The Rut kicked off in Scotland!

[ElmerThud]

'Tom, Get your arse up here ASAP if at all pos !!!!!!! - the rut is in full swing, Andrew has see the Biggest STAG ever, just straight up from the T junction absolutely HUGE. I went up to the grouse moor & heard 4 stags roaring in the 'bowl' / German's wall area, went across from the grouse moor to Stevens Wall & heard another stag roaring, - found him by the 'finger of trees', a young 10 pointer with 2 hinds and a pricket , guess which one was unlucky !!!! - Its pissing down now Hy HO !!'

An e-mail in last night from my good friend Roger, - so it's all kicked off on his estate, with action and excitement. Man it's brilliant in Scotland when this time of year comes around. Only the rain to put a damp restraining order on matters......and I can't be there!

Cheers, ET :roll:

 

[DrMike]

Man, that sucks to know the roar is on and you can't be there. Hope you are able to finagle time on the moors.

 

[Mortis]

I have a friend who lives in Aberdeen....former 2nd Para... and ghillie.

Wonder if he is on the Moors?

 

[ElmerThud]

Anyone with a hunting streak in them and the time/cash to be after stags will be on the hills right now, especially if they live up there. Aberdeen is much further north (200 miles) than our land at Cairnsmore of Fleet.
If your friend is ghillieing Mortis, he'll likely be busy gralloching and bringing them in, but not shooting.
Latest report on the ground we shoot is 2 x ten point stags and a pricket/spiker down. 1 yesterday & two today.
ATB. Cheers, ET

 

[DrMike]

Oh, to be on the moors today. It has finally cooled somewhat here, and frost was on the roof this morning. I'm chomping at the bit to wrangle a way to get out into the field tomorrow.

 

[ElmerThud]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... lands.html

Hopefully, the above link will provide an insight into some Scottish stag stalking. There are some excellent pics in the article about the head stalker on a famous Scottish estate.

I'll bet you are DrMike.....a frost was all it took at just the right time of the year here to set the stags off.

 

[Guy Miner]

Sounds good!

 

[DrMike]

An excellent article, indeed. The pictures are stunning.

 

[FOTIS]

I have a friend who lives in Aberdeen....former 2nd Para... and ghillie.

Wonder if he is on the Moors?

American werewolf in London? :lol:

 

[SJB358]

Great news for your mates ET.. Hopefully you can play catch up shortly!

 

[257 Ackley]

Tom -
Sounds like your mates need you there!! :mrgreen: Very cool article to read.

 

[ElmerThud]

I wish lads!... on the basis my forthcoming project was on schedule, I sent my scope off to have the base ring replaced and the scope to Zeiss for a service. The project has yesterday been postponed from Monday 8th with no new date now given, so at least 3 weeks wait before a new date and my hunting rifle out of action.
Now that's the disadvantage of having only one hunting rifle and assuming everything was going to work to schedule!

Meantime, yesterday afternoon while recovering a stag from a steep gully, my friend got it wrong and rolled the quad bike end over end onto himself and has had to return home with an injured arm. Two other friends also there for the stags helped with the situation and rescued him. Meanwhile they had also shot two more stags. One aging eight pointer and in poor condition, the other a spiker. Total down in 3 days now is 5 stags - to one injury and damaged pride!

Troubles go on - with my eldest son having broken his forearm badly (Both bones) while racing (and winning) the clubmans championship in Sidecarcross racing! The breaks have now been plated and pinned.

 

[Mortis]

I have a friend who lives in Aberdeen....former 2nd Para... and ghillie.

Wonder if he is on the Moors?

American werewolf in London? :lol:

No...he be a true, blue Scot....

Altho..... he does look alittle like a wolf pup if he misses shaving every few days.....

 

[DrMike]

Ouch! Trust your lad recovers quickly, and your hunting partner.

 

[Polaris]

I'm lucky to live in a country where I can just go to a local shop and pick up a different rifle or have mine fixed by a local smith if something is wrong. Those stag sure sound fun though. Whitetails are so passive agressive, they don't roar much, just slink through the woods like ghosts or let you walk by and then jump up crashing through the woods and scaring the beejesus out of you.

I got to stalk "Rot Hirschen" in Germany with a camera several years ago on vacation. The Japanese tourists were impressed with the pictures I took on their camera up close (they were very trusting souls to let me take their shiney Nikon down a rockslide and through a spruce forest planning in a mix of German, English and gestures to meet them at the bottom). They bought me a litre of Hefeweizen and I got some cool pictures on my own camera too so it was well worth it.

 

[ElmerThud]

That sounds like it was great fun Polaris. Magic!

 

[Guy Miner]

Those stags can get pretty aggressive. Check out this video:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2 ... park-video

I think he pushed a little too closely...

 

[DrMike]

I've watched elk do something similar in Jasper, AB when tourists got too close. I actually had one royal bull cross over 100 yards of a football pitch because he thought I and a friend walked too close to one of his cows. He put us behind a light standard. It was an exciting moment, I tell you.

 

[ElmerThud]

Well that's a good vid. of a red stag in the rut getting nowty with those wandering too close!
Saw the article earlier today on aol news. Excellent that you posted it Guy.

 

[ElmerThud]

Well, that's the first week over and a new one starting with my friends still at Cairnsmore, Scotland.
Last week was full of incidents both good and bad.

By the evening of yesterday, 6 stags had been shot and that's good as it puts us closer to our cull target of 10 stags with two weeks to go until the season closes. With the forthcoming project preventing me shooting this season now delayed once more, I'm trying to hurry my scope back from 'Winkie' in Tain. I'd sent it away for some attention as I wasn't going to be needing it, but now, I'm planning on going to the cottage next weekend for a couple of days hunting. This is a good reason to buy a 'back-up' rifle! :wink:

On a much more serious note, Roger had a bad accident on the quad bike and is now back at home. While extracting a stag up a steep incline on Wednesday, the bike the bike rolled end over end landing on him, banging his binoculars into his chest with considerable force.
Cheers, ET

The stag was being towed up on rope behind the quad, but the length of rope was too short and it was tied to the rear rack rather than attached to the tow ball. An unfortunate mistake that took my friend to the hospital. No bones are broken but the bruising very heavy and leaving him unfit to continue hunting for a couple of weeks at least.
Roger wasn't alone when the accident occured and our friend Andrew with him at the time, was immediately there to help.

At the hospital, the staff told my friends he was the 2nd quad bike accident that day and they regularly see accidents involving these bikes rolling and injuring to one degree or another the rider.
All I can say is that my friend is very experienced using these bikes and even so, a mistake possibly serious can easily be made. He made one last week.