"Tusks" - deer stalking in the Shires
Deer stalking in the Shire counties of the UK has alot to offer the discerning stalker - hedgerows, spinneys, mature woodlands and large arable farms on some of the most beautiful sporting Estates with the opportunity of some very exciting dawn and dusk stalks.
It was the first morning of a three day Muntjac trip for our Belgian guest. In our correspondence before their arrival it was the usual questions about the dates we had available and our question was "What would you like to stalk?" with the firm response of "MUNTJAC bucks please."
We met our guide James on a very chilly December morning, had a coffee and a chat about expectations and thought we were all now singing of the same hymn sheet, a good mature Muntjac buck per day, perfect!
James is a people person and hit it off with our guest from the start and they had some great stalks their first morning. Watching our guests face when he stalked into his first Muntjac was a joy to see.
The afternoon stalking session proved very successful, James with eyes like a sewer house rat had spotted a nice buck crossing between two woods. He got our guest into a range that he felt comfortable with, then onto the sticks with a very calm “take your time and let him turn broadside.... (peeesh bop)” . The buck was down and all of us were standing over the first Muntjac buck, which was a beautiful medal head, shaking of hands and congratulations from myself and James, our guest bent down and very respectfully examined the facial features of this beautiful buck. He then looked at us both and we were met with a straight face, a little huff sound and a shrug of the shoulders. We both looked at each other wide eyed and said nothing.
Day two was full of thrills, spills, games and laughs, with everyone getting on famously and we saw alot of Muntjac. Once again with James' knowledge of the Estate and his keen eye we secured another buck. To our surprise the same reaction from our guest.........James the true professional asked his guest, " Everything OK Sir ", the response just a "Yes!" Whilst we all know that everyone reacts differently in all types of hunting situations I reassured James that this could be a very joyous Belgian reaction that we have not witnessed before (or not!).
Day three and we were stalking through a stunning piece of woodland, oaks and big beech trees with magnificent mature holy bushes. James said he had seen a very nice buck working an old pit area on the other side of the wood. The wind was perfect when we entered the pit, James said “let's just stand for a while”. We were just about to take our guest off the sticks and resume our stalk when a big thick necked buck entered the pit, clearly on a mission to cross it quickly. "Are you on him? - I'm going squeak him, be ready" James said.
The buck stopped and with no hesitation from our guest he made a fine shot and the buck was down. Our guest made the rifle safe turned to us saying " I will fetch the buck". He marched towards the buck with the rifle across his shoulder and as before with great respect knelt down to examine his buck. Whilst still kneeling over the buck with his back to us his head tilted back and he looked skywards - with huge a cry as if in great pain screamed "one tusk, arrrhhhh ".
We ran over and he turned to us laughing and crying at the same time and proceeded to tell us all about his dream of shooting the deer with the "tusk and horn". The penny then dropped with James and myself and on closer inspection of the three bucks shot each one only had one tusk, broken off or completely missing. Whilst they were all fine bucks our guest had a wonderful first experience at stalking Muntjac and he did return and has since managed to secure more fine Muntjac with "Tusks".
