Booked another day for fallow with the Gunrunner

27th of this month I will be braving the inevitable rain and trying for my second deer.

A couple of quick questions please gentlemen; firstly can anyone recommend some decent waterproof,silent, trousers for stalking as I got trench foot, leg and arse crawling about in the wet grass last time.

Secondly and this is going to sound a bit funny but how do you walk quietly in woodland? I appreciate it is a bit like like asking someone to describe how they run fast or fart subtly but I would a be grateful for any tips!

Oh and i'll take a camera this time....

Regards,

Amir

Amir, you've got it bad.

I got my first deer on the first ever outing. It then took me 7 consecutive 4.00am Saturday starts to get the second one.

My plans for the fallow this weekend have had to be scrubbed. Hopefully get out next weekend.

Try the Jakti Jaht suit for staying dry. It looks naff but works.

Good luck.

Guilty! I have it bad, i'm typing this at work for example, but I was told to bring quiet trousers this time

will take a google the jakti jhai suit, are there any suppliers in london I could perhaps visit?

As to the Curse of the First Fallow, yes i've been warned!

The stalk the morning after the first was literally the most peaceful walk in the forest i'd ever have imagined, apart from the roe family that we stalked ( hid in a bush ) for a laugh and got within 30 metres of, we didn't see anything larger than a bird.

Can't wait actually. been thinking seiously about applying for a FAC but there are some issues with no land to shoot over and possibly storage issues too.

Thanks for your reply

Regards,

Amir

Good to see that the stalking bug has taken another victim !!!


You are on a long road of discovery. Hopefully you will enjoy it for a very long time.

Good luck

Best of luck I have Deerhunter Montana trousers, that are very good. I bought a pair of Redhead trousers when I was USA this year, but the american idea of waterproof must be different than mine!

When it´s really wet out there and I need to do a lot of low stalking, not my cup of tea btw, I have ben using my goretex fly fishing waders and at times with the felt soled boots and at some times other boots.

Regarding your question about moving silently in the forrest and woods, 1. go slow, 2, make sure each step is silent and fully planted before taking the next one, before each step, take a quick look at the ground, stay of branches, rocks and other loose matter.

An advice I once got was, take two or four steps at a time when leaves etc are noisy and you can´t walk silent, then you mimic the walk of a four legged animal much more closely.

Wind is the nr 1 for me, wind in my face, I can do a lot of noise if I an after deer, foxing a whole different story, has to be totaly silent stalk.

When you get bored by your own pace, then your slow enough.

/C

Thanks for the tips chaps, I particularly liked the one about "When you get bored by your own pace, then your slow enough."

Very good advice about the leaves as I couldn't work out how I was meant to stalk like wraith over dry leaves so the thing about animal movement makes a lot of sense.

sorry i found your post so late. using very thick felt "soles" fastened to your boot bottoms makes for quiet moving. in fact, in shooting retailer i saw someone is offering them

good luck on your stalk, to

Heres the gen on walking quietly

1. Walk slowly 100yds and time yourself, then walk the same distance taking 10x more time. You will find the amount of wildlife you see dramatically increase.
Also foot placement is important. Take a step forward and place the little toe dowm first then roll the foot inwards and lower the heel until the whole foot is flat on the floor. Now load your foot before lifing off with the back foot.

Yours silently

Mark

My 2 cents worth, similar to a few others here, is that however slowly you walk it is most likely too fast!

What I like to do is watch animals. You can see how they take their time getting from point A to point B. They've figured out the best rate over the course of time and evolution, and if it needed to be faster or slower it would have modified their behavior to reflect that.

I had a very tough time changing my pace of stalking when I lived in the city. Here is an interesting experience I had to give you an example-

I was tracking a wounded deer that had left a spotty blood trail. Back when I was living in the country my method for following trails was to follow the blood, and when I could no longer find it I would stay in that spot for 15 minutes and not move, just look. That worked incredibly well for me and I was always able to track deer that way, even wounded ones. If after 15 minutes you can't find anything then you go back to the last place and start over, taking more time.

Anyway, I had been living in the city for about 8 years and I ended up wounding a doe that ran a couple hundred yards then bedded down, and then got up and left. The trail was very sparse and I was doing my tracking thing and I had the darndest time slowing myself down! I'd force myself to spend 15 minutes looking around, and look at my watch after 10-15 minutes had elapsed and see that only 4-5 minutes were past!

So for me, at the time it was a battle to slow myself down to be an effective stalker. I do not know if you are affected the same, but it helps to be aware of it at least. Wearing a watch helped me slow down, so you might consider that.

I fixed the problem by moving back into the country!

Mark,

Very True. I find that all my freinds keep telling me to slow down (not when stalking just in general) as I tend o carry the city pace into whatever else I do. Even when I get in a high seat I find I need a few minutes to settle down and keep telling myself not to fidget too much!!

Learning yur ground aso helps as you tend to get to knwo where and hen the deer are out and about. You can plan your stalks accordingly then.

As for quiet, well I must have deaf deer on my land!!

Rgds,
FB

Very interesting Mark, you have I think put your finger on it.

What was difficult for me was, as FB describes, knowing when to keep still and look around and when to move on. the chap I go with knows his ground very well and barring the unpredictability of all wild animals, seems to be able to get most people a shot most of the time. My own sample, being two deer from four outings, is not exactly statistically sound but shows that the guy's technique works. He will walk fairly quickly from "hot-spot" to "hot-spot" with a relative lack of regard for noise. On the approach to an area where he thinks there may be deer, he will slow down considerably and then we'll creep or crawl or whatever into a shooting poistion in as silently as fate will allow.

I like to think of this as a kind of raid, you go in you, you hedge your bets and you accept the consequences.

I imagine this works well when you know your ground and the presence of deer is generally verified.

The go slow and glass everything approach, my stalker somewhat dispariginly refered to as Hetford stalking but said that when one does not know the area this is what one must do.

Fallow Buck and Mark, You are right about the city thing. I didn't realise why I was getting so twitchy in the high seat, I see now that it no less than a philosophical error!

At one point I was gripped by a panto style paranoia wherein I was convinced that there was a deer behind the seat but every time I turned around it would see movement and bugger off. after 3 sudden whirls, Richard just witheringly said "squirrel".

Bugger!

quote:

Originally posted by Ghubert:
walk fairly quickly from "hot-spot" to "hot-spot" with a relative lack of regard for noise. On the approach to an area where he thinks there may be deer, he will slow down considerably

My own approach but modified to slow before each vantage point regardless of whether what is beyond is a hot spot or not. Works very well for open ground etc but once you are in the woods you move at more than a snails pace at your peril.

Properly done woodland stalking is mentaly exhausting. When you get tired stop, sit and poor something from your flask, rest a while (in stalking mode) and carry on. Very very effective. I find my flask about the most important piece of kit I carry.