Return of the buck
Paul Childerley heads to Wiltshire to help with with a stalk of his favoured roebucks
Many people ask what species makes for a really enjoyable hunt. There are so many that could top the list but one of the best has to be hunting roebucks in the spring and early summer. It’s the time of the year when every part of the countryside is full of life and it’s a pleasure being out there and among it all. The reason why relates to when I was a young lad, first heading out with my father for roebucks in the spring, which is where my deer stalking passion began.
Being invited back to Wiltshire with my good friend Mark Bellamy and his son, to try for the old buck that had been seen the previous year, there was no hesitation; it was roebucks and it was early May, which ticks all my boxes.
Having met Mark and Della and their son Ross, we sat and had a cup of tea in the forestry barn and made a plan for that afternoon. It was a fantastic sunny day and the rape was in full bloom, but unfortunately for us the crop rotation wasn’t in our favour. Where the old buck had been seen through the winter months was now a mass of yellow rape at least five-feet high.