The way my luck has been going lately, I didn't think I was going to get a Roe Buck this season, but that changed this last weekend whilst down in Thetford.

On the Friday evening I decided to stalk into a lean-to highseat which is normally very good for Muntjac.

After settling in, after about 40 minutes two Red staggies appeared about 90m away and started to graze towards me. As the seat is "open" with no screening, I hardly dared breath as they walked directly underneath me until they hit my ground scent from where I had approached the seat earlier. We don't have permission to shoot Red on this ground, so I used the camera instead.











A little later, over the course of an hour or so, I saw several Muntjac flit across the ride at various ranges, until eventually the buck below paused a bit too long.



This was first blood to my new Howa .308win and the 90m H/L shot dropped the little beasty in its tracks, so a good start to the weekend!

The next morning at some ungodly hour, I was out with a colleague looking for a Roe buck for him.

As we drove onto our allocated block in the breaking light we saw several roe out on the clear fells, so the omens were good.

I had a particular area in mind, which always seemed to hold Roe in the mornings and where I had seen a couple of different bucks during the doe season.

The wind was less than ideal when we started, but I knew that a couple of 90 degree turns during the course of our approach would hopefully result in us having the wind on our faces at the critical point and indeed this is what happened.

My colleague has been stalking a long time, but doesn't know this particular ground too well as of yet. However, once pointed in the right direction, he was soon spotting deer...

Eventually he spotted a little 6 pointer roe buck happily feeding in some replant and moving steadily from left to right as we observed him.

We couldn't get a shot from our present location and needed to get closer and cut across the buck to head him off so to speak. The only problem was a doe that was out a lot closer (maybe only 40m away) and who was feeding towards where we needed to be..

We got to the our spot without spooking either deer and then had to wait until the buck presented itself in an unobscured shootable position. We must have watched the buck for a further 10 minutes before my friend was able to take the shot. I'm not sure if he had buck fever, but I could certainly feel the tension and excitement rise!

The buck dropped nicely to the shot and after gralloching it we headed back to the larder, both very pleased.

A bit later that morning we headed to the local Greasy Spoon cafe for some breakfast where I had arranged to meet a guy who posts on another forum and who happened to be also stalking in the area, although on different land.

A fried breakfast, a couple of mugs of tea and a good natter about deer and the deer world in general, finished the morning off nicely.

Saturday evening so me out looking for a roe buck of my own. As soon as I left the car, I spotted a buck with a doe, but I just couldn't work the angles to get a safe shot before the doe busted me!

Heading back to an area not too far from the mornings success, I spotted a nice six pointer feeding across a ride ahead of me.

After a short stalk to close the distance a little and get the angle for a good backstop, I took the animal below:



As can be seen from his scrappy appearance, he was in the middle of shedding his winter coat. He was also absolutely alive with ticks...

The shot placement was a touch high and further back than ideal, but he only went about 4 or 5 paces before dropping. Shot was about 80m sitting off sticks and was a little hasty as the beast was just about to go back into cover.

Regardless, the carcass is now hanging in my "mini-chiller" and the head awaits boiling out!



I used my new Howa .308win with some factory Federal 150grn Powershocks...Even allowing for the poor shot placement, the carcass damage on this beast and the Muntjac I shot the evening before was pretty bad and its spurred me onto work up a suitable home load..

So all in all, a very productive and enjoyable weekend.

Regards,

Pete

Great write up Pete, You've just got me thinking about geting out with the Camera over the summer.
the 308 can be a bit unforgiving can't it
but I still would'nt be without one!

briliant pete

thanks for the write up and the photos, the rain has been pissing down all day here 42mm so no hunting, but tommorow at sunup im back again for some fun and failure.

best regards

peter

Good hunting, Pete

Great pics and write up

Best regards Chris

Nice story and a good buck too!

Was the muntjac in velvet?

Pete, I just have to ask, is the shape and apperance of those roe antlers typical of your parts of the world?

I find then nice looking, but there is so much mass in them, had they been swedish the tips had been much longer with a mass like that.

I am intrigued by the variantion within the roe population regarding to there antlers.

Any ways a good story it was and a nice trophy.

Best regards Chris

Good pictures. Good story. .308
more than enough gun.

Nice buck buddy, good to see you putting that new rifle to some good use.

A closer look atthe roe head would be great as he looks to be very nice indeed. He reminds me of RW's big Roe. How old was he?

BTW, Your 260Rem Factory Ammo has arrived. I'll be picking it up for you in a couple of weeks.

Rgds,
FB

Pete,

Waidmannsheil!

Two good hunting stories, too.

Good Luck with your new Boomer.

FB, Chris,

The roe in Thetford have a reputation for producing poor heads. The story goes that after they became more or less extinct in most of England and Wales, a local land owner re introduced some German roe into the Thetford area and that these roe had inferior genetics...

Certainly roe populations from not too many miles way on average produce far better heads.

The head on my beast is the best I've taken in Thetford after several years stalking in the area, but in the bigger picture, he's nothing special, just an average six pointer & along way short of a Bronze medal..

The head is in the freezer right now, but when i get around to cleaning it, I'll post a pic with it along side a Bronze medal head I have for comparison..

Regards,

Pete

Congratulations.

So you've not deserted the 308 camp then

I'm just revisiting it after having gone AWOL for 10 years. I'm interested what plans you have to reduce carcass damage - tougher bullets or heavier slower bullets or some combination?

How is the 260 coming along?

1894,

I would reccomend that Pete sends you the rifle for a season to get a representative sample of carcasses, otherwise we might be waiting for a while to get enough for comparison, not to mention that the photo's of the early beasts will likely have faded to render them useles for analysis...



Rgds,
FB