Well last week Adam270 and his buddy Trevor invited me to join them in Scotland for a "little roe stalking." What a nice time I had, it was good to see how hunting is done in a different part of the world from my own. I even got a small buck...small indeed but my fault for not being faster on the trigger on an earlier buck. Like my wife says "size doesn't matter it's the experience"....it applies to hunting too!

We shot a couple of bunnies and set up for crow shooting, fun indeed! Alberta doesn't have large amounts of crows except when they flock in the fall so it was a nice few hours. Honestly I could have spent days on end with the crows, it was that fun.

Impressions from the trip:

Scotland looks a lot like the foothills in Alberta, and reminds me of home.

Roe are cool little deer, not as difficult to get close to as Canadian deer. I think it might be because ours still have the memories of being eaten by carnivores in their genetic memory. Roe are a heck of a lot easier to drag out though.

Hunting this time of year really takes a toll because of the long daylight and lack of sleep.

I need to spend some time practising with the rifle because I've been mostly bowhunting for the past 10 years and it shows in my confidence shooting.

Adam and Trevor bent over backwards to make sure I had a nice time. Final impression is one we all knew already... hunting is a great way to interact with mates and solidify friendships.

The chef

Chef,

It was a pleasure to be able to offer you the chance to escape the house husbandry and do some hunting. Roe stalking is pretty knackering at this time of year, getting worse the further north you go. Considering the sustained lack of sleep, it's amazing we had enough energy to hunt anything at all. [/IMG]

The week was very successful - Chef, Irish Joe and Irish Dave all got their first Roe bucks and our Danish buddy Hans finally got the silver medal buck he'd stalked morning and evening since Wednesday, making contact at 05.30 yesterday morning. I'm not sure about this sudden enthusiasm for crow decoying though -perhaps Bertie Wooster was right and foreigners really do 'do unspeakable things'...

I'm looking forward to the various return trips now, starting with Sika stags in the Wicklow rut (although whether my liver can stand another week at the Glenmalure Lodge is another matter).

Adam.