No rest for the wicked. 28th September Frank, from Cologne in Germany another returnee came over with his partner for a weeks holiday but with a plan to stalk and shoot a good stag. With my cold continuing it was good that I only had one guest and with no ghillies we would be careful where we shot our stag if we could find one.
There was another issue, not a problem though. I had a chill full of carcasses shot the previous week so juggling Frank and butchering was going to be a challenge.
The weather was fine and the butchering continued, we had picked our days, so no worries we hoped to get at least one stag.
In fact the weather was too good, warm calm days make the stags lazy and we walked almost to the North but we were thwarted at every turn. With only two of us our options were limited. We saw a great stag up on the way to the Lighthouse, stalked in, twelve points at least. The photo below does him no justice.
Difficult to see the stag here but he was a beauty, we passed him so as not to disturb him even although he had a smaller stag as company and several hinds. Too far and too heavy for two fat guys to drag!!!! We carried on and sat down to spy, here was another at the very North West end across the bay, holding half a dozen hinds, obviously the big stags brother. A huge head clearly seen with the sun glinting on the 12 + points. But to stalk him then retrieve would have been a big ask, also he was deemed ‘Too Good’. We abandoned that idea, just then as we were spying a younger stag appeared running from the lighthouse area with at least 8 to 10 hinds, calves and followers. What was going on there. We tried to cut them off because they were nearer the shore and a smaller lighter stag, but to no avail. As we tried to cut them off they appeared from behind a rock and we were in full view. Ah well back to the drawing board.
Middle of the week when the butchering was finished I had to make room for the next big week. The weather was fine so Portree I went, good to get a break from the hill, I am sure Frank was happy too.
But the next day on Thursday and getting near the end of the week with no stag for Frank we headed South. Another blue sky day with not much happening except walking onto wary hinds who would run off taking everything with them.
But at last after a failed approach we spotted a good stag on his own feeding away, he had been rutting but strangely he was alone. We stalked in and got well within range, a good lie was found the rifle set up but just then he lay down. Not ideal as neck shots are forbidden with guests normally but Frank has been out with me many times and had done it before, he was confident and I gave the go ahead. The shot was taken and the stag never knew anything about it. A succesfull end to the week, Frank happy, I was delighted. Now the hard work, the long, long drag out but thank goodness we had a route in on the bike.
I took the stag to the waiting trailer and in no time it was in the empty larder awaiting butchering. Frank elected to walk, to save his back or savour the moment “he said”!
As you can see in the picture the fat and meat is getting darker/discoloured. That is what happens to the carcasses of rutting stags in September/October. Their body changes with all the Testosterone coursing through it. But if you do not have a Game dealer that will pick up regularly and are getting no price for your product, the only option is to deal with them yourself. I took advice and if we bleed the shot stag immediately, remove all vitals, everything, cut away the underbelly, right back. Then immediately it gets to the larder we skin it and hey presto the Venison is still very much edible, in fact it would be hard to say it is strong. Unlike the venison I always seem to get in restaurants. If you leave the skin on of Run Stags at this time their smelly skin will just marinade the meat. That is our solution. It worked for Frank’s stag, another great week.
isleofronalog 