Amanda Calderwood
Deer Stalking - An Unforgettable Experience
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nowing my love for all things field sports and wanting to expand my understanding of conservation, for my 30th birthday this year my husband booked me in for a deer stalking experience in Scotland. Travelling from home (Northern Ireland), my husband Barry and I set off on the boat from Larne to Cairnryan in the early hours of Friday morning. Staying with our good friends Davy and Annette in Dunragit, we arrived mid morning. I met my guide, Aaron McGregor, that afternoon for target practice. Aaron
lives in Cairnryan, in one of the houses on Cairnryan Estate. He took me to some rough ground, where my friend Davy had the shooting rights. As I was using Aaron’s .243, it was important for me to get to grips with his rifle before we went out stalking. Although predominantly a shotgun girl, I have had experiences in Australia hunting Kangaroo, with the saying in Oz ‘one shot, one kill,’ I knew I would need similar skills for this experience. Aaron had set up a target just over 100 yards away. He hoped that we would be within this range for a shot
when we went out. Lying on the ground, trying to control my breathing, I ‘squeezed’ the trigger – my first tip that Barry my husband had given me, to squeeze rather than pull the trigger to stop any unnecessary movement of the rifle. The shot went off and, making sure the gun was safe, I jumped up to look through the binoculars. To my dismay there was no trace of the bullet. I walked over to the wooden board where the target was pinned to get a closer look and, there it was, to the very right hand side of the board, a mark in the wood where the bullet went in. My second task from Aaron was to try and get three bullets within a 4-inch circle. I failed quite miserably with my first attempt. I tried again and managed to get the three shots in the 4-inch circle. Aaron had told me that we would be using shooting sticks, so I tried again, this time using the sticks and it seemed that I had finally got my eye in. Confident with the rifle, that evening Aaron took me to a close-by farm for my first stalking experience. As an experienced stalker I followed his lead, walking across the fields and hills. It was a very calm evening, no rain or wind and the sun had been shining all day. The ground, although hard, was very hilly, with many fences to get over and dikes to cross.
He only shoots what is of benefit to the herd and countryside.
This was my first experience of this hunting tradition. 68
Winter 2018 Countrysports and Country Life
I was busy talking to Aaron, asking him all of the questions I had wanted to find out. How often did he go out stalking? Why he was so passionate about stalking? Had he taken out many ladies before? What he did he do with most of the meat, etc?. Busy finding out everything I wanted to know, it was to my surprise that we shortly spotted Roe