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[Music]
We all know that the rut is strong in this one -
I was not half an hour late - 15 minutes.
but we've had a bit of bad luck of late - mainly with the weather, plus a wild goose chase
that ended with no wild geese - but that's another story.
Anyway - it's cold and dry and we might just catch the back end of the rut - the first
signs are good... althought Roy has forgotten to bring his binos.
And then we have the choice of trying to stalk without your binoculars. Though heading into
the first rut in the stand and there was a doe and a fawn feeding out just by the bryers
here on the front of the wood, now I've spotted them unfortunately they have spotted us as
well and its the first time that the temperature has dropped in the rut so hopefully it might
have triggered things back in a little bit, so we're down to about 5 degrees, so that
doe and that fawn just coming out.
20 yards closer and Roy's eagle eyes pick up this statuesque chap in the woods.
That's not good it's a reasonably mature buck I can't quite make out exactly what he is
and he's on the top of the rutting stand, so I think all we can do is back out, because
he's obviously made us and then we'll give him a few minutes and just try and come in
from a slightly different angle, just give him a rattle and see if we can get something
moving
Another 30 yards on there are more deer - they need to be kept calm otherwise we will blow
our chance of getting closer to a rutting stand where the dominant male is holding court.
I'm not overly bothered about shooting anything here, so if there's an old buck still on the
rutting stand then we'll have a look at him but if its middle aged animals then we'll
leave them alone.
With the coast clear we head towards the action. We are hearing some grunting but it's faint.
Roy spots a reasonable pricket through the wood and tries to get him to come closer with
a combination of antler rattling and throaty bellows. It has the desired effect. Unlike
roe the fallow do not tend to come bounding in, especially when they have had a hard night
trying to be macho.
The combo works well and we keep his attention for a good ten minutes.
So you can see him he came in he was investigating just having a look around what we need to
try and do is creep forward try and get through the prickets and a little bit closer to the
rutting stand, in order to upset the buck enough to come and investigate us
He eventually wanders off and we head into where we hope the action is but - they've
gone. Roy swaps calls and tries for a fox - it would be rude not too. Within a second
a fox shows its face in front of Roy - but not the camera - as Roy lifts the shotgun
- it's off and Roy grabs the rifle. Seconds later the fox is stopped in its tracks. It
clearly pays to keep options open.
I carried on squeaking trying to stay on it and unfortunately it moved just out of shotgun
range and then went for the rifle and it ran on a little bit and I've just shot it down
there probably about 60 yards down into the valley.
It's a pretty fox
That's always the way isn't it, they always come where you can't see them.
There's one more rutting stand Roy wants to look at.
This time we hear them before seeing them. The big boy is on the top of the ridge, having
a breather.
I just saw his antlers moving on the horizon and the deer are all just on the edge of the
woodland there above us and what I want to try and do is just to duck ourselves back
into the cover here and call because, oh *** the wind has just changed I can feel it on
the back of my neck and one of the does is looking straight down at us and I don't think
we've got time to *** about I think we'll just stop and just see if we can lift this
buck.
No he won't leave those does.
While we've been watching the leaving group, a younger spiker comes up for a close look.
Roy's talking the right language this morning.
He looks as if he's off, but Roy brings him back -
That wasn't a very good pricket that's why I decided to take him, so he came in on the
left I wasn't intending to shoot any animals on here on this particular stand but that
pricket was particularly poor so I decided that we might as well take it out he's going
to go straight to the game dealer because personally I don't really enjoy rutting meat
but a lot of it gets shipped out to the continent and they don't mind about it there . We've
got him anyway and the big boy's still intact
The bucks lose a lot of weight at this time of year and also get smelly, pumped with hormones
- so will Roy give this one a whiff?
No I'm not sniffing this one at all, if you want to sniff it you're more than welcome,
you can see body condition wise he's no way near as plump as that pricket we shot a couple
of weeks ago
We are sorry we didn't get a chance to see one of the chiefs up close today, but just
seeing the young pretenders dance to our tune is a thrilling experience.
And if you want to see more films with Roy Lupton you can click on the screen that's
magically appeared up there behind me.