Had a bit of a saga on Sunday morning. Did the gamefair Saturday and stopped over near Bath with relations. Early Sun. I'd arranged to take a chap stalking for his first ever shot on a deer.
I know the chap as a shotgunner and met at farm at 6.30 for a sighting shot which he put just an inch high. So good too go we set off.
The ground is all arable crops still a week or two off combining but with 20 foot grass conservation headlands which had been half topped to give a 10 foot short grass strip around the crop.
After an hour or so of stalking these headlands we found and crawled up on a suitable beast in company of a doe. I set him up the shot, prone off short sticks at 60 yards. Let me just check where the doe is I whisper ....bang! the buck is down. poleaxed but out of sight. Well done!! the doe reappears and wanders about for 2 or 3 minutes. As she disappears back into grass there's a bit of grunting and barking and a groggy buck crosses the 10 foot lane into the standing wheat.... shit!.... we can see his antlers moving away in a sea of wheat....Taking the rifle, I head up a tramline in an effort to cut him off.... we have no dog and if we lose sight now, I'll never find him!
I get within 10 yards of the movement and he realises and leaps and bounds away, his bones are all intact but he has a high shoulder/ base neck wound. My hurried shot misses over the top off his fleeing form! F****** hell!!!
I get out the wheat and we sit in an enforced dejection for 15 mins.
We walk to where he was shot, no blood, can't see any evidence. We go too where we last saw him go through a hedge, other side there's another similar grass headland around 30 acres of beans... no evidence just a doe with twins looking at us in puzzlement.
So there we were stood alongside a beanfield with a lost buck and an alround catalogue of errors. I had visions of the repurcussions for my good name and reputation when the combine finds the corpse finds the corpse in 2 weeks hence! Or the locals see a rutting buck with a flyblown wound high on his shoulder......

Trans,

I know how you must be feeling. will you be going out prior to the combining to see if you can catch up wit the buck should h still be on foot? I'm assuming he wouldn't go far.

I suppose your guest learnt a valuable lesson.

Rgds,
FB

Chapter 2..... So there we were dejectedly, discussing the repurcussions when the guest says look! Sure enough, there about 30 yards out in the crop a bean stem is shaking, yet the air is still; not a hint of breeze yet one stem is definately shaking. I marvel at the change in fortune that has given us new hope.
Taking a careful visual mark, I tell him to stay on headland and direct me if he sees further movement.
I hand the chap the rifle, with strict reminder not to fire into the crop, but if the deer emerges shoot him on the headland. There is no way the rifle is going to be usable in the near impenetrable jungle of bean plants... indeed after the first step or two I had a moment of major doubts as too the tiny chance of a successful outcome.... clutching at straws, needles in haystacks etc.
But born of desperation, I struggled through the jungle, until I got to where I thought the moving bean stem was....nothing, I moved on a bit further. No evidence, sinking heart....Then a rustling, movement two or three paces behind me. He's here, he's up, he's going deeper into the crop. Blindly I chase the sound of his progress. The jungled crop finally favours my progress over his and choosing the one chance, I sprawl and pull him down.....years and years of catching escaping sheep, knowing you only get the one decent first chance to grab an adrenalin fuelled beast....that and a dose of good luck meant finally a suitable conclusion.
We had a lot of bad luck, then we had a lot of good luck.
Luck a fickle companion and probably the one companion a hunter needs above any other.

Trans

Wow - can understand the sensations that must you have been experiencing! Congratulations on your rugby technique - sods law would generally dictate the knife had fallen from your pocket in the affray!

Did you have a good visit to the CLA?

Rgds Ian

Great result!!

The thought of you diving on the escaping buck brought a smile on!!

Rgds,
FB

Nice one, who needs a tracking dog when you can catch them by hand!

Was the bullet wound very close to the neck bone? It is interesting how long some animals stay down when the spine isn't actually damaged.