Our first guests arrived on the 21st September. The start of the Rut, the stags had become vocal only the day before, right on cue a roar was heard across the bay.We had returning guests from Holland and we were pleased to see them arrive in good weather and for us to get out onto the hill. Dave MaCullough and Dave Wardle were here to help and we were glad they came because the very next day I developed a cough which became a 5 week cold needing anti-biotics to shift it. Thanks Marcel!!
However the stalking was good despite the sneezing and coughing.
We are lucky that tradionally our guests bring gifts from their home country and this year no exception, we really enjoyed our tray, especially this weekend (Nov’ 23rd) the cherry wine, was very nice. On with the stalking.
Raymond, Dominique and Marcel arrived on a cracking day, passing a whale showing off on the way. The weather for the week was good and we immediately got settled down, we tried the rifles on the targets and then out stalking.
I cannot remember the order of events what with the cold, doing too much and a month or so later, there were so many days out on the hill, that I forget, but I will try to follow the photos. The first day was very calm and we tried for some stags on Garbh Eilean, but the landing place proved to be difficult with wet feet and some rock climbing so that the stags on the Island clearly did not like to hear or see, they took off so we abandoned that idea. Oh well, we enjoyed the dram that evening and there is always the next day
A bit of excitement on the next outing. We stalked a stag, shot it, it fell and we walked up to where we thought it would be as it had fallen behind a rock. No stag!!! So we spent the next 5 hours looking for it following a blood trail. I have to admit the Dutchies were very keen to find it, my thought was to leave it and go into the forest later, where it had disappeared into . But no arguement they were keen and they found the blood trail. Hours later we gave up as we were a long way from the forest or the shot, hard to believe given the shot I witnessed through the binoculars but we had a wounded (strong) stag. But the other excitement was this Sea Eagle which we found stuck in shallow water, in the seaweed. Marcel rescued it, it flew to the shore and the decision was made to leave it and check the next morning. However it had not survived which was disappointing, the authorities were contacted and to cut a long story short, the Sea Eagle was sent away, PM’d and it had had Avian Flu. There was nothing we could do to help it.
As I said Marcel had an unlucky start the well shot stag disappeared into thin air. So with that hanging over us and a watchful eye out for him we kept going. Dave Wardle took Marcel out thereafter and had a good stalk into a stag on the North West side, with success, then later in the week coming in from the South they came upon a stag that had a familiar look about it, it was the wounded stag. It had a slight limp and was obviously in discomfort but it had survived. It was quickly despatched and everyone was relieved. The bullet had done its work but it looked like it had deflected off the brisket, very unusual and we use lead here. The two Daves did well, Dave Wardle’s first time ghillying, but training in South Africa served him well. In at the deep end enthusiastic but good. He will be back.
We had North wind a lot this rut which is always good for various reasons. So we headed up North, first try was dropping Raymond and Dominique off South of the Lighthouse but the deer were elusive that day, then we heade d up North along the central ridge. The two Daves and Marcel walked the shore Northwards. We were struggling to find stags as the big stags had not appeared yet, the few that did were either too far away and difficult to extract if we did get them or always on the other side of the Island where we would have winded them, but they were there, somewhere. As it happened we had two stalks into these deer, both lying down. We had a long detour after first trying to approch them and the next try brought us up under 200 metres. Both were lying down and not a good shot but one of the stags presented himself well, Raymond took the shot, the other stag stood up, I asked Raymond to shoot it too. He quickly reloaded and shot the second one cleanly, the pressure was immediately off. Dave MaCullough arrived after we had grallocherd them and helped with the drag, which was a hard one. Tufts of grass tripping us up at every metre. I managed to get the bike and trailer to within 300 metres of the shot but the drag had to go down to go up, we were relieved when it was over. All part of the game.
Whilst young Dave and Marcel were stalking in the South, dropped of by boat, our route meant we were heading out from Dry Harbour. There was not much in the way of roaring going on, so not easy to find the bigger stags, always an issue at some time during the rut. However spying is the name of the game and whilst glassing the hills from above Dry Harbour and getting increasingly stressed as it looked like a long walk day. I spotted a stag , just his head behind a rock across the valley. The whole scenario changes, the stag unaware of our spying lay down, excellent.
We doubled back, crossed the valley and got in close. But the final approach was difficult, every way we went we could not get a place to see the stag clearly or a good lean for the rifle. Nothing for it but to again double back and get up to the highest point. We did this but the stag we had seen lying down was not the stag we saw. A good young stag was standing it seemed to the West of the one lying down. After a while we crawled into a hollow then set up the rifle, Dominique, cool as a cucumber took the shot and the stag was down. THree stags shot off from behind the rock!!! We watched it for a short while but there was no question it was not going anywhere. I quickly went over to where it was and bled it Dominique arriving shortly after to help. Her first stag, she was delighted and so was I, the stalking was over and I could look forward to nursing my cold with lots of whisky.
isleofronalog 