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Sitting down to write up this report, I have a bit of a ‘Groundhog Day’ feel about it. After all, I have been travelling over to the UK every year in February to hunt muntjac and Chinese water deer with Alex for the past four years. Taking a hunting buddy with me each time. And yet, whilst the animals that we are hunting are the same species each time, every hunt has been different and unique in its own way. The other consistency has been the weather. Every year it has been blue skies and sunshine and this year was no exception. Cold but blue skies and dry! Maybe this report should be titled "The sunshine Groundhog Day Hunt"!

A great hunting friend, Kris, whom I have know for twenty odd years joined me on this trip. His first time hunting / stalking in the UK. Rather than suffer my Landrover Defender, he opted to drive taking his car and we set off early the Thursday morning driving from Germany thru Belgium into France and then ‘LeShuttle’ from Calais to Folkestone and an easy run up to Newbury, where we were based. An easy and trouble free drive arriving mid afternoon.

I booked us in at the Five Bells, an historic English pub with five rooms, a great pub bar and a good traditional menu and restaurant with its open wood fire. Simple but an ideal place to stay the three nights.











Alex, who has been guiding and managing deer for some twenty years, picked us up at 16.00 hrs and within 30 minutes we were stalking into a herd of fallow bucks on a large ploughed farm field. One buck had lost an antler and Kris was excited at the chance to try and take him.





In the middle of the stalk a ‘murder’ of crows (how`s that for a collective noun for crows!) lifted off as one into the air and dropped some 50 meters further away. That was enough to spook the fallow and they too took off as one up the field. Alex flicked the shooting sticks open and Kris tried a shot at the buck but at some 350 m he undershot the fallow and away they went. It was not meant to be.





Back to the truck and off we went again and it was not long before Alex spied a pair of muntjac. We stalked into the two antelope in the fading light and despite being only some 30 m from the buck, Kris could not see him in the scope, it was too dark, and he left the safety on.

It was then back to the Five Bells and a hot shower and then a sample of some of the unique local ales and beers that the Bells has on tap! Followed by a great pub dinner next to the wood fire. End of ‘Day 1’ and we had seen fallow and muntjac with a (long) shot opportunity at the fallow. A great start!





Alex picked us up at 05.00 on the Friday and we drove about an hour into Gloucestershire, to try for Chinese water deer. There was a thick fog on the ground but it lifted somewhat so that we had about 50 m visibility and after arriving at the arable farm it was not long before we were seeing deer with the help of the handheld thermals.

“We need to look at this one.” Alex announced, opening up his Swarovski spotting scope and resting it on the truck’s side mirror to glass the buck. After a moment or two he pushed the scope together in it’s case and whispered “Lets go.”





Closing the doors very quietly, we gathered our binocs, the Blaser R8 .243 and the sticks and started a slow walk / stalk towards the laying down buck. At about 50 m, Alex flicked open the sticks and Kris bedded the rifle down. And then we waited, Alex with his Pulsar thermal glued to his right eye and Kris behind the scope. After a few minutes the buck stood up, stretched, turned broadside and Alex ‘barked’.

Kris squeezed the trigger, the shot broke and we all saw the buck take the hit. A short, fast 20 m dash and the Chinese water deer collapsed. Kris had his first English deer! A very solid water deer buck with two long and intact canines! A great trophy!











Pictures, a gralloch and with the buck loaded in the back of the Hilux it was back to the Five Bells for coffee and a full English breakfast! When in Rome!

That afternoon we drove to Corsham to the Wadswick Country Store, a sort of British Cabelas, a big gun room, a wide choice of country clothing, a huge equine section and a nice café and restaurant.

Alex collected us at the pub at 15.00 h and after a short drive we parked up at a dairy farm with fields and woodlands and hedgerows.





Within 15 minutes of walking / stalking Alex spied a muntjac buck laid up in a hedgerow. We stalked, Indian file, into the buck and then parallel to the hedge to get a shooting window thru the twigs and sticks and then up went the shooting sticks and again Kris put in a great shot and had his second English deer on the ground! Two in one day!








After photos, we left the buck in the shade of an oak tree and carried on looking for a buck for me. Crossing a small stream, Kris saw a muntjac carcass in the undergrowth and called it to Alex. He confirmed that it was a buck that a female client had shot and wounded in January and after a couple of iPhone photographs of the carcass for his records, Alex took the semi decomposed head and antlers and bagged it to talk back and clean up for the client.





We stalked on and in no time at all, Alex spotted another buck which I shot cleanly at about 75 m. Two muntjac in the space of a couple of hours!





Pictures, two bucks gralloched and we were back in the truck looking for fallow again! But with no luck this time.





Friday evening we went into Newbury and enjoyed a great curry at the Gurkha Chef, a wonderful Nepalese restaurant with every table full and heaving and Gurkha beer! That was a first.





Saturday it was a 06.00 start and at 07.15 Kris had taken a solid fallow doe in the light early morning mist and Alex shot a second doe as the group bolted, taking his fallow total to 484 for the season! That’s a lot of fallow.


















As a side note, there was an amazing ‘Tithe Barn’ dating back a Middle Ages where we shot the two follow. An awesome bit of architecture and history!





Shortly after that, driving, we spied another herd of fallow and Kris managed a second doe for the morning. 485!





We called it a day at lunchtime. In 48 hours we had taken two solid muntjac, a great Chinese water deer and a couple of fallow does! What a great short hunting result and wonderful sunshine!

We ate in town that evening and finished up at the pub with a celebratory pint by the fire, both very happy with the whole trip!





Sunday we settled up with Alex, collected the trophies plus two shoulder mounts that Alex’s was holding for me from the taxidermist and set off back to Folkestone, LeShuttle and back to Germany and home.





A great short and successful hunting trip with a good hunting friend!

Thank you Kris for coming along and thank you Alex for the effort and hard work that you put in to make it a successful trip for us! And thanks to all AR members / readers that came along thru this report.

Plans for 2026 are already in the making!

Appreciated!

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Great report and congrats to you both. We have some awesome hunting in the UK.

Charlie-
Thanks for the enjoyable report. It, once again, looks like a great time. Did you bring your own rifles?
Jeff

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Jeff hi and yes it was a great trip (again)! We used Alex`s rifles - a Blaser R8 in .243 topped with a Pulsar Thermion scope and a custom build Sako also in .243 with a Swarovski red dot on top. All great gear! Not worth the hassle IMO of jumping through the hoops and cost to get a Visitors Permit for such a short trip.

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Charlie,

Well done! Alex puts 110% into every hunt. I'm still surprised at how much game we saw on our hunt with Alex.

Cheers,

Mark

Charlie, please put a memo on the main bulletin board on AR that you have a report up so we can go and find it!
I just found this one and enjoyed it very much!
Thank you for sharing

JCHB

Great report, highly motivating. I had a mid-day park deer experience w/Alex last fall, great dude! Plus my only international "hunt" so far. Looking forward to a real stalking trip like yours, Charlie, next time out.

Charlie
Looks like another fun trip.
Those little deer sure are fun to hunt.
Plus a wonderful area to be in.

Always enjoy your reports my friend. I have to admit being a wee bit jealous though, the English countryside and pub grub tend to make me nostalgic for the stalk! Well done!

Looks and sounds like hell of a hunt