Congratulation with the Munties Dave, great write up.
Keep them coming guys and gals

Luck no doubt has a huge part in this.

Off those who actually got to shoot deer, most of us got 2 or 3 each. That being the case, a fair few of the party blanked.

I sat on Friday evening watching a party of about a dozen fallow in the next field about 500 yards away. I knew there was no chance of them coming into my range. But I sat on in the seat and took this Muntjac doe at last light, about 5.55pm:



Saturday morning had me in the same field, but a different seat. Londonhunter took his two fallow from the seat I was in the night before. I was in the seat he blanked in that night. Sunrise was beautiful. I took this Muntjac doe at about 6.50am:



Saturday pm had me on a different farm, in a high seat I sat in last year. At about 5.00pm, two unaccompanied terrier dogs hunted through the wood behind me. I thought that was it for the day. The must have pushed the deer through the wood, as I heard two shots from the next field where 308mate was, he had dropped a doe and a pricket from the group.

I stayed up in the seat, and was rewarded with a fleeting group of fallow at 6.05pm. I shouted "stop" at them, they obliged, and I dropped this one:



The 270 fairly puts them down...

Three deer from three sessions is pretty good.

Food and conversation were what you expect from a AR weekend - excellent.

Thanks to Kiri, Ian and Jo for the hard work.

Everyone ws very polite while i struggled to sight-in the old Mannlicher Schoener 6.5x54.

I did get it right with the help of IanF (that should read 'IanF got it right while I did what he told me') on the second day.

I spent three outings freezing my balls off and watching hares run around in circles.

Then, just as I was settling down to sleep off the last hour of the Sunday morning session in teh high seat, out came a group of does.

I watched them and thought they would cross the field too far for me to take ashot but they decided to wander in my directiion and then cross in front of me. I watched, waiting for teh right time to take the shot and mutterint to them to stop and stand still for a minute.

One stopped, I set the trigger and squeezed off at about 130 yards, bullet through both shoulders, down like a sack of spuds - my first fallow!

A bit later five more young does came to play around at the edge of the wood, 120 yards measured. I shot one through the chest, she ran 20 yards, staggered and fell over dead.

The other four ran another 50 yards so I lined up on one's upper chest and fired. She ran about 40 yards, disappeared over a brow and I distinctly saw her wobble as she crested it.

Only three were running when they came into view again and hot-tailed it up the opposite bank. I guess the shot was around 150 yards.

Three opportunities, three fallow does picked dead where they lay in the open field. Using the old rifle made it for me. Seeing teh deer was great, getting a shot was fun and killing cleanly three out of three was fantastic!

Thanks to Dick for setting me up in the right place, to Ian for his expertise with the rifle and to Kiri for organising the whole event. We had a blast. Now, i don't intend getting up at 4.30 a.m. again until this time next year! If you want to see a photo -

http://www.vintageguns.co.uk/i...=view&id=2&Itemid=32

Baldock perspectives 2.
The flip side of the experience was the social occasion.
Generally stalking is a solitary affair for me with the occasional natter or meet with friends of a similar interest.
The views expressed are generally a bit parochial because its usually the UK that’s under discussion and quite often, just the deer in the locality.
So walking across the car park at Hinxworth to a group of hunters from the four corners of the world was stepping into quite a different experience.
The mess room at the farm and the briefing that followed only served to broaden this view. The floor was packed with people in a variety of hunting kit and the walls with information boards and trophies.
From the roof beams trophies and antlers of every sort hung too. Add the warmth of the log stove and a thin fug of tobacco smoke and you have the picture.
Although I met all of the people there, the sheer number all at once overwhelmed my poor old brain and I’m darned if I can remember most of the names.
At least I’m putting it down to age and not the drink! The faces were universally friendly and there was an outbreak of banter every few minutes.
The laid back atmosphere didn’t disguise the hard work that went on in the background to make it all come together.
For the AR contingent, Ian & Jo did their best to keep everyone legal and shooting safely in the right direction through the range test.
Ian with gentle but firm efficiency got everybody through the accuracy test, sorted out issues of bullets stringing and groups wandering….two clicks right, three clicks up or whatever!
Kiri, besides making sure that everybody was bedded, sorted and generally happy also, throughout the weekend, performed his usual trick of making the production of massive amounts of great food look effortless.
Roast Venison, Ribs, Curry, Pheasant, stuffed and rolled Pork appeared at dinner with cous-cous, Fried eggs, Sausages, Bacon, Tomatoes and Toast in great quantities at breakfast. I was impressed on Sunday morning that, even after a bit of a session the night before, he still managed to turn up and get things moving in time to put piles of hot food in front of everyone.
So much food was being cooked on the go at once that the electrical supply kept tripping out when it couldn’t cope with the demand, Dave (Kiri’s father in law?) patiently stood there armed with a pole to push the breaker back into the engaged position as well as patiently getting stuck into mountains of washing up.
While the inside stuff was going on of an evening, outside, a team were gralloching and labelling the beasts shot and putting them in the cold store.
Meanwhile a sort of rolling group of the Baldock syndicate were organising the placement of who would be sitting where the next day.
There was some very good whisky & whiskey circulating after the meal on Saturday night. Some grappa too and lord knows what else besides wine and beer.
Tempted as I was, I retired after just a few snifters since Solvi & I were due to get up at 0445 for hunting the following morning.
Judging by the reduction in the beer stack and the empty bottles the next morning, it had been a long session after we left!
As for the craic, what can I say?
I found myself discussing and listening to discussions on 4x4’s, Puffin netting, Ratting, Wildlife, Reindeer conservation, Hunting laws and customs around the world, Moose shooting, Plains Game, every UK deer species, Boar hunting and about every rifle and shotgun calibre and brass from .22 rimfire upwards.
Grateful thanks are due to Kiri, Ian & Joe from AR and all those from the Baldock syndicate who put together such an entertaining weekend.

My sympathies to whoever has the job of cleaning all that mud from the carpet!

Well now that we're home and unpacked I gess it's time for the report. For me the trip started last Wednesday, after loading 50 rounds for my 6.5x55 and puting a few targets boards into the Land Rover I headed off and collected Brass thief who had come over from Canada a few days before. we meet up with another shooting buddy and went to are ground we use as a range.




after afew clicks on the scopes we were good to go.
at 9.00am on Thursday morning Claret Dabbler picked me up and we were on the 12.30 boat to Scotland then a 7 hour drive to Baldock. Friday Morning at silly O'clock the alarm went as we were meeting Neil at 5.00am for a bash at CWD.
Brian and Myself sat in high seats as Neil took Sam on foot. Sadly as daylight broke a thick fog came down all of us seen deer in the fog but could not make a safe shot.

we all meet at 11.30am and made are introduction, then showed Paul are FAC and insurence and Ian F took us to the range.
myself and Howa243 teamed up with are stalker Darren who took us to are seats, after siting in the seat for 2 hours it was now 6.00pm and almost dark, I was about to get down when a fallow doe came out to my right quickly I ranged her at 110m, I took aim and thump the 140gr softpoint knocked her down on the spot. at the larder I seen that the bullet had cut the hart into bits!



I dragged it out to Darrens pick up and went back to the lodge, were I meet Sam who had been out again for the CWD, he had better luck this time and came back with a young Buck and a doe





After a mighty dinner from Kiri it was off the bed for an other 4.30am start. On Saturday morning Howa243 and myself swaped seats.I was in the seat from 6.00am and waited for daylight. at about 6.45 on my right the treestump that was looking at through my binos started to move! I picked up the rifle and seen the treestump was a Muntjac! It was still very dark and I could only see the thick part of my crosshair. has it started to move off I fired and missed! later I checked the shot site and was happy that it was a clean miss ( I later found out that 3 other people missed a munty from the same seat.



after Breckfast it was back to bed then out again at 3.30pm Myself Howa243 and Claret Dabbler were sent out with Alan and his German Wirehaired pointer I was in a huge stubble


At around 5.00pm 4 fallow came crashing out of the wood in front of me. I ranged them at 120m and shot the end doe they then ran towards me went I reload the doe fell over and the other 3 ran back up the field were the stood face on to me, after a few minites the pricket turned quarting away from me I ranged him a 180m fired and down he went, the other 2 took off like rockets and into the next field. when I looked back to the buck he was up again and made it back into the woods.
Alan send in the dog and found it only about 10m into the woods (were it then started to eat it! )


we packed up and Paul had turned up to collect my 2 deer and the doe that Brian had shot. back at the yard another Brass Thief was there with the 2 fallow he had shot




after the larder work we sat down to another fantastic dinner and a few drinks and swaped war stories and had Kiris amazing smoked venision till the wee small hours.
some went out on the Sunday morning but I choose not too! on Sunday morning Kiri made us breckfast and we said are goodbys and headed home.
Another great weekend with good hunting good food and great people (even though my choice of whiskey was deeply offended by a certain Amercian! ) big thanks to Kiri, Ian, Jo, big Paul and the boys doing the larder work. can't wait until next year
as for these photos you can come up with your own comments!




I'm now off to scrub the mud and blood off my rifle!

Glad you back ok, hopefully Brass Thief caught his plane ok and is safely on his way back to Canada.

The Saturday night, smoked venison, proper JD and tales of stalking in the Emerald Isle was unmissable. We were both still laughing about the stories all the way home.

Gents,

May I also add what a pleasure it was to see you all. Catch up with pld friends and make many new ones. The opportunity to spend the weekend doing what we like second best in life with like minded fellows is a joy in itself.

For me the chance to see guys doing what they don't often get the chance to do or achieving firsts makes the organisation well worth it, not to mention the opportunity to hear of Sam & Aarons stories over a few small whiskeys... (I must say the comparative tastings were quite inconclusive and may need to be repeated in the next year or so....)

Thanks to one and all for their kind words and help along the way.

As has been mentioned the "distribution" of the shooting was erratic amongst the group at best but never was one to hear of a gripe over the weekend even from those that travelled miles that numbered in the thousands to get there. A group of true sportsman indeed.

Thanks to Ian for running the range and his help in the organisation. Also I now know what I'll be getting Paul at GAP 180 for Xmas..... A Bloody Kettle!!

Looking forward to the next time we meet and indeed I believe some plans are already afoot for a variety of shooting expeditions for the next 12 months in the UK and abroad. Watch this space!!

Rgds,
K

Kiri,

Instead of a new kettle for Paul, how about a new 'trip switch?' I think Dave managed to suffer RSI from constantly resetting it. Some would say that having three heavy duty frying pans going for the breakfast may have been a tad excessive - not me of course, you can never have too much 'flat pig'.

I would also like to send my thanks to Kiri for the efforts involved in the organising of this event.

It was really nice to meet up with a lot of the faces from last year and also some great new ones.

Many thanks to all that attended for making it a thoroughly enjoyable weekend.

Jo

Hi dave, we got back home at about 11.00pm.
Sam got his flight but wasn't able to take his rifle back with him as the usless B*****ds had printed the wrong serial number in his FAC!

Brass also left his favourite hat in my car.

That has to be shipped to Canada along with the K-hornet.

Well,i must be back in the US.everyone is driving on the wrong side of the motorway.unproductive stalking,great new friends.im supposedto be stalking but spending the off time with Ben talking helice,picciones,fossa trap.Thanks Kiri,Gerry,Ian,Jo,Ben,Michael,everyone.sign me up for whatevers next.ill be sane in a few days.BEST,kim

my penny

Can anyone test if it works the URL in the previous answer? if it works it will be possibble to have a better view of the photos that I did. answer, positive or less is welcome
Thank you

Finally caught up with work !

What a weekend

Met so many new friends from far afield

Sorry about the quality of pictures but I only had a camera phone. Shot my first white fallow Glad I took the time to learn the ballistics of my rifle a few weeks ago if not I would not have attempted a 311 yard shot with my peashooter - 6.5 x 55 !

We finished the hunt with K and G at Bisley Camp with a PRIVATE tour of the museum !

Sorry I had to leave the hunt in such a hurry as well on saturday.....

Please keep in touch and see you folks sometime

safe shooting

two words on the previous replies, I'm still working on my pc, that has been aligned to the last functioning "image".
I'm still in trouble having to restore software and programs usefulls for work.
this is the reason of the absence of description.
hope to have more time in the next future.

Steve,

Firtly Steve the link to the gallery is working ok but people have to be members of Hunt101 to see the full size pictures.

To everybody else, I'm glad you all had a great time and if you didn't manage to get a beast, you're in good company!

I was dissapointed that I couldn't get down this time, but I hope to catch up with you guys in the not too distant future..

Regards,

Peter

Guys, what a GREAT weekend!

I was one of the unfortunate who drew a blank on the hunting side... Disappointed?? Of course! But this is hunting, disappointment and failures are part of the game - from time to time... Alas, not much one can do about that! A resounding "Weidmannsheil" to the skillful and fortunate hunters of this weekend.

But,,,, hunting success here or there, this was no doubt a GREAT weekend! It was an absolute ball to be able to put faces to a few of the "pen names" here. What a privilege and thrill, I'll be back next year (assuming there is a trip next year....)!

A very special thanks to just a few of the many (and yet far too few) of the attendants I was able to spend time with:

- Gerry - always a pleasure, friend!
- KimR - for coming from so far away, and reminding me of the value of proper vocabulary! Again, next year?
- Fallow Buck - for the hard work in organizing and at the pots! It speaks for you that you are enthustiastic about your son! I presume you have girls commenting on (falling in love with...) your eyes??
- Artemis - Any chance you have a sister??
- IanF - for the hard work organizing, running a tight ship on the "range" and being a such a nice guy!
- Anders, how on earth did you get this tall?? Good luck on the ibex and maral this fall. What a pleasant chap!
- Solvi,. a multiple Weidmannsheil on your successes!
- Steve, Italy forever!
- Claret Dabbler, what a pleasure to exchange ideas! I might be able to pick up Redbreast in Switzerland!
- DJM, and here I was, originally thinking you were "just" doing the larder... Knowledgeable by experience! Say "hi" to Claire, she'll likely "borrow" a few of your pieces of equipment when she starts hunting seriously... Be aware how fortunate you are, being able to share your passion with your partner! (Ian, Jo, you listening?).
- 308Mate, Package of Northern Ireland success! The picture where you prepare to "remove" Gerry's rectum is worth a thousand words... I had a hard time keeping a straight face when that was taken...
- Dave (Kiri's Father-in-law) how pleasant does it get?
- London Hunter - for being so hospitable, and taking foreigners to places they would likely not have experienced on their own!
- Trapper - what a pleasure! Good luck on your quest for all UK deer species within one year!
- Small Bore - the living firearms encyclopedia! Good on you for being such a nice chap, and on the success with the 6.5x54!
- Aaron (N Ireland) - cheers mate!
- and the many, many others with whom I was privileged to share some wonderful moments. See you all next year??

- mike

Thanks Mike,

Now if you could just talk Claire into buying a R93 in .243, for her to use of course

I"m still not unpacked, just got in last night and I'm losing my voice(a blessing for those around me!)
I have"nt even taken the time to read all the reports in full and I"m about to go to bed, but I wanted to thank everyone involved for all the organisation and work put in, esp by Kiri(not forgetting larder staff and guides/etc)
As already mentioned I did"nt get to bring my K hornet to Canada, thanks to the professionalism and skill of the police here(who can"t copy a number from one peice of paper to another)
I do have my trusty .243 over here now, so I have loads of new and bigger stuff to shoot with it now!
Thanks again to everyone for another great weekend.
good shooting

quote:

Originally posted by DJM:
Now if you could just talk Claire into buying a R93 in .243, for her to use of course

Got to make the most of the opportunity...

- mike

I have to thank a lot Kyle. He saved the weekend to me and Anders giving us a bed to sleep. I have to thank also him he has carried me by car from and to Heathrow airport. I'm happy for his successs on the hunt.

Kiri I'll put the photos on photobucket in next days. So much things to do in superbusy days.

Does anyone have a group photo from the weekend

Thanks everyone for a superb weekend! I ended up without any shots fired. Except papertargets were I shot quite a lot..
Right, Steve.. Thanks to Kyle for letting us join in your room. You're a great guy!
Kiri and Ian had made a fantastic arrangement! Thanks guys!
Meeting up with everyone was a great experience!

Did you get through customs allright, Solvi?

I was stopped because there were some errors on my tfp. Suddenly 5 armed police officers were asking me questions. But they let me and my gun go through after a while. At the security check they removed a good bottle of malt whisky and went through my luggage for quite a long time. I had to run to the gate, in hope of catching my flight. Getting to the gate just in time, I was informed there was a four hour delay due to tecknical problems.
Back at the terminal building I headed straight to the bar and drank my worries away..

I will post some pictures when I get them downloaded.

Thanks again and looking forward to next time around!

Guys,
sorry that I was not able to meet up with you .

Hope 2010 is just as good.

Best wishes

Thanks for the group picture Solvi.
That whisky sure puts a rosy glow on the face doesn't it?

I stil remember Anders' telescopic arm reaching across the room and taking the bottle from Gerry!!

Bloody impressive!!

Anyway Dave from what I can see your whole head is glowing!!

FB

quote:

Originally posted by Fallow Buck:
I stil remember Anders' telescopic arm reaching across the room and taking the bottle from Gerry!!

Bloody impressive!!

FB

Check out my blog to see pictures guys:
Hunting Adventures

If you don't understand Norwegian, you better start learning..
Gerry, you might understand something..?