I'll take this opportunity to introduce myself. I an British and live in England. I have about 24 rifles, six of which are single shot. I love singlies, there's just something about them. Anyhow, as it's a hunting with single shot rifles, here's the tale of my first successful deer hunt. This was over a year ago now. But I hope it will amuse. Well, a few Saturday’s ago was the occasion of my first successful deer shoot. And what a day it was. Firstly, so as you know the circumstances, I am 67 years of age, very overweight and unfit, and on some pretty pokey medication that puts a wall in front of physical performance. With that in mind I made contact with Robbie, a hunter I know in Scotland and arranged an accompanied stalk. It started well, a long 350 mile drive North and I arrived Friday evening. The scenery on the way up was stunning, even from the M6, the snowline easily visible on the hills on what turned out to be a lovely day. I had half expected the weather for Scotland in late November to be, well, inclement to say the least. Saturday morning, up at sparrow fart and off we set a round the 6,000 acre estate in the 4x4, after first checking my rifle’s zero. Not a lot doing but we eventually spotted a few fallow deer lurking on a heather moor and off we set on foot. Stalking is a very slow moving business. That land looked like easy walking. Ten yards and I discovered it was anything but! Tussock grass and bog is a swine and with my physique and health it immediately started to try and kill me. It was downhill and the group of fallow were behind a slight rise. In very short order I was walking like a drunkard and breathing like a man in the middle of an asthma attack. The ground was treacherous, firmly frozen in one step then grabbing a foot in a mud hole the next. I fell over a couple of times, to Robbie’s amusement, but I crossed a small stream OK, and we got to a good position for when the deer would come in to view. To save my embarrassment I will merely say I made a balls of it, they moved too fast, I was too knackered, and I missed a shot. The good news is that it was a complete miss so no wounded beast to find. I felt terrible but what’s done is done so it was back to the car. Sounds simple doesn’t it. Nope! I turned around and looked at the climb back to the car, this time uphill and over the same treacherous ground. Well, there was no other way out so it’s face the pain and take your time.
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