Will O’Meara and his hunting accomplice take on a challenging Highland stalk, eventually reaping the rewards of precision shooting
As we persevere through another lockdown I’m looking back on a recent hunt with a friend, when such things as having friends and leaving the house was permitted…
As we bumbled our way through the byroads of Wicklow we discussed the plan. Stags were the focus of this mission and, while most people’s Instagram feeds are full of the biggest and oldest stags, our sights were set on cull stags – stags who are displaying poor genetics or are in poor order. The venue for this hunt was a vast area of open mountain that the stags favour as their wintering ground. Normally at this time of year I would be guiding visiting hunters. These hunters usually have their sights set on mature stags for themselves but also help us out with the cull plan as part of their hunt – circumstances permitting.
As I fasten my pack I stare skyward to the low clouds of dawn, they tell the tale of where the wind is headed. The forecast has promised me a clear sky but the clouds are slow to release their grip of the mountainside. Slinging rifles, we begin our journey upwards, halting periodically to glass likely spots. As we crest another small hill I stop short and glass ahead, careful not to expose my silhouette. I instinctively scan the border of the low cloud, sure enough there they are, dark coats and deep chests giving away their identity even before antler is visible. My buddy spots another group to the right and now we have a dilemma…the wind, always the wind.
TIME ON YOUR SIDE
Let me paint the picture of what lay before us; from our position we have one group of stags at 11 o’clock and another group at 2 o’clock. The wind is coming from 7 o’clock which means that we will need to loop around to the right of whichever group we stalk. The right hand group are at the base of a steep bare hill and slightly closer to us, this might make approaching them from the right difficult and it looks like a serious hike to get around and come at them from the most stalkable position.
The group on the left look very stalkable due to the mountain stream that divides the groups. This mountain stream would allow us to get level with, or slightly above the left-hand group and there is high mountain grass that we could use to cover our approach into shooting range. The only problem with this plan is the right-hand group, who will surely wind us on our stalk of their neighbours.
If they d
