A great weekend that showed the benefits of having a good number of hunters on the ground.

How often do we have a situation where a couple hunters see nothing, and come back convinced there are low numbers of deer out there? If you blanked on a session, it was certainly a reassurance to see the carcasses coming in. You KNEW it was only a matter of time before you had deer in your sights!

Some interesting events that have not been mentioned to date.

A phone call came in on the last morning - a local farmer had noticed a Fallow buck, its antlers snagged in a bag.

The message was passed and Solvi and I made our way over to where the Buck was supposed to be snagged. A mass of mud appeared to be bounding around the field - its head firmly fastened to the ground!



A swift shot from Solvi ended the affair, and closer investigation showed the unfortunate beast had been firmly attached to a bag containing some rotting corn. It had obviously scented the corn and got well and truly caught as it tried to withdraw its head. A quite common thing here, to find Fallow bucks with their antlers wrapped up in netting, wire or any other available hazard.

Likewise, with the density of deer in the area - road collisions are a regular occurrence. It is estimated that last year there were over 50,000 such accidents in the UK! A mature Fallow Doe was spotted & taken by one of our hunters, completely lacking a rear leg. An unfortunate accident that the deer had overcome, still being in relatively good condition. Certainly, a good thing to remove an injured animal from the herd. Kudos to the shooter concerned!



Finally, a Muntjac was brought in exhibiting unusually extended cleaves on its feet. Occasionally seen in Roe deer, this was a first for me to observe in these smaller deer. The eventual result would be extension into a condition known as 'Aladdin's Slippers'.

Congratulations to all the members who were able to attend this, the first Euro AR Bash! From an administration point of view, things went surprisingly well. Accordingly, we are hoping to repeat this next year - but with the capacity to handle even more hunters. It will be a great event if the last weekend was anything to go by!

Looking forward to meeting all of my new friends again in the coming year.

Rgds Ian

I managed to get a couplem of pictures of the doen in question.




The damage seemed cosistant with wire trap injury that we see all to often .




For years , stock fence has been topped off with two strands of wire, about 15cm apart.
This has now started to prove a death trap to jumping deer.The way that deer tuck their back legs underneath them when jumping can result in one or both of the legs getting trapped between the wires.

When the beast falls, due to being, snared; the wires twist and lock tight.
This can prove fatal if the animal is not descovered. Other results are as you see above.
The wire looks to have locked so tight that it eventually garrotted the limb, and off it came.
Notice how the stump has started to grow hair. this is quite an old injury, and shows how tough these beasts are.

I too had an encounter with an unfortunately enquisitive fallow buck.

Whilst in a seat in Oxford , on a piece of ground that I used to get an invite on, I notice a strang noise coming from down the field.
looking down, my eyes were met with a very unusual site!

The noise was a large black PVC sack . Not that unusual you may think. But this bag was attached to the head of a sorrel buck.

The noise was created when he tossed his head back to get the bag to come away from his face, so he could see where to go next.
This carried on, up the field, for several hundred yards as the deer made its way , zig zag style, towards me.

When gralloched out, he did not show any signs of ill from the bag on the head, but must have had a very sore neck.

Puntgunner, I christened said three legged doe "Heather Mills".

In pretty bad taste , but Sam thought it was funny.

CD,
That reminds me of an interview that Sir Paul gave to Radio 4 recently.

When asked , "after two very complexed marriages
would you be willing to go down on one knee again?"

He replied, " I don't think that will be likely. But please, could you refer to her as Heather in future............"

I once had a doe on my ground that was missing a front leg quite high up due to a fence injury. I think PeteE or Ian may have seen her on one of the early times they come to me.

Anyway that beast would sometimes sit below the highseat between Marh to 31st October, but in season she would dissapear. Every year I would see her with a Calf in the summer, and she seemed to function very well.

I've shot several deer that were missing legs and the resilience of our wild deer never ceases to amaze me.

Rgds,
FB

Guys,the 3 legged doe was mine-last shot on sun morning when she came out limping pitifully,could barely stand.it was a cull shoot&i grassed her.last shot of the day?Thanks to all again for a great weekend-felt like i was gone a month.BEST,kim

Well it's a bit late but hear is my write up of the fantastic weekend.
Well it started on Thursday afternoon with a bit of a drama when checking the zero of my 6.5 when the casing of the reflex T8 split! so after a mad panic and a few phone calls a mate from my pistol club lent me his wildcat preditor. (I have now bought myself 1) so I packed my bag and cleaned the Tikka and went to bed. Friday morning 7.30am Sam arrived at my house and we headed to the airport. after an argument with a d**k head airport police officer we meet Brian and got the plane arrived at Lutton got are hire car and headed to baldock.we got to the base camp at 1.00pm we had missed the briefing so we meet Paul and signed in and went over the rules. after that IanF took us for zeroing, then time for a spot of lunch and a chin wag, I was realy impressed with the logde and all the trophies

we got chatting to Griff,Jon2 and Solvi already the craic was good, then the building shook as Paul called us to attention. we were paired off and told were we were going. I was told I was going to the virgen seat which was fallowed by many smart assed comments I meet my guide Andy and we headed of to weston 2 Andy showed me to the seat and told me the arc of fire.
so the that was it, the waitng game had started.
at about 4.30 shot stated to ring out (from Paul in the "hot" seat) after range finding everthing to death a pair of malard landed in the pond in front of me 140m away
then a big Fallow doe stepped out next to the water, rifle up crosshairs in behind the elbow and the 140gr soft point hit the spot, she ran 20m and dropped. feeling quite chuffed with myself I looked round to my right
and another 2 does standing in the field! I manage to turn round with falling out of the seat and got on to the next doe, she was standing looking towords me, and I heard a wee voice (or should that be a big deep 1 ) screaming "NO NECK SHOTS" so I waited and she turned to the right and give me the shot, 50m and dropped on the spot, the 3rd doe ran across the field and heading for the fence but the stopped and looked back and down she went. (I think I need to buy my mate who lent the wildcat a drink, if it was'nt for the moderator I don't think I would have got the 2nd and 3rd deer.)
at 7.00pm Andy came down to the seat and we started the work. it was now pitch dark, and Andy made a call for a quad( I was so glad he did)we then headed to "the hot seat" were Puntgunner and Solvi were there with I think 2 Fallow and 2 Munty's. back to the lodge were the grallicking frenzy had started.
We had a fantastic dinner provided by Kiri got are instructions for Saturday, then off to the travel lodge and bed.
3.30am came VERY early. to the Lodge and meet up with my stolker Pete Law and off we went, still picth dark Pete took me to the seat which was very roomy and on a huge big oak tree. as it was getting light I could just about see loads of big hares runing about and just as daylight broke I was jioned by a canada goose and then another

as it was light I started range finding the field, there was a fence to my right that was 290m away, at about 6.30 I seen somthing coming out from the woods, at 1st I thought it was another hare, but when I looked through the bino's it was munty! I looked again and didn't see any spikes so up came the rifle.
I tried to wistle to get it to stop but it didn't so crosshairs on the shoulder and crack, down it went. I was over the moon my 1st munty! then a very sick feeling as I saw the wee bugger was tring to get up. I picked up the range finder 221m ooops abit futher than I thought it was, so I got steady and fired again. this time the 6.5 hit the spot.

at about 7.30 we headed back, we called in with Puntgunner at the hotseat were greedy bugger had 7 fallow down. back to the lodge were the larder was looking very full
Sam helped me with the grallick and with 1/2 a foot missing from my poor shot, there was some smart coments about a "punishment shooting" and "what was that munty doing..... stealing cars!" after some lunch we went back to bed and then came back at 4.00pm for next outing.
I was out with Ian, Jo and Jon. I got he "cold seat" and it was! after freezing for about 3 hours Jo and Jon came back and we head back to more grallicking and then an other fantastic meal from Kiri and a few speachs the drinking started! after a few war stories were swaped Puntgunner and Nige were made honourary Irish drinking budies the stories carried on to the wee hours and funny enough we didn't make it out on Sunday morning! on Sunday there was more grallicking and more good food. we packed up and said are goodbyes and headed back to the airport


So there you go long winded, but sure It will give you's lot somthing to read!
Roll on next year
and a BIG THANKS to everyone for making it happen