Hi All,

Last year I was lucky enought to get invited to Norfolk to try out on the staggies. My freind said that if I wanted I could shoot one of the biggies. He'd seen several stags in the 14-18 point range weighing upwards of 400lbs but they had declined to take them as this isn't really their thing. Not mine either on a regular basis in all honesty but an opportuity like this on wild stags was too good to miss. Well this year I got another invite so I made my way up on Friday night to his house in Norwich ready to go. I had my 308 and 168gr federal factory loads.

I had decided to hold off of early sightings (within the first hour) of other species in the hope of Reds. After that I would take Roe does too. Having never shot a red or a muntie I gave myself an "exemption" if a big muntie buck showed. Other wise I would take any red that showed in the absence of a stag, or try for a second young eater out of the herd if I did get lucky on the big fella!! Optimistic I know but I like to have things straight in my head before I start to avoid confusion later.

We went out Sat mng and saw a stag and hind in the gateway to where Pete was going to sit. I went upto the other seat about half a mile away and settled in. I had 2 Roe does about 300yds away coming through the sugar beet but they kept looking at me for some reason. Not sure why exactly, but the wind was right and they were a long way off. Anyway they went into the wood about 400yds away. Then I had a muntie in the sugarbeet about 200m in front but I couldn't see it through the leaves to sex it. All the time I had 2 stags roaring in the plantation behind me but nothing showed. One of them must have been withn 50yds of the seat but he wouldn't come out. The ground didn't belong to us otherwise I would have got down and tried to stalk him. Pete's mate had a stag of about 16-18 points in front of that seat a couple of days beforehand which he estimated at 450lb-500lb!!! He said he didn't want to shoot it in case it got upset!!

Anyway at nearly finishing time I had a Chinese come out. I was looking at it through the scope at about 30yds and was thinking of nutting it. Then I thought I'd check if it was a buck, as I didn't want to spoi the trophy.. It was a doe and I couldn't decide if I should shoot it or not.... Those stags were still roaring behind me and hope was still strong. By the time I had a look and faffed about and got my jacket caught on the seat, the deer decided it was time to be somewhere else..... I last saw it dissapear over he horizon!! Nothing else showed. I knew I should have just shot that chinese....

Pete had 10 Reds in friont of him all mng but wanted to leave them in the hope I would shoot the stag later that day or next mng. I told him he should have whacked one!! He shot a fox that appeared as he was getting out of the seat. 80yds running and dropped him with one shot. Good shooting by all accounts. The herd was made up of 4 hinds and calves and a 12 point stag and a yearling spike.

That evening I swapped seats with Pete and waited for the reds. A muntie doe came out and I decided I'd shoot the buck if he showed but he didn't. I was still waiting for "MY" stag!! Nothing showed until last light when charlie came out and stood 10yds in front of me. He was digging a hole with his back end up in the air facing me so I put the 3308 TSX the only place I could see!!!! It came out under his chin and spun him right around. I knew I should have shot that muntie....

We went out for dinner and I drank a bottle of wine and a couple of scotches . after 5 hrs sleep I was sat in the seat on sunday mng feeling about as dead as last tuesday... Anyway it was still dark so I decided to have a little snooze on the front rail). It was minus one centigrade and I was concerned for my sanity....

As I put my head down there was a bush to the left of me that wasn't there when I last looked..... Then the bush started walking past the highseat!!! It looked like a hind but it was still very dark, so I thought I'd take a look through the bins. It was about 10yds in front of me and when I looked through the bins the hind had horns!!!! Not a huge stag by Norfolk standards but big enough. It was probably the 12 pointer from the day before. the head was about three and a half feet wide from what I could see. Pete had asked me to try and neck anything if near a wood as he didn't have acces to the woods, althought it wasn't so bad where I was. I thought that the 168g TSX probably wouldn't let him go too far anyway....

I looked and looked but the light just wasn't good enough. I could clearly see the shape but I couldn't pick out features to place a shot. I hoped that he would hang about for all of 3-5mins that I would need to get the shooting light but he decided this place was no fun. I had given the shot some serious thought and I'm sure it would have been fine but not sure enough. The Last thing you want to do is give a freind a problem to follow up as repayment for his hospitality. I thought he might hold at the other end of the feild and present a shot later on but he never showed again.

About an hour later, I had the muntie doe from Sat night in front of me with another doe. They played for a while and I wasn't sure what to do. I decided I'd shoot a buck if it showed. The reds were roaring and when the sun came up I thought I might get some deer traffick... The munties hung about for a bit then went away. I waited and nothing else showed. We got down a bit early due to the cold and nature calling and called it a day. I really should have shot those munties!!

A great weekend and I could have shot a couple of munties and a chinese with hindsight. I don't regret letting the stag go, and it was a step in the right direction seeeing one!!

I'm hoping to get back up there in February, and try again. One things for sure though, once I have my stag, those Munties are not getting anymore grace!!! In themeantime Pete is coming down to me in 3 weeks and I'm going to try and get him his first fallow buck.

Rgds,
FB

Best regards

A nice hunting story fallow buck. If we all had a quid for every time we let something pass in the hope of getting something better we'd all be millionaires! Still, that's all part of life's rich tapestry. Better luck next time mate!

Hey Kiri,
Good job for holding back on that stag, I am sure it was sorely tempting to give him the news.
At least you'll have something to dream about till February!
I missed the sika rut in Ireland for work commitments and will go across in 10 days. Hopefully I'll get some trigger time.

Hi guys,

Yes tempting is an understatement!!! but hey, that's the way it goes. I don't actually regret letting him go. As a trophy he wasn't the biggest there but he would have been a substantial head for my purposes, and either way a great stag to take as my first!! In fact due to the low light it's tough to really make an accurate assesment of it, so I may even have been a little surprised. We'll never know

As for the munties.... Well there is no shortage of thiose little critters so I'll never run out of chances at those. How exciting to be able to see so many species from one seat though!!!

Laters,
FB