Small Deer!

[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