Small Deer!

[Brithunter]

Hi All,

I noticed the comment by some one in the "My First Bock" thread about small Deer. Yes Roe Deer are quite small but not as small as these Indian Muntjac which we having roaming around in the UK now :-


Muntjac Doe, and yes that is Full grown!


The rifle gives a further idea of their size.


This pair were shot within 10 minutes of one another and only 250 yards apart. Yearling Buck & Doe. Dec 30th 2003


This is an Old Buck, shot him on Jan 1st 2001

Muntjac stand about 18" high but are very good eating

[ol_spark]

Brithunter..
I,d say you have to have a pretty good aim to hit one of those critters at any distance. What kind of gun are you shooting there?

[captain2k_ca]

Wow, I hit a Jackrabbit bigger than that deer!!

[Brithunter]

Hi ol_spark,

The rifle in the photo is a one of Bespoke Bench made rifle by a small Husband & Wife team in Suffolk England called Medwell & Perritt. This one is chambered in 30-30 Winchester, yes that's right a 30-30 custom made bolt action. I use handloads with 125-130 Grain spitzers in it loaded up to higher pressure than standard and it's very accurate I picked it up when it came on the market, i did not have it built, it's not the chambering I would alter but the magazine box I would have had lengthend to allow the use of 150 Grn spitzers which at present I would have to seat far to deeply to be of any real use. I am going to try some 150 grn RN bullets soon, the 150 FP bulelts shoot well but at increased velocity I wonder how they will hold up. They chronographed at 2650 fps and that's not the top load either. They are showing no pressure signs at all!

The pair of Muntjac in the photos were shot using a BSA CF2 7x57 using 139 grn BTSP Hornady bullets which I loaded up for my Whitetail trip in 2003, the Mounted Old Buck was shot with a Mauser M96 Slidebolt in 6.5x55 Swedish and 120 grn Speer spitzer bullet. I have also used a .308 with 165 grn Speer Spitzers.

We stalk and use Blinds for the Muntjacs, the Blinds are Boxes on legs about 12-16' up and just big enough for two people in them. This helps in our inclement weather especially in the rain and drizzle, they also help in the wind too!

[ol_spark]

That appears to be enough gun for the game. I was expecting maybe something in the 6.5 line. Thought maybe a 25 would be there but I guess not. Sure is a pretty gun. Is that a S&B scope? If you use blinds or boxes, are they over known food sources or do you just watch travel corridors? It is still a small target, no matter what you are shooting.

[Brithunter]

Hi ol_spark,

The scope in the photo is a 6x42 Deutsche scope, not available in the US as far as I am aware, it uses Zeiss Jena lenses but is assembled in the far east, I have since brought and fitted a S&B 6x42 which is fittted to the Medell now, that Muntjac Doe as the first Deer I shot with that rifle

Muntjac are tougher little critters than people think, the skin on the neck is thick and tough as they have Canine tusks with which the Bucks fight one another over territory and Does, also being From Asia originally the preditors there have Big Claws so........

The Box Blinda are situated at junctions of the access rides in the wood, the wood was slit up into blocks (commercial woodland) the Muntjac were prone to steal the Pheasent corn so it was always advisable to watch the pheasent feeders as well. During the winter, we only hunted then from November through to the end of March although there is no close season for them, the deer liked to graze on the green grass on the rides, the keeper used to cut the grass to about 6" long just before the end of the Autumn and then the grass stayed green for the winter, any longeg and it yends to die off leaving the deer with not much forage.

I am sorry to say it's all gone now as a developer brought up the woods for "recreational" use so it's been broked up and sold in small plots for folks weekebd use so the shooting has had to stop as it's not possible to do so safely any more The deer will most likely move off now as they don't like disturbance either and Cliff had built up the woods population as well as the other wildlife over the last 20 ir so years. It will only take a year or two to ruin all that work

The deer have made regular runways and it pays to watch them. It's amost impossible to shoot them in the woods due to the ground cover and their small size, they can also move very fast Prowling slowly along the ride especially at the end of the Newer Conifer platation was always a good idea as you could surprise a Deer browsing between the trees and often get a good chance of the shot. We only shot young Does, Heavily pregnant Does or Bucks. Muntjac bred all year and one near to calving means that it's youngster whic it alrady has in weaned and old enough to survive without MUM. Yearling Does have not yet had their first so you are not orphaning one to starve to death. Learnign to tell/judge the age is the hardest part for me anyway

The .25 calibre does not seem very opoular here, I do like the 6.5x55 though and have used it a lot, I had actually never thought of the 30-30 until I saw this rifle. Again it's not that common here as it's does not meet the regulations in Scotland and some loads only just make it legal in the rest of the UK.

In Scotland you must use a bullet of 100 grains minimu, with a velocity of 2450 Fps and 1700 ft lbs muzzle energy. England is the same except we do not have the minimum velocity part, not the mimimum bullet weight, just the 1700 ft lbs. The regulations are being looked at to allow the use of .22 centr fires for Muntjac, Chinese water Deer and possibly Roe deer using 50 grn + bullets.

Finally yes I do argree that these do make small targets about the same size as a Red Fox, so bearing that in mind where ever possible a rest of some type is used, tree, fence post and in the Bucks case my day pack prone