Chasing Roebuck in Scotland

The week before Roebuck season, I was contacted by my diehard Welsh buddy Lewis Thomas with an invitation to hunt in Argyll, Scotland. The trip was to be a fleeting 3 day all out no sleep mission through the depths of Sitka spruce, to pursue the elusive roe deer. The ‘mission’ was to be completely exact to Lewis’s word, although I didn’t know I would have to spend 3 days putting up with his ridiculous and droning banter. Back home Lewis decided to write 5 rather large Instagram posts about the trip. We decided that it would be good to stick this all into a single blog post with extra pictures and text. So here it is.

Words by Lewis Thomas of SLOTSmedia Edited with a fine-tooth comb by Matt Moss. Photography by both Lewis (Canon EOS 7D Mark II - for expeditions using pack mules) and Matt (Lumix GH4 – for the ultralight hunter).

Chasing Roebuck

The start of the Roe buck season brings excitement to many a UK hunter. For us it is the 'official' declaration that spring has arrived and trips to Scotland start to materialize. The days begin to lengthen and the weather gradually begins to improve ... albeit at its own leisure and not without the odd rainy Scottish tantrum!

Roe deer are by far our favorite species to hunt! They are challenging, beautiful, handsome (maybe to Lewis) and arguably and most importantly, they are easy to extract from the rugged terrain we hunt them on in Scotland!!

All that said, it was a massive pleasure this year to travel up to Scotland for the opening weekend of the Roebuck season with Matt Moss and introduce him to one of our favourite annual adventures. Introducing new friends to exciting new adventures is what we love to do... Mainly to see their reactions when they begin to realise, usually in the middle of a massive block of forestry with nowhere to run, that we are completely bonkers blokes with strange habits and an extremely weird sense of humour.

I hit the road after work on Thursday afternoon, picking Matt up at a motorway service station a couple of hours into the long 10hr journey. Matt had driven 4 hours to get to the meeting point and was relieved to not be driving the rest of the way. When all the kit was packed, we settled in for the remaining 8hr drive which would get us to our destination at 4am. A few roadworks and a near miss with a lorry saw us delayed by nearly an hour. We eventually got to our destination (A forest road) at 4:45am. Power nap time, the alarm was set for 5:45am. The scouting was imminently about to begin.

An aggressive alarm ringtone got us up and out of our luxurious ‘Volvo hotel’ blurry eyed we opened the doors of the steamed-up vehicle and were met with the cold damp drizzle of a bleak Scottish morning. Nautical dawn was upon us. It was time for a quick coffee and out.

Roe doe were still in season, although we'd happily take a doe for the larder, we were after bucks, and had the hope of pinpointing where we might find them for the opening stalk of the season the next day. With cameras packed, rifles on our shoulders and waterproofs zipped up, we made our way towards the forest. A serious steep hill climb and a rugged 2km stretch took us to the low box. The low box or ‘deer blind’ (as known to our fellow Americans) overlooks a misty glade in the middle of a spruce timber stand. We had frequently seen roe & sika over here the last few years and thought it would be a good option to begin.

What started as an enthusiastic scouting mission soon morphed into a frustrated, uncomfortable nap time. The thermal couldn't penetrate the solid block of mist that limited visibility to approximately 25m (at least that's the largest reading we were able to get from the limping rangefinder) and a severe lack of deer meant I only had Matts ugly mug to look at. (Your just so dam handsome Lewis, a bit like those roebuck!)

Not wanting to risk breaking the camera with pictures of Matt, we opted to equip the big (and very heavy telescope) lens and resort to praying for deer. Matt started to doze off, something I later realised was a regular occurrence. (I think Lewis was just as guilty of knapping, he likes to sleep so he can count his sheep)

Our stomachs called an end to the stakeout at about 9:45am, our weary state of mind meaning we couldn't even push through the 15mins to make it a round 4hr stint! We packed up and headed back out of the timber using a slightly different route. It was raining hard. After leaving the low box, we opted to head further into the dense rows of spruce, on a route that would bring us out into a rugged valley with of thinned crop of larch and alder. There was not as much shade here like the dense blocks of spruce. There was a more diverse understory making it prime Roe habitat. After a wrong turn and slip' n' slide down a steep bank, we found an old forest track and followed it blindly. About two minutes had passed when Matt suddenly stopped. He'd seen a deer!

Sika have been seen in the area but the most common species is Roe. It was no surprise when a young doe casually bounced across our path and into the trees ahead. The doe didn’t even stop to present a shot. Whilst we mentally processed what had just happened, more movement caught our eye, just lower down the hill from where the doe had appeared.

The deer had its head down and looked to be moving to an opening in the trees directly ahead of us some 40-50m away. This clearing would allow us to clearly ID the deer and provide a clear shot should it turn out to be another doe. However, as soon as it entered the clearing, it's antlers were obvious! It was a buck!

A quick glass through the rain covered binoculars revealed a handsome 6-point Roe buck, in hard antler. It had a fresh face and very muscular body. The buck was still in his dark brown winter coat with an almost luminous white rump that seemed to glow in the gloomy half-light. He looked young, but his antlers were big! He was no medal head but he was impressive. His antlers almost completely upright, with the slightest backward sweep to the top and a 3rd set of points jutting straight down like the barbs of a fishing hook! He is, without doubt, the biggest buck we've ever seen in this area.

The big buck slowly idled his way through the clearing without a care in the world, seemingly aware that he was safely out of season. He followed the path of the bouncing doe that had announced his arrival. The torrential rain had kept our cameras in our bags, all we could do was admire his passing and try not to be discouraged by the fact that we would may never see him again.

Down from the hill we decided to head out in the car to find food. The night’s drive and lack of sleep had eaten into our preparation time and we had only managed to back a few ‘power bars’ and the power had definitely worn off.

Sitting in Fresh Bytes we tucked into a hearty Scottish breakfast and discussed the buck we had seen earlier. The café owner was also a hunter and he was happy to share a bit of local knowledge and banter. After destroying a well-deserved meal our enthusiasm was rejuvenated, our spirits were high, bucks were on our mind. Time for some more scouting. We were straight back out into the rain and on our way to the low box.

Despite seeing the deer in the valley, we opted to do another stint in the box, the weather was howling and the clearing it overlooks is more sheltered. 2 hours later, with no deer to be seen, exhaustion claimed old man Matt and we were left fighting the urge to mess with the old codger (Right I’m stepping in here, Lewis fell asleep way before I did. I’ve seen more stamina in a pension queue at the post office). Matt woke up after a good hours snooze in his cozy KUIU Super Down Jacket. A quick chat confirmed that we were both suffering from a severe case of boredom. Time for a foot stalk...

We decided to try another new route that would lead us to an open edge of the forestry block where we thought Roe could possibly be feeding Was taking a new route wise when we were losing light and had no phone signal?

To cut a long story short, mist disabled our head torches as light rapidly dwindled while we lost our way in the spooky rows of Sitka Spruce. Matt thought he'd try and save the day with the compass ... which was useless considering the only routes through the trees were the rides that separate the various blocks of trees! (It did work Lewis but what ever)

In the end, we made it out of the forest at the desired location but, with no light left to shoot with, it was time to head back to the car. We walked the outer edge of the trees, scared of (Lewis was scared not me) getting lost again if we set foot in the leafy darkness, and crested the hill that would take us back down to the car. From this vantage point we decided have a quick scan of the fields below with the Pulsar night vision thermal spotter (we use the XQ50 and got it from UK stockists Scott Country) and saw 7 deer in the valley below! The same valley we saw the buck in! ... looks like we had a new location for the morning and the opening day of the buck season.

A 5:45am alarm saw us out on the hill for 6:20am. A brief scout through the Pulsar had us immediately stalking 3 deer through the dawn gloom. There was a suffocating mist again, but mercifully it was dry, we soon lost sight of the deer and had to rely on the handy thermal and some cunning guess work to head them off and set up on the bipod overlooking the valley, the wind was on our side and we had good cover from the overhanging spruce.

Once in position, we scanned the valley with the thermal again and were shocked to find the deer had gone further than we'd expected! Luck was on our side as it looked like the deer were content to graze for the time being. They were well within rifle range but the mist and tall vegetation was limiting visibility.

Extensive study through the thermal was proving fruitful as at least one deer looked to be a buck. Not the 6 pointer we had encountered the day before. The group looked to be a mature doe with 2 of last season’s young in tow, we were positive at least one was a buck ... but what sex was the other?

It was as we were pondering this question that the mist lifted somewhat and gave us a clear view of the yearling buck. He stepped out into a clear patch of ground, his antlers were plain to see although still in velvet. There was no question that we had to take the shot now. Waiting to see if we could take 2 bucks was not an option as the mist would drop again. I was laying on my belly, rifle on the bipod. The shot was a simple one. Matt was spotting, he saw the buck turn broad side and stretch out his neck to nibble on the fresh rowan buds. The distance was around 100m. My finger was on the trigger of the Merkel .243. 15x mag on the Swarovski was more than enough to get a solid ID on the buck and take the shot. Matt whispered shoot. The buck had a quick itch before pausing in its ambling and presenting a shot. A squeeze of the trigger and the deer dropped on the spot. The crack of the bullet echoed down the valley. The others fled to the wood without a pause.

Words to follow by Matt

We were elated with excitement, after a micro bromance we walked down the valley and back up to where the buck was standing. There was little or no blood trail, the buck hadn’t gone far. Lewis had dropped him on the spot with a shot to the spine. This was a sterling move as a deer running on adrenaline in this terrain into dark damp spruce could have proved difficult to find. After a few shots with the camera we carried the buck down to a decent spot to gralloch. As the deer was spine shot the heart was still intact. A prized piece of meat for the table and probably one of my favourite parts of an animal. Once gutted out Lewis dragged the deer off the hill. We were to head to the chiller at a nearby farm.

A sympolic moment - Receiving the qualities of the animal

At the farm, we noticed how many ticks we had gotten from the deer. A quick play around with the tick twister and we got most of the ticks off. We were to later find out that some of the little buggers had got into some pretty specific spaces.

It was now midday of day 2. Lewis decided that we should go check out a big block of spruce where there had been a large block of clear fell. The afternoon was warm. The clear fell was hard going under foot, the upturned spruce buttresses seemed to go on for miles and took us 3 hours to walk just a few of them. Along the way, we stumbled upon a rather large roe doe at the edge of a 40-year-old stand of spruce. The distance was perfect, the wind was on our side but the season for doe had come to an end. Not 1 km further and we spotted a sika spiker. (Also, out of season). We stalked in along the edge of the stand to get a camera shot. We came within just a few metres from stag and then the wind took our scent. He was off. A few more kilometres and a few more hours led us nowhere but back to the forest road and the car.

The final morning, we were up against it for time. We planned to head home around 11 am and still needed to quarter the roebuck to fit into the cooler prior to leaving. Lewis and I decided to do one more early morning hunt. I was desperate to find the 6-point buck we had seen a few days previous. This led us back to where we first saw him. Upon arrival Lewis scanned the hill with the thermal, he picked out a few roe on the other side of the valley around 600 yards outside the permission. We waited eagerly to see if they may decide to head to the forest block and towards us. Just as we were about to move on, a small yearling buck in velvet came up the valley, around 200 yards away. I watched him through the binos for several seconds. I felt he was about to move a little closer. As I stood there watching, I thought of the 6-pointer, where was he, why wasn’t he here, this wasn’t the buck I was looking for… and with that he had gone.

In retrospect, maybe I should have taken the yearling. I don’t know, I like to be mindful about these decisions. I have shot many deer this season so that wasn’t the issue. We had only seen 3 bucks in such a huge piece of land. 2 yearlings and 1 mature buck. Lewis had taken a yearling already. Maybe we’ll see him again, well stocked and fully grown.

It was time to go….

At the chiller, we were greeted by the guy from the café. He showed us all the sika and roe heads he had taken over the years. Some were very impressive indeed.

We took the deer out of the chiller, hung it and I quartered it while Lewis helped bag up the meat for the cooler. For me this is an important part of the hunt. Sharing the kill. Respecting what you have taken. Providing food for the table. Contemplating the time out on the hill and the memories collected. This is why we hunt, its inside of us. It makes us who we are.

Sharing the roe harvest with friends and loved ones

A big thanks to Lewis for taking me on a great hunting adventure. Until next time.

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Chasing Roebuck in Scotland