Fieldsports Britain - Roebuck stalking / hunting special

[Music]
Welcome to Fieldsports Britain.
Coming up:
It is the roebuck rut and this is our roebuck special, with no less than four outings after
Britain's best-looking deer, including this one with Simon Barr from Realtree. And if
your TeamGB flagwaving arm is tired out and you are feeling all roe'd out, top shooters
Dom Holtam and Andy the Crowman Crow are pike fishing
First: It's roe! As a point of reference to all those roe stalkers we are out in Hampshire
on the 23rd of July - It's been a stinking hot day and the hope is the roe are feeling
frisky - and they're not the only ones.
This is my favourite time of the year. It is when everything starts to happen. We are
still just at the start of the rut so we are not really kicking in yet or not that we have
seen. But we are hoping we might see a bit of action tonight. You tend to find that the
best results come when you have got nice muggy conditions. You need it warm, but when it
is this hot the deer tend to lie up a bit and can even go nocturnal and rut through
the night rather than come out in the heat of the day.
Bucks have been seen on this part of the farm so if they're receptive Roy has the tools
to get them fired up. We call for a good minute or so with nothing happening - Then a doe
with kid in tow - wants to have a closer look.
Here we go, here she comes. So as I said she has got a kid with her and she is just coming
down to have a look. I don’t really want to upset her too much. I could do without
her barking too much. But we have got the wind just crossing, so it will be interesting
in a minute because she is going to cross our wind.
So here she comes. There she goes she has just seen us there. See she came within about
30 yards of us then. We are obviously just sitting out on the edge here. We are hopefully
well concealed here. I don’t want to disturb her too much, I wasn’t going to push the
point, because obviously if she starts barking it could erupt any body else or any of the
other deer in the area. So it often works that when you get the does moving like then
it kicks the bucks into action as well.
So there are deer here it's just whether the timing is right.
A little further on and another doe lifts her head - again Roy takes it easy so as not
to spook any unseen animals -she heads for the cover in the block of wood land closely
followed by her kid. It is such a joy to see wildlife which has had a momentary lapse in
concentration - the fear gene has temporarily disengaged.
The interesting thing there was she was on her own couched up with a kid at foot. So
I would say that at the moment they are not really firing up and doing much. But that
can change from hour to hour, with deer, deer by deer. So I reckon that hopefully as the
evening comes on things will start to move. That is what I hope anyway. Best made plans
don’t always come off.
There's been a sad lack of bucks this evening until we decide to start driving out to one
last area. This big boy appears - a few blasts of the call gives us nothing. If this was
a bloke he'd be off for a swift half not a slow comfortable screw. He's not found his
mojo yet.
He's a buck Roy has had his eye on - he has to drive off before tempation and his trigger
finger gets the better of him - Roy reckon's he's only seen one buck better than him in
the last 10 years and he's hanging on his wall at home....
Oh don’t it is torment. That is absolutely torture having to come away from him. He was
absolutely stunning, but as I said before it wouldn’t have been fair to shoot him
now. You can see by his body shape that he was still a very young animal and he still
has a lot of potential for a couple of years. So we will leave him to and let him pass on
his genes. Please don’t film me, I am going to cry.
So a tough decision but a great evening - calling roe is exhilarating and sometimes one has
to dig deep and make the right call.
Five days later we are back again - same ground, lower temperature and muggier conditions - we're
also late thanks to the M25 on a Friday night, so we have to get cracking.
What I want to try to do is try and spot a buck and call and just see if we get any reaction,
because that will give us a little bit more faith that the rut is on and something is
happening. As I said you would have thought by now that we would have been in the full
swing of things, but that is the thing when you are dealing with nature and animals, you
just never know do you?
The first roe we see is a female. Roy gets her interested and she drops back into the
woodland - he's hopeful she'll pop out of this end with buck close behind .....but nothing..
We are really starting to think the rut has still not kicked in here.We walk for at least
20 minutes and it's our last blast.... Roy plays with the call - disappointed, he starts
to drop the rifle ,,, but look what's charging towards from the rear....
We follow the big buck - but Roy doesn’t want to head shoot an animal of this size.
He realises the smaller animal he was pursuing wasn't a doe as we assumed, but a young buck.
On it?
Yes.
The animal's dropped on the spot and is just the sort of buck we were after.
Blimey didn’t that happen quick. That was absolutely awesome. So we were calling here
expecting some action and again we were right on the last knockings and thinking that the
deer would just trickle out and bearing in mind our scent is blowing directly towards
that wood that those deer just came from. I think what has actually happened there with
our calling we have rattled a buck in that wood. We were just about to go over there
and give him a call and that has rattled him up and started him getting ready full on and
he has chased that younger buck all the way down straight past us within about 10 yards.
I thought it was a doe going through at first because it was only a little spiker. And we
were just trying to see what sort of quality the buck was that chased him to see whether
we could do anything. But he wasn’t offering a good shot and he disappeared back off into
his territory and looked round. And it had stopped the little buck where we were calling
and he was looking at us when I moved the rifle
round, he went again. I just managed to stop him a couple of times just before he went
into the maize there and we got the shot off. It just goes to show doesn’t it that it
is always worth persevering. That is definitely the start of things to come. Superb and that
is absolutely perfect as a cull animal. So you can see that he has only got single spikes
so that is the last thing you want playing around, because obviously he is not going
to be fighting or really putting up a fight against a big boy. When they have got single
spikes like that it is not very good because when they are fighting with other bucks there
is nothing to stop the antlers so the spikes can go through a damage the other deer quite
easily. So absolutely perfect cull animal. So just what we came out for tonight and couldn’t
be any happier with that. And I hope that really comes out well because it was amazing
watching him coming running down there. It was like thunder with those two coming through
the crop and running passed us. Yes, superb reaction. So as I say we have got 10 minutes
before dark and all of a sudden things are just starting to pick up and starting to happen.
It has been a magical couple of days - especially as we've seen the build up to the rut as well
as the reaction to when the call suddenly gets everyone revved up - buck and big boys
alike.
Roy there pulling one out of the bag. Now if you like shooting you will love the Shooting
Show. You can see a clip of it appearing in the sky just there. Click on it on YouTube
and you can go watch it.
Next it is David on the Field Sports Channel News Stump.
[Music]
This is Field Sports Britain News.
There are calls for the black grouse should be shot again, says a shooter from Southern
Scotland.
Writer and farmer Patrick Laurie told Scotland on Sunday that the birds, which are currently
subject to a voluntary shooting ban, should be shot to help stabilise the moorland population.
Red grouse are thriving while black grouse are not seen as worth cultivating because
they cannot be hunted. BASC cautiously backs Laurie, the RSPB is of course dead against
him.
The Countryside Alliance has launched a new online shop.
It features goods from small rural businesses right up to high-street names such as Cath
Kidston. Every purchase you make from it includes a small donation to the CA's campaigns. Visit
countrysidemarketplace.co.uk
There's a new super-cheap shotgun in the country.
Just £499 secures the new Revo over-and-under from Turkey.
I am more than confident that this product will stand up to everyday demand from the
gamekeeper to the pigeon shooter, to the gentry using it on a pheasant shoot.
And finally, actor William Defoe had to gralloch a wallaby for his latest blockbuster, The
Hunter. He said that it was so bloated it almost exploded in his face. The 56 year old
actor plays a man who must find and kill the last Tasmanian tiger. In one scene he had
to skin a wallaby. He claims he had to be delicate with the carcase in case its gastric
juices burst.
You are now up to date with Field Sports Britain News. Stalking the stories. Fishing for facts.
Stay with us now for Calendar with the map that matters.
[Music]
Welcome to Calender - Here with some important dates for the diary and seasonal reminders.
The moon is waxing gibbous, full tomorrow, 2ndAugust, with the spring tides over the
weekend.
The good weather has seen the crops starting to come off - and with that comes plenty of
shooting opportunites.
Cut grass means rabbits and foxes - as does the stubbles - Rape is starting to come off
and there are also opportunities on the fallen crops and we will be bringing you a big bag
day with Mark Gilchrist next week.
Onto hares and the PigeonWatch forum points out you can sell hares from 1st August in
Scotland, but if they are brown hares you'd better have had them in the freezer since
before 1st February. The brown hare can only be taken in Scotland between 1st February
and 30th September by licence. For mountain hares, the close season is 1st March to 31st
July.
And finally on the fishing front, the forums report improving salmon runs throughout Scotland
and Ireland.
That was this week’s calendar. If you want to be on the map that matters for next week,
drumming up interest for your event then talk to james james@fieldsportschannel.tv
[Music]
Now it is Simon Barr from Realtree out after roe buck.
[Music]
At last there is a break in the weather after months of rain. I am hoping that with the
sun coming out and the temperature rising one of the most exciting times of the year
will commence, the roe rut.
I'm on my way to meet up with Realtree pro staff Trevor Hughes - he's been a professional
hunter in this part of Berkshire for 30 years and has a wealth of knowledge on all things
deer.
He invites me to test my zero on a range on local farmland - I'm also going to test a
few other things this evening - some are tried and tested - others a bit more hi-tech.
I have had a number of phonecalls to say the roe rut has started. And I have come down
to go out stalking with my friend Trevor Hughes to see whether or not it has. I have got a
number of my trusty roe calls with me to try out. People may well be familiar with the
bootalow, perhaps less familiar with the Nordic roe call. This is a very special little call
that has been fashioned out of a roe antler that a little Bavarian man made me last year.
And the cherry wood. The classic cherry wood. We are going to give them all a go. We are
going to give them all a go and we have got a couple of other techniques we are going
to try this evening to see if we can outfox the deer.
Outfoxing is the name of the game and Outfox is the name of the gear. This evening we are
going to be wearing and testing the German clothing company's scent suppressing filter
technology. I want to find out for myself if their hunting suits really do extinguish
your scent signature. I've studied plenty of roe deer at this time of year, and Trevor
and I should be able to identify any change in their behaviour.
Trevor we have arrived at the first woodland, right sort of time. How are we going to approach
this woodland and what are we going out for.
This is a small block of wood with a field inbetween 2 blocks of wood if you like. So
we are going to go stalk our way through and sit on the field and get the calls out and
see if we can call a roe buck or two in.
And traditionally we would be stalking with the wind on our face.
Exactly.
How about we try something different this evening.
That sounds good to me. I am always up for something new.
Excellent.
We all get kitted up in Outfox. Even the cameraman. The carbon filter technology was originally
developed for the military, so how will this cutting edge kit help the traditional stalker?
Does it really work and how does it work.
It is a perfect day to try it because you know we will have the opportunity to go and
stalk today and today we really don’t care about the wind, because actually this the
filters, the ones we have in our clothing is full of tiny carbon beads and these tiny
carbon beads will help us to trap our odours. So with this system being totally covered
we can reduce 95% of our odours.
95%?
Yes sir. And this means we really don’t care about the direction of the wind. And
this is really something new since hunting has existed.
So this is the next big thing in hunting.
It is.
Checking the wind is on our backs which felt a little strange we head through the wood
and past the rearing pen. Out onto open field on the other side.
This is just what we are looking for. The wind is on our backs pushing across the field.
We are going to stop and do a little bit of calling here. Looks really promising. It is
really sticky and hot. I think this is perfect for calling. But the wind is on our backs.
So we will see how we do.
Immediately a doe and a kid lift their heads out of the crop 100 yards down the field.
As I intensify the call she starts coming towards us. I bring her closer and then she
dives into the wood. Moments later she is behind us. Then she bolts out of the wood
to our left. She has done a full 360.
I have seen deer moving around during the rut before. But that was very, very different.
We were out in the complete open, but she could not smell us. She could see our forms
there are three of us, four of us, including the camera man and it did not bother her at
all.
So we started calling here there and then we called again and she has literally gone
right the way around.
Quite amazing.
Normally in that situation they get your scent and they are gone. She was trying to check
us out wasn’t she?
Absolutely. She could see us, but she couldn’t smell us. All the dots didn’t join up on
that one.
Quite amazing. If that is down to the kit I am very, very impressed.
We move up to the next field and get ourselves set up. Once again the call gets an instant
reaction, but it is another doe. She is indecisive too, heading off before coming back for another
look. They really are magnificent looking animals. The green crop emphasises their rich
chestnut summer coat. Running out of options Trevor takes me to another block of ground
and for the first time we spot a buck. But as there are four of us stalking together
we bump him.
We finally saw a buck. He was lying in the margin between the corn and the stinging nettles.
Saw us, gone completely skylined and I don’t think any bit of clothing or any scent reducing
technology could help you in that situation. You can’t help when you are skylined. So
unless you can get an invisibility cloak, I think we weren’t going to be able to do
anything there. So we better crack on because the light is fading and we need to get something
before we finish this.
I'm starting to think that the rut hasn’t quite got underway before heading into the
wood we call another doe. With darkness only half an hour away Trevor puts me on top of
a favourite spot overlooking a valley where I've taken deer before. A call attracts another
animal - we don't know what it is, but it is very noisy.
After that my calling is in vain with everything sitting tight. The proper start of the rut
could be a few hours away but I'm convinced the outfox gear has helped get closer to the
animals and have longer engagements with them. I can’t wait to experiment with it some
more.
Brilliant evening as always, learnt lots this evening, stalking is a wonderful thing to
do. Watching the does at this time of the year reacting like they do. I think is probably
the best thing to do is leave it a few days and then come back out again perhaps.
I think you are absolutely right.
And that's exactly what I do. I am now a few miles away in Hampshire with Realtree pro
staff member, Owen Beardsmore of Servis UK. This time from a high seat we manage to get
a response from a beautiful old buck who appears over 400 metres away. He comes across the
fresh cut hay field in the hazy morning light towards the call. As he gets closer I realise
quite how good he is. This could possibly be the best buck of my life.
That is superbly dark. He has got just a five pointer. But he is thick, I have never seen
pearling like it. That is a really strong buck. An absolute beaut.
This time of year really takes some beating. I can see why roe are so highly regarded by
stalkers and hunting enthusiasts the world over. If you like this, coming soon is a dedicated
YouTube channel from Realtree UK where you will find this film and all of our previous
films.
[Roar of stag]
You can also watch my hunting buddie Ian on Teamwild TV and see what he has been up to
this week.
Now if you enjoyed that you might like some of our other roe buck calling films. One of
which is appearing there in the sky beside me. Click on it if you are on YouTube and
you can watch it.
Next Kit Special.
[Music]
Just one item this week, from Scott Country, the superb Spypoint HD-10. Find out what is
visiting your pheasants, passing your highseat or even dumping on your doorstep. It includes
a 4GB SD Card and TrailCamPod. It also has a strap for mounting to a tree. It runs up
to 90 days on AA batteries or Lithium rechargeable battery ScottCountry.co.uk £249.95 and it
is HD. As these otters show.
That's it feast your eyes, fish into your pockets, if the website asks you the promo
code is 'fieldsports', thanks for watching, this is Kit Special.
We do lots on kit, some of it in depth reviews. You might like to watch this clip that is
appearing up here of the Polaris RZR quad bike review, click on it in YouTube and you
can watch it. Or stay with us and watch Andy Crow and Dom Holtam going after the british
equivalent of Jaws.
Like many outdoor activities over the summer - fishing has taken a bit of a bashing. This
is Bewl water one of the south easts biggest reservoirs. We were last here in April filming
the restocking in the sun with a hosepipe ban in place - - now look at it!!!! - the
hose pipe ban has gone and so sadly have the fisherman - but the fisheries manager here
has decided to open the flood gates and allow any method fishing - well... within reason.
With the diminishing number of fishermen that we are seeing, we, to put it bluntly, are
trying to get bums on seats. So we have opened up the fishing from purely fly fishing to
any method which will include spinning, worm fishing, maggots, soft pellets. So it is opening
it up to a lot more people basically.
Today Sporting Shooter editor, Dom Holtam without bow and the housewive’s choice Andy
Crow are heading off for a morning’s fishing. Dom and Crow are keen fishermen, but today
Crow is going to keep to traditional fly fishing and Dom is going off piste and is spinning.
But which is better.
Well I do a bit of trout fishing, but this man here reckons he is going to beat me today.
He is going to go for the spinning technique and I am going to go for the fly. Well hopefully
I will whip his backside as they say. But we will see.
Dom how are you feeling?
Well it is not quite true. I have a theory that a talented fly fisherman is still going
to get superior results to an idiot using any method, me. People just assume that if
you use a spinner you are going to catch more fish than if you are using a fly. So we are
going to try the 2 different techniques today and hopefully find a scientific result for
you.
While they set sail for a "man off" we are going to concentrate on catching a pike with
expert rod Rob Dixon. The pressure is on as he caught this 26 and half pounder last week.
Well it is an exciting fish. You just don’t know how big they go. They are a fish of myth
and legend and folklore. So I find that exciting. We don’t stock them so they are wild fish
in the reservoir and they fight quite hard as well. So they are good fun. I was lucky
enough to catch one which was 41 lbs in the winter. To most pike anglers that is the fish
of their dreams and I have had quite a few over 20 on the lures as well and days when
you have had a lot of medium sized fish, just a good sporting day. About as much as you
can ask for really.
The high water levels means that alot of the margins are attractive to the fry is hiding
and is where Rob is concentrating his efforts to start with.
With no nibbles we move across to another possible hot spot. Rob is having no luck in
the shallow water so starts casting into the deeper stuff. And hey presto - we strike pike.
I had to take and follow and put on a smaller lure expecting it to be a perch, but I think
I have got a little pike. It is quite a nice pike, just not fighting very hard.
What sort of size do you think it is.
He is about 6lb he is quite fat or she. It wasn’t going to get off very easily. It
is in good condition. It has a few fish lice on it.
It is a tiddler by Rob and Bewls standards but it's an impressive fish all the same.
Let’s see if there is another one now. Good old...... old fashioned spinner.
A fly fisherman can travel quite light - but a pike fisherman is likely to get hit with
excess baggage - look at this lot - some of the tools of the trade look big enough to
catch a whale.
Rob talks lures.
This one looks like frogs. This has just got a little propeller on the back and wiggles
along the top, this looks like a swimming mouse. This one again has got a big propeller.
They all fish right in the surface when the pike are really up. These are the bigger spinners,
bigger versions of what we were using today. This is what you would normally be catching
them on at this time of year. You fish very quickly as fast you can wind it in, they will
be chasing them.
So why aren’t we using those then Rob.
Because the water isn’t warm enough and the pike just aren’t behaving like that
yet. I would give one a go if I was getting action, but I am just trying to find the pike
that are feeding at the moment.
Of course big pike and young bite size trout are not a particularly healthy mix and back
in the 1980's gill netting pulled out about 10 tonnes of pike over a couple of winters
- but these days pike fishing is a sport in it's own right.
That is about I would say 7 or 8 pound. It is probably going to bite me now.
Are you able to bring it out for me or not?
I will hold it over the water in case it, there we are.....it didn’t like the camera.
Time to catch up with Dom and Andy - and it looks as if there's a fish supper on the cards
for one of them.
The scientific experiment has been quite conclusive so far with a proviso, there has definitely
been more action on the spinners than there has been on the fly. But Andy’s excuse is
that we are fishing places where we are less likely to catch trout. So once we have finished
this drift we are going to shift and pretend that I am not fishing at all and go and fish
places where Andy is confident that he can catch on the fly. So he is hoping for a reversal
of fortune in the afternoon. But he is not happy.
No I have had a good day, but the thing is I have been fishing with Dom, there is a bit
of a competition and he doesn’t like losing. So he parked us up under some bushes and there
was about 6 inches of water and the old trout aren’t in those 6 inches, that is where
all the coarse fish are so that is why he has beaten me. It will all be changing in
a minute because we are going round the cages and I expect I will whip his backside. That
is what I intend to do anyway.
Bewl like other businesses is having to adapt to the economic climate but "any method" is
broadening horizons and delivering some exciting and impressive fish - this is Dom's catch
of the day which was definitely in the mid teens. Of course, Andy was very pleased for
him.
Unusual to see Dom and Andy by the water. Their natural environment is the pigeon hide,
and you can click on this pigeon shooting film on YouTube and go and watch it. Next
we are going international. It’s Hunting YouTube.
This is Hunting YouTube, which aims to show the best hunting, shooting and fishing videos
that YouTube has to offer.
Top news this week is that Norwegian backwoodsman Kristoffer Clausen has launched a hunting
TV show. Episode 1, Hunting red stag and hunting in Africa is 21 minutes long and features
hunting for red stag - yeah yeah seen it before - and, crucially, the famous Norwegian model
Ann Mari Olsen hunting in Africa. Proof if you needed it that there is a god.
Back to Planet Earth and we are pigeon shooting on wheat with TweedsAndPheasants, whom we
featured last week, but sends this in because it is a record day for him of 102 pigeons
and six crows. "I don't mean to be greedy but please could you post the vid," he says.
Sure can.
Another video sent in by a viewer this week is Pigeon and Corvid Shooting Over Barley
Stubble. Total bag is 103, including 47 pigeon, 38 jackdaw, 13 rooks and 5 crows. Ollie Feltham
is one of the guns. He says: "We know it is very amateur but it is our first attempt and
we would feel honoured if you could show it." No Ollie - WE are honoured.
In the world of fishing, this year's good run of salmon is celebrated in this film by
SalmonFishingBob from the Tay, in Perthshire, Scotland. Tom Jennings lands three summer
salmon on the Pitlochrie and Benchil or is that Benchil beats of the lower Tay at Stanley.
On a quirkier note, this week sees a fishing world record shattered - in America, natch.
On Saturday, 28th July 2012, Jeff "Kolo" Kolodzinski, officially broke the Guinness World Record
for most fish caught in a continuous 24-hour period. He hauled in 2,270 sea fish including
sunfish, crappies, and bass. Yee-haa.
Air-Rifle Rabbit Hunting 9 does what it says, with UltraHawke1 using his HW100 in .177.
And if you wanted proof that the roe rut is on in Yorkshire, YorkshireRoeStalking is back
with a rutting buck shot with a .30-06.
That's a round you may consider better suited to wild boar. We're in Poland here with Gregloginway
for his first boar of 2012. He sees a few pigs, but mainly females with young. He shoots
one, later in the film again with a .30-06: a black-and-white male of about 45kg.
You can click on any of these films to watch them. If you have a YouTube film you would
like us to pop in to the weekly top eight, send it in via YouTube, or email me the link
charlie@fieldsportschannel.tv
Well we are back next week and if you are watching this on YouTube don’t hesitate
to hit the subscribe button somewhere around the outside of the screen or go to our shows
page www.youtube.com/shows/fieldsportsbritain.tv you can subscribe to just this show there.
Or go to our website www.fieldsportschannel.tv scroll down to the bottom and put your email
address into the constant contact form for us to contact you constantly. Or click to
like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter same place. There is so much to look forward
to in the next few weeks. We have got the grouse shooting season opening on the 12th
August. The glorious 12th our 3rd Birthday. We have Olympic gold next week. Oh yes we
do and Scottish Highland deer stalking is not far away. This is Fieldsports Britain.
[Music]