Shooting Times & Country Magazine
OUR GUIDE TO BEING A BETTER STALKER Fieldcraft
Technology is moving on apace, but Chris Dalton believes there is still no substitute for skills and experience
Ioften ponder what is meant when we talk about fieldcraft and find it covers a multitude of skills, typically picked up over many years in the field. It occurs to me that new folk coming into stalking are hugely disadvantaged compared with, say, 40 years ago, when I was first starting out.
Most of my teenage years were spent wandering fields and hedgerows with my pride and joy — a .22 air rifle — in search of rabbits or anything else that I could shoot. Back then, that included sparrows and starlings. Today, that seems unthinkable, but both were considered pests.
Sparrows fed in hordes, stripping the ripening wheat next to my grandparents’ smallholding. I recall to this day the farmer, Mr Mosley, arriving at our door, handing me a .177 air rifle and telling me to keep the sparrows off his corn. Can you imagine that happening today?
Trial and error
My own stalking apprenticeship was long-served and started with me having to get very close to my chosen quarry — often within 20 yards. In these scenarios, you quickly learn how to shoot effectively, learning through trial and error. But fieldcraft involves much more than a stealthy approach. It starts with knowledge and understanding of your quarry. I am specifically considering deer, but the principle applies equally to any form of hunting or shooting.
To achieve consistent success, you must get inside the head of your prey. It is something that I have discussed hundreds of times with my stalking guests and many will never consider it. Some will make decisions based on this, often subconsciously, but for most, it has to be explained. The big advantage, technology aside, that we as humans have over our prey is our brain. We have an ability to think tactically and logically, so use it.
What you are trying to work out is where your target is and what it will be doing. While you can never know for sure, you can certainly reduce the odds of a chance encounter.
Study the holy trinity of influences: weather, time of year and species of deer. Everyone checks the forecast, focusing on what to wear and the wind direction. But look deeper than that. Try to predict how the weather will affect the deer.
Taking the current climate as an example, we may well be faced with a clear night followed by heavy frost. In these conditions, deer will often be tucked in a thicket where it is warm, conserving energy and heat. The hour or so before sun-up is often the coldest part of the morning and they will have been feeding extensively throughout the night, when there is little to no disturbance.
As the sun comes up and some warmth starts to penetrate the frost, deer often move to get some heat on to their backs. So put yourself in a position where you are overlooking the valley, or clearing, and watch.
Springing into life
You should be watching the ground, where the sun’s rays first hit. This will thaw the frozen vegetation and draw the hungry deer. Moving around silently in these conditions is nearly impossible, so carefully setting yourself at a vantage point, or in a high seat, will prevent alerting deer to your presence. It also puts you in a spot where it is likely a deer will migrate as it gets warmer.
I always use the example of a holiday caravan park on a wet and cold morning. If you look around, there will be very little movement, except perhaps the odd person wandering to the shower block or toilet. But as the rain stops and the sun comes out, the place will spring into life. Deer are no different.
Understanding your ground is very important, too. Many of the areas that I stalk are on the edge of the Galloway hills and consist of steep glens planted with commercial conifer blocks running to
the edge of the moor. The wind here is influenced by the topography and can get sucked up the valleys, often blowing in a completely different direction to the one forecast.
South Ayrshire has more than its fair share of wind turbines and I often watch turbines distributed over a relatively small area with the blades turning while all are facing in different directions. If you’re unaware of this and don’t look out for the indicators, you may well enjoy a very pleasant walk with rifle and hound, but will have winded any deer in front of you long before you get close.
Blending in
Clothing is generally less important than most folk suggest. Clearly, it needs to be of subtle colours, quiet and appropriate for the conditions, but going full camo doesn’t really do it for me.
Deer don’t see the full colour spectrum that we do. As long as you move correctly and use the available cover and ground, you can get very close without donning a gillie suit.
I opt for plain greens and brown, but it is almost always about how you move rather than what you wear. Sudden or sharp movements draw attention and alert your quarry, so move slowly and deliberately. There is no need to duck in and out of cover when following a treeline, for example. That simply creates sudden and unnecessary movement. Instead, drift along the edge smoothly, frequently pausing, looking first with the eye and then the binoculars.
I mentioned that one of the huge advantages we have is technology. Whether you have a basic glass scope or the latest digital optics, it all helps. Make sure you use it. Most people live busy lives and are always in a rush. Their view is that there is never enough time. Often, when I’m coaching guys working towards the Deer Stalking Certificate Level 2 assessment, they are off like the proverbial rabbit.
I’ll stop to glass the area briefly and, by the time I look up, they are 100 yards in front. It’s little wonder that all they see are white backsides bounding into the distance. We will generally repeat the performance a few times before they get it. Once they start to slow everything down, the bow waves of disturbance they are unwittingly making stop as well.
When you get it right, you will know. You’ll become totally immersed in the environment, becoming a living part of the forest or glen. Stop and listen. If you’re met with total silence, or the clicking alarm call of the wren, all you have managed to do is alert your quarry. If you can hear the woodland, alive with sounds of birdsong, then you have mastered it and will most likely see the deer browsing up ahead. Remember to move a little, look a lot — and, most importantly, slow down.
“Remember to move a little, look a lot — and, most importantly, slow down”
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