of long range plinking at the gongs.

Will see if we can get a few guys together and put a couple of weekends in the diary throughout the season.

Sadly my Irishness is through marriage as you know, so I will never be able to glide across a bog the way you do...

K

Hi Kiri,
congrats on the stag,and to all those who shot with both myself and Jon2 and Jacob.
We know only too well the effort needed in grassing one of these fine animals, not only in getting on to them, but also in recovering them!
Shame you left out the part where you sunk the quad

regards
Griff

Somehow I forgot about that.....

K

Well done Kiri...

quote:

Originally posted by Fallow Buck:

quote:

Originally posted by AnotherAZWriter:
Stalking stags in Scotland is one of the world's greatest hunts. I plan on returning next fall.

AZ Writer,

I have you pencilled in to choose some dates if you still want to come next year? Some are already full up.

K

Yes, let's make a plan. Send me an email please.

Will have to be in Oct; daughter is getting married in late Sep.

A few more pics and another stag we took. It was avery symmetrical ten pointer.







K

Well done mate nice beast and great write-up...I went up with Sikamalc this year

AZ, I will drop you a mail next week.

K

Ricky

Malcolm's a good guy. I've spoken to him a couple of times but never managed to get out shooting with him yet.

K

He is mate,the best, going for mouflon with him tomorrow so fingers crossed

Nice spread on that fella. Nice one for the wall.
What larder weight do these d&g stags come in at?

Hey Boggy,

We have had them in at approaching 190kgs but I would say that 125kg-150kg is the average for a mature animal. There was a real bruiser in the GD one day that we could barely move to make space.

Strangely the bigger rack does not necessarily follow in the body weight.

K

quote:

We have had them in at approaching 190kgs but I would say that 125kg-150kg is the average for a mature animal. There was a real bruiser in the GD one day that we could barely move to make space.

That is a serious bodyweight for a Scottish stag.

I know a lot of estates post their 'hill weight' in the annual reports (head/legs/pluck included, only gralloched) but most hill stags would be lucky to be in the 85/90kg range for actual larder weight.

Boggy,

Yep that's right. These are substantially larger than your usual hill stags. Most of that is due to the great feeding and shelter they get in the forestry through the year as well as genetics. The hinds tend to be out on the hill and the stags come out to play during the rut but even or mature hinds approach normal hill stag weights with head an legs off and full gralloch. We probably saw three stags this year that actually seem to live on the hill and you can really tell the difference both in body and antler configuration.

The other thing about these stags is how they carry their weight through the antlers. it is tough to see in the photos but they carry weight quite high up the beam. This might show it better:



Of course I'm speaking of the quality throughout the whole region rather than just our estate, but what we found this year was that our concentration of stags seems to rise dramatically during the rut.

On the first night with MrFudd I think we saw 8 mature stags over about 30% of the ground and three of them were bigger than anything we managed to put in the larder.

The other stat that you might find interesting was that last year Adam collected a cape with the head and antlers intact, (taken off at the atlas joint wet) and it weighed 28kg if I remember correctly. It stuck in my mind as it came straight off the game dealers bill!!

Rgds
K

K