Just a quick post to say “Hi” to the forum and introduce myself as a deer stalker from the UK.
I had a look around here over the weekend, and liked the friendly atmosphere of the site.
As a way of introduction, I’ve been stalking for nearly 20 years, and shooting for a good bit longer prior to that.
My primary rifles for deer are a Howa in .308win and an older Sako I’ve only recently had rebarreled to a .260Rem.
For such a small and densely populated country, stalking opportunities in the UK are actually quite good. We have six species of deer in the wild, plus small but expanding populations of Wild Boar and Feral goats.
The main down side is that we don’t have any free stalking on public land…To make up for that, our seasons are long, and its possible to stalk deer all year around, plus there are no tags or bag limits mandated by Government; in fact our deer populations are generally expanding and outside of the cities and larger towns, most of the UK is within 45minutes of some sort of stalking.
I live in North Wales, where the deer are actually still quite scarce, so tend to travel for my stalking opportunities.
Our small Roe and Muntjac deer are my main quarry, but over the years I have taken a fair number of Fallow, Red and a few Sika..The only species I’ve yet to stalk is Chinese Water Deer because their home range is still quite limited and unless you know a friendly farmer, stalking them commercially with what you guys would term a guide gets very expensive very fast..
I am not really a trophy hunter and spend an equal amount of time hunting does/hinds as the bucks /stags
Below are a few pics that may be of interest:
The first couple are from different parts of Scotland and show typical Sitka Spruce/Commercial forestry stalking blocks.
And a couple from England and Wales
A few of our deer…
These are a couple of Red staggie’s, that decided to browse under my highseat (ladder stand)..
A mature Roe doe shown with my Sako for scale:
Another Roe doe, this time pausing in my shed on the way to my freezer!!
And a yearling Muntjac buck, this time with my Howa for scale.
The Club I belong to is set a cull figure from the Forestry Company we lease the land from, and our main aim is to control the expanding deer population as humanly and ethically as possible, with “sport” really a secondary consideration.
Its actually quite a task as Muntjac doe’s will drop a fawn every every 8 months and in some respects are more akin to rabbits than deer!
Hope those give a bit of an insight to stalking in the UK and dispel a few myths many Americans seem to have about us Brits and hunting!! 
Regards,
Peter
I am sure one of these days my luck will turn and I’ll get my “Royal”! 
