Muntjac are I think the best sporting animal that we have in Eat Anglia.
Whilst we have a lot of roe, red, fallow and CWD I still long for the time of year when the crops are cut, the rides in the woods are mown and you can start to get on top of the little deer again.
Having concentrated efforts for the last few months on the roe it was nice at the weekend to spend a half hour or so sitting on a freshly mown forest ride waiting to see whether a munty would respond to the call.
After ten minutes of quietly calling away this chap wondered out. Not a bad first muntjac for the autumn.
[IMG]http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/swskrieghoff/IMG_5983.jpg"> [/IMG]

Jep !!

what a beauty, you have.

SWS,

I agree that the muntjac is t the top of the list in East Anglia. I enjoy roe stalking but munties are more fun for me as they are always on the move and stay close to the thicker cover. It always amazed me how my friends in Norfolk would look at me strangely when I wanted to go munty stalking.

That one is excellent. I saw a very similar buck a couple of weeks ago in Bury and chose to leave him when he gave me a chance he first day, in the hope David would get a shot. We saw him twice after that and his first encounter was enough to make him want to get out of dodge straight away!!

The big ones definitely are not daft!!

I'm back out in a month with Brian so may take another look for him.

K

Interesting deer they are, and I'd have to agree with you, not bad at all for a first Muntie in the Autumn, or any other time! Well done.

Thank you for your kind comments.
He measured 60.3cic points so a solid silver. He'd of been a good gold if he had had brow tines.
Oddly three of my four biggest muntjac have all been taken in the last 18 months all on the same ride and all within 20m.
I've seen two much bigger which I'm going to try to draw out of cover with piles of apples this autumn.
Having said that which medal a muntjac will get is exceptionally hard to judge.

Lovely trophy, those brow tines can skunk you every time!

SWS

I've always felt them difficult to judge too. Do you think it has anything to do with the way they carry their antlers almost pointing backwards down their neck? I shot a "just about" bronze last year that all I could judge in the grass was that he was better than a couple of inches.

K

I'm in two minds as to whether to have him mounted or not. I "need" three shoulder mounts to cover the width of my skull mount collection - I've got one big winter caped one, and cant decide whether to get this one done or hold out for a gold!

Kiri the difficulty arises as the tolerances between the medals are small. What would you class this one as?

[URL=http://s108.photobucket.com/user/swskrieghoff/media/029.jpg.html]

Ok - why cant i get the image to show?

@sws.

When writing a message, click on the icon image on the top bar, "Display Image" and there you can insert "Image URL"

You need to get the "direct" link code from the box on the right of the screen on photobucket rather than the url from your browser SWS.

Copy that into the picture drop down box on the AR post editor and you should be good to go.

Thank you.
I thought that's what I was doing!

quote:

Originally posted by sws:
Thank you.
I thought that's what I was doing!

you'll crack it eventually mate.

until then, I you can depend on the curiosity of the rest of us to make sure the picture gets posted in the end.

Yummy! Great eating animal too

The best deer by far! Fantastic hunting and eating!

They are my staple source of protein and sport and I love them.
You just cant beat stalking a mature buck as they meander through heavy cover - or the thrill of a decent one coming in at pace to the call.
I've yet to shoot reds in the rut (booked for next year) but for me nothing else that East Anglia offers compares to them.

SWS,

I'm no expert in judging but I would stick my neck out and say that it is a strong bronze maybee am silver.

The problem with judging small deer from a picture is if you take the photo slightly looking down the antlers they can look very different.

All in though I think they are a great deer to stalk and I am just as happy sneaking about to shoot some does for the freezer as I am to shoot a decent buck.

K

Oddly that one never medaled. Not enough span between the antlers and the brow tines were 1mm to short to count
I always laugh when you see photos of claimed big medal muntjac that are still in the field.
Until you've had someone from Cic measure them you just don't know!

Still a nice trophy that most would be happy with, and that is the important thing huh?

You are very lucky to stalk those little fellas on a regular basis.

K