I arrived back late on Friday from a weeks stalking on the Isle of Arran. The idea was to catch the Red stag during the Rut.

The hunt is in Sitka Spruce plantations belonging to the Forestry Commission, which cover some 27,000 acres of the south of the island .

The hunt is organised each year by the British Association of Shooting & Conservation in conjunction with the Forestry Commission. On the stags, there are five, one week hunts available, with each catering for between 14 and 16 stalkers. Later in the year, similar hunts are organised for the Hinds.

The idea is that you buddy up with a partner and each pair is allocated a “beat†to stalk, with each beat being in excess of 1000 acres. Mid way through the week, if anybody fancies a change, there is usually a shuffle about, with the aim of getting everybody into the deer.

On the ground, the scheme is run by two guys, Griff from BASC, and Bob, the Head FC Ranger on Arrun. Besides administering the scheme, these guys provided the extraction support to enable the carcasses to be recovered and transported back to the larder.

On the “easier†parts of the Forest, this enabled the stalkers to carry on hunting, but in many cases it took the combined effort of four people to get the carcasses out. Griff and Bob put in a lot of hours in during the week as they went from one stalking party to another to recover the various carcasses and to ensure people were ok, and frankly the whole thing would have been a nightmare with out their contribution.

The hunt for me started with a five hour drive up north to Ardrossan to catch a ferry over to Brodick on Arran. At the ferry port I also met up with two mates who had stalked on Arran before and who I would be sharing a hotel with. Its fair to say we had all been looking forward to this for months. A fourth person in our party had to pull out last minute as he had injured his back in a fall; to say he was gutted was an understatement!

As the ferry sailed into Brodick, my anticipation was high and my first glimpse of the island was exactly how I imagined it would be.





The next morning everybody met up for the safety briefing and then onto a small range to check zero of the rifles. The scheme is quite high profile at the minute, and both the BASC and FC are very keen on the safety aspect, plus that everybody operated in a professional manner and this was emphasized in the briefing

The carcasses culled were destined to be sold for venison, and marketed under a FC quality assurance scheme and therefore had to be of the highest standards. This meant that either the carcass was extracted whole so it could be gralloched under hygienic conditions or if needs be, just a “short gralloch†was to be done in the field. This entailed bleeding out the carcass, followed by the removal of just the stomach and intestines ect through as small a slit as possible to minimise contamination from debris ect while the beast was being dragged out.

During the briefing, each pair of stalkers were also issued a small day sack containing basic safety and survival items including 2 way radios, bivy bags, compasses ect as shown below.



The rifle, binos and GPS belonged to my stalking partner, Nigel. An aerial photo overlaid with an OS grid of each beat was provided for navigation and a few of us had our own OS 1:25,000 Topo maps and GPS ect.

I won’t go into a blow by blow account of the week, but just mention the more interesting bits as that will be long winded enough as it is!

The pics below show a couple of areas on or near the beat Nigel and I were allocated.








Nigel was first to connect to a stag about mid morning on Tuesday. We had been stalking quietly up a forestry ride, and the stag crossed in front of us at a range of about 100m. With rifle on his sticks, Nigel took the shot with his .308win and we both heard a “thud†as the 180grn Game King struck home. The stag hunched up and jumped into the thick Sitka spruce… â€Liver Shot†was my first thought, along with the hope it wasn’t any further back than that.

Rather than risk pushing the stag further if it was hit a touch too far back, we settled down to eat some breakfast and contacted Griff and Bob to say we had a beast down, but might need the tracking dogs to find it. After twenty minutes or so we went forward to where the stag was standing but could find absolutely no signs of strike; Nigel however did note that there was a definite smell of “carcassâ€â€¦

We had a quick look under the trees in the immediate vicinity but there was no sign of the beast. At this point we decided to wait for the tracking dogs to arrive. If the beast was dead, it wouldn’t matter, but if it had been gut shot and was lying up somewhere, the longer it had to bleed out and stiffen up the better.

With what I am sure was a heavy heart, Nigel trudged back to meet Griff and Bob and guide them back to the location. It was probably a couple of hours later I heard the sound of the quads as they got closer.

It seems that the ride in had been quite “interesting†with one of the quads dropping into a bog up to the top of its wheels. Luckily operating in pairs meant they soon had it unstuck again.

After a brief chat and an appraisal of the situation, Bob cast his two dogs off to follow the trail…Barely 50m through the Sitka Spruce we came to the carcass where the stag had rolled over…How we didn’t see it initially, I don’t know, but I was very glad when the follow up turned out to be such a “none eventâ€. Nigel was even happier and spent the rest of the day wearing a big grin.

After Bob did a deceptively quick short gralloch, the fun part started. The beast was lying at the bottom of a steep bank and there was no “easy†way to get it out other than up hill. “Easy†here being relative of course.

Bob managed to get his quad into the plantation along a deer rack and then down to the carcass along a steep ploughing furrow. After hitching the carcass to the back, the problem was getting it back up hill as the bank was simply too steep for the quad.

Griff brought in his quad to near the top of the bank and with a long rope managed to supply the extra pulling power to get things moving. This didn’t go without incident though. As Griff traversed the side slope along the deer rack, he felt the quads’ back end starting to drift down hill.



Luckily the roll happened at very slow speed and he was able to get clear without injury . After the four of us rolled the quad back the right way up, we were pleased to find it had suffered no damage either. Undoubtedly the closeness of the trees had prevented the situation from being a lot worse.

Once the quads were back out to the main forest ride, the carcass was transferred into a small ATV trailer for onward extraction. Barring crossing a couple of drainage ditches hidden in the heather and avoiding the really boggy ground, the trip back to the 4x4’s was fairly straight forward.





At that point Bob left to pick up another carcass, and we went back to the larder to finish cleaning the carcass and getting it hung up ect.

Opening up the chest cavity proved that it had in fact been hit in part of the liver as well as slicing through part of the lungs.

Cleaned, and with the head and legs off, but skin on, the carcass weighed in at 107kg IIRC, which apparently about average for the forestry stags. The largest taken prior to us arriving had a larder weight of around 173kg IIRC and there had been bigger taken in the past!

After the fun and games with Nigel’s stag, mine was a lot more straight forward or at least the extraction was.

The main events had started before in the bar of the hotel. Two of the other stalkers for the scheme who were staying near by paid us a visit and we started swapping stories. These gents were two fine Ulster gentlemen who had taken a gold medal head on a previous trip and who would later go on to take two more very nice heads on this trip too.

Their arrival signaled the switch from pints to shorts and the start of an all together excellent evening.

The next morning, this switch also resulted in Nigel being “missing in action†as he was still in a very bad state from the night before. It was agreed that the best course of action was for him to sleep it off, so I went out on my own. On arriving on my beat, I sent quick text to Griff to update him on the situation and let him know where I would be stalking. I was then able to wait for the sunrise and enough light to shoot by.



After setting off a long a logging road I intended to spy over some older areas of clear fells on either side of the road. I had been mouching along quietly for half another or so, when Griff tuned up with a report of stag on another clear fell, one in fact I had driven past earlier in the dark. The stag was bedded down with a hind and calf and if we hurried, Griff said he felt they would probably still be there.

On arriving at the spot, Griff pointed to the group only for me to completely be unable to see them. The bank rose above us pretty steeply and they were partially obscured by brash about 180m away. Eventually the hind and calf stood up and then I was able to see the tops of the stags antlers moving behind the brash. This was just as well as Griff was getting quite “fraught†at this stage and I suspect he thought he was dealing with a blind man!

The stag then obliged us by standing up and starting to drift after the hind. They were very close to some thick cover and I was willing him to turn broadside as up to now all he had presented was a “Texas Heart Shotâ€.

After a couple of minutes that seemed to go on for ever, he did turn side ways, so using a tree stump as a rest, I let him have a 150grn speer from my .308win into the boiler room.

Again there was an audible thump but the stag just wobbled like a punch drunk prize fighter and then he started to stagger off towards a small steep sided gully. Not wanting him to drop into that, I heard Griff urge, “Shootâ€, which I dually obliged. This hit the stag as a frontal chest shot and again it staggered but still attempted to make for the gully. A third shot, this time again broadside on, finally convinced him to give up the game, and he crashed into some ferns just short of the gully.



The extraction of this carcass was a lot more straight forward. As the stag was with in 200m from the logging road, we paid out a long line via a strop and a shackle, hauled the stag down at break neck speed across clear fell I could barely walk over. Obviously, Griff had done this before!

My second stag was on the last morning and was near the clear fell I had intended to stalk previously. I had parked my vehicle about a quarter of a mile short on the logging road about half hour before first light and waited. Once the light had come up enough to see, I set off and had barely gone 100 yards when I spotted a stag with a hind and calf down below me on a “shelf “ on the side of the valley.

Not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth, I popped two 150grn Speers into the boiler room at a range of about 120m…He threatened to run /fall down off the shelf down into the steep valley below, but luckily got caught up in some brash.

I was pleased with such a quick result as time was tight as we had to catch the early afternoon ferry.

A quick call to Griff and once he arrived, we started on getting the carcass out. Again as it was just off the logging road, the long rope was used to snatch it out. This time we decided to do the gralloch once the carcass was back onto the logging road…

I took the long line back down to the carcass and secured it around the beasts neck and jaw..The pics below show the extraction in progress.









I think this one dressed out at around 80kg and was another animal around 2 ½ years old ie on it’s second head.

Later that morning we all met up at the Forestry offices for a debrief before heading home.

In all 11 stags were taken between 14 people over 4 days , with on of those days being a bit of a wash out due to heavy rain and low cloud.



Paul took a nice stag on the last morning, so all in all it was a successful trip for us. He will probably fill in his account of the trip shortly.

As I said earlier, the two Ulster gentlemen took the best heads, so they went home very happy yet again.

So for me, the trip it was very much a case of good company and good stalking, and really what more could any one ask for?

I am now very much looking forward to Fallow Bucks AR weekend for more of the same!

Sounds like you and Nigel had a great time, well done on the beasts you shot. I hope to get there next time, if I don't fall over the dog an bugger my back up again.

Paul,

Have you stopped kicking the dog yet?

When Nigel told me what had happened, I couldn't believe it, not so soon before you were due to leave!

Having seen the terrain and the difficult going under foot, you were probably did the right thing, not to mention the long drive you guys have from down south..

Regards,

Pete

Pete

Well done and thanks for taking the time to write up such a good account of your weeks events.

I always say it is well worth the effort of taking pictures for the enjoyment they bring when looking back on such enjoyable experiences.

Nice one

Pete

An excellent report - on what was obviously a great trip.

Glad the Red Gods smiled on you!

Rgds Ian

pete

thanks for the story and pics, what would a danish guy have to do to get in on such a nice adventure ?

peter

Peter,

You have a PM...

And thanks guys, it really was a very enjoyable 5 days! Hopefully, the others will chime in with there reports soon!

Regards,

Pete

steyr model L?

Great write up, I feelt like I was there.

Good hunting on you too.

Thanks for sharing

And yes a swedish bloke would be interested in that style of shooting too.

Best regards Chris

A fine hunt indeed - congrats - Pete what kind of dogs did Bob use for tracking Nigel's stag?

KS - Yes its a Styer model L. Served me well over the years but getting a bit tired now (although I'm not using that as an excuse for the liver shot!)

It was my second year up there on the scheme and damn good fun it is too - I highly recommend it to any one wishing for some serious stalking. Its a great oppertunity to try something a bit more challenging than the lowland woodland stuff us southerners are used to.

I have to take my hat off to Griff and Bob who ran the show on the island - they worked like horses and always had a smile on their face. Many thanks guys.

Re-living Pete's account of that 9 pointer again, I would just like to reitereate my overwhelming relief that the beast was found by the dogs so quickly. After the "interesting" bog ride in the quads up to the site, I wasn't looking forward to asking Griff & Bob to search high and low for a wounded animal. Its increadible how such a large deer can tuck itself into the forest and disappear so easily. But it was the right thing to wait for the dogs as there was no blood trail and to aimlessly wonder around looking for signs further away could only of made matters worse.



Unfortunately I didn't manage to get onto another beast for the remainder of the week although I did hear them roaring away in the distance. The horrendous rain on Wednesday and my...ahem... "absence" on Thursday morning didn't help me, but once I was back on the hill again, just being out there was a tremondous experience.

I look forward to hopefully going back again, but in the meantime I will have fond memories of stags, good company, Glava whisky liqueur.. oh and the lovely Melanie... but thats another story...

Nice stag Nigel, it sounds like you lot had a great time up there, shame I couldn't join you, but I'll buy you a beer next time we're out. Well done.

Cheers Paul - I'll look forward to that!!
We did have a shandy or two for you when we were there, but missed your company mate.

Just get yourself better and fit for your Africa trip next year!

Nige.

Weidmannsheil to the skillful and fortunate hunters! Great report!
- mike

Hi guys ..... Greetings from the Emerald Isle. Firstly, the Ulster duo would like to strongly deny any responsibility for Nigel's incapacity, predawn, or Pete's inability to spell Arran since. Secondly, it was great to meet up with familiar faces from last year and share some good times in the apres hunt.

My hunting partner, Gary, rang the bell twice this year with a "left and a right" to make up for my similar double opportunity last year. He will be along soon to tell the story and post a pic or two of his twelve and fourteen point beasts. Said beast's heads are still languishing in Scotland as we were nearly arrested at the ferry terminal for attempting to transport fresh heads to Ireland. Thats another story which put the final flourish on a very memorable week in the heather.... Did somebody mention Glava with Mel?....

Cohannon, wouldn't be hard to guess where you are from.

Welcome.

Cohallan - Glad you made it back in one piece, sorry to hear about the "export" problem; at least you didn't have to spend the night in the cells with the tops of two reds as company! It was really good to meet up with you guys again - maybe we can get toghether again on a similar trip another time.

...oh and don't worry .. the finger of blame for opening that those bottles of Glava lies closer to home....and as for Mel...well better ask Pete!


Nige.

Cohannon,

Glad to see you on here!

I definitely remember you suggesting "a glava for the road"...not sure how that turned into several though

Regards,

Pete

I'll be fighting fit before the african trip comes round Nigel, It looks like you had a better time than most in Scotland Nigel, you forgot to mention the Glava incident when we spoke, I can't think why. I'll have to buy you some when I finally get you down the pub.

Great report Pete!

I am glad this scheme is proving so successful. Long may it continue and I hope it spreads to other parts of the country too.

Gabriel

Great report and super pictures.Thanks much and congratulations to all the hunters.

Best-
Locksley,R

Wot's wrong with all you woosey pommey gits, and yer 4X4 bikes, cables 'en winchs. Why can't yer just do it the hard way, as any real man would. Git a bit of blood on ye Barbour jackets and tackle the job with guts and glory, as any Kiwi would.
Ye pack of bloody poofters.

Whats up? Bored now you have no reason to watch the Rugby world cup?

The largest Stag weighed over a 177Kg dressed out!
Many of the stags were over 100kg dressed out....

So while you guys would be stumbling about the ulu looking like you've been mated by a decapitated stag, the brains over brawn approach means we were back having a quite pint in a reasonable time...

Do it your way if you want...


Regards,

Pete

Carried for 4.5hrs....? What it doesn't say is that the car was only 100m away!!

FB

quote:

Originally posted by Fallow Buck:
Carried for 4.5hrs....? What it doesn't say is that the car was only 100m away!!

FB

At the bottom of the hill!!!

i thought that you kiwis were only into sheep...

peter

The largest Stag weighed over a 177Kg dressed out!
Many of the stags were over 100kg dressed out....

You obviusly have a "SUPERSTRAIN" of monster Red Stags, with piss-arse small antlers or someones telling a few porkies!!!!

Dress out % of a Red Stag is 55-60%
So at 177Kg you have a live weight of minimum 295 kilo.
This is a frikkin' huge Red Stag.
Bigger than most of the largest monsters in NZ.

Just read an article on Red Stags in Scotland that tells me the average body weight in late summer of Red Stags in managed deer forests is 776-111kg.

76-111kg

TrackersNZ

You need to get your facts straight before you start accusing people of telling porkies. Don't belief all you read.

Remember as the addage goes:- those who do do, those who like to think they can teach and those who can't write about it.

Especially on the islands woodland reds can easly attain the high weights we are talking about and we are here talking about island reds.

Just one point anyway if you think any human being can yomp over clearfell and heather moors carrying a 111kg stag you must be mentally defective (which I am begining to think you are anyway).

Stick to the sheep if I were you.

Trackernz,
here are the facts! not read in a book or from a bloke in the pub!!
week 1 10 spikers shot avg weight 96kg
week 2 11 syags shot avg weight 125kg
week 3 11 stags shot avg weight 127kg
week 4 5 stags shot avg weight 111kg
biggest stag 171.8kg (27 stone)

don't forget thats larder weight!!
head/feet off and clean, however in Thetford the stags regulaly go over 250kgs.

Now they take some humping off the hill, or do you have a different meaning to the word HUMPING!!!

regards
griff

Griff,

quote:

biggest stag 171.8kg (27 stone)

Thanks for that...My conversion of 27 stone to metric went slightly astray; bit like my spelling before anybody says anything!

Trackernz

There is a very big variation in body weight of the Reds over here. The weights Griff quotes are not guesses either, but weighed on proper scales back at the larder...Imagine what some of those animals weighed before the start of the rut...

Once you get into main land Europe, I suspect the average weights of their woodland Red are even higher,

Regards,

Pete

Nothing to say trackersnz, your silence says it all, shot down in flames!

quote:

Originally posted by peterdk:


i thought that you kiwis were only into sheep...

peter

Come on, give us a break!

Our Kiwi friends are no different than us. They hunt sheep, and we hunt goats. Sometimes we break the monotony and hunt camels too

Pete, thanks for sharing. What started out as a nice read on how things are done on your side of the pond, ended up as a good belly laugh. Congratulations on a successful hunt.

congrats!

Nice stag!

Logged on Griff's site.
Rab Logan.
Forestry Commission Stalker.
Isle of Arran.
As a regular visitor to NZ, in fact I had a few Tui's in Kurow after a day at wallabys last year.
I've been shooting for 32yr so I've been there seen it done it!
Biggest stag shot here on Arran was 30st and stags are regularly shot over 25st.
I know what extraction is like down there and I have shot some big boneheads out there ,from the Kiakouras,west coast and North island.The size and location at times has left me to only carry out what meat I could.
Because of your terrain you have to carry to your transport, in this country the terrain is easier and transport of the off-road type can get to or close to carcases. Most of the venison here is going to be sold through a quality assurance scheme (EU regulations) so every effort is made to bring in a "clean" carcase. There are days in this neck of the woods that extractions compare to NZ in physicality,but in general I take my hat off to you boys not many hunters from U.K. would step off the road down the west coast without a guide to hold their hand, let alone try and carry out of the Bush....I'll be back for your roar!!
Rab.
PS If Richie McCaw drops in to his local give him a kick up the arse from me!

Rab,

I hear what you're saying and maybe you have a point and I'd love to have the opportunity to go stalking with some kiwis in the west coast to see if it really is that easy.

Of course the season finishes for the stags on the 20th of october and I've already got plans for the evening.

Maybe next year,
FB

Griff:

quote:

As a regular visitor to NZ, in fact I had a few Tui's in Kurow after a day at wallabys last year.

Yeah we can always pick the tourists (And North Islanders), because they're drinking Tui's.
The local brew is Speights mate.
I'm the sad looking bloke usually sitting at the right hand end of the Kurow Bar.
Still plenty of Wallaby about. Culled 2,000 at Waitangi and another 1,200 at the neighbours.
Usually we give them a dose of 00 from the chopper, but we've been doing quite a bit of ground hunting lately.
My kids have a pet one, that keeps the back lawn in trim, and sleeps in the laundry at night, in the sleeve of one of my old jumpers.

If your scales aren't lying, then you've got some bloody awesome deer out there on Arran. Looks like you blokes had a great hunt,hope this ribbing hasn't hijacked your thread, and hope to hear more about it. I do find you Poms amusing. Struggling with metric conversions, and the Gaelic jabber..gralloching etc.

Anyway good luck in the RWC hope the Jaarpies kick your arse.

Very Good!! LOL!!

I've put a bet on with my mate in SA who's a PH that if we win I get a free Impala on his ranch!!

FB

Great story. That is a beautiful setting. I would love to hunt that area some day ... of course, I say that about every hunt report I see.