Five questions to help you start out as a deer stalker

So, despite the anti-social hours, solitude, potentially gruelling conditions and propensity for heartbreak and disappointment you’ve decided to become a deer stalker? If you have, I commend you because despite all of the negatives I've mentioned it is the single most rewarding and fulfilling pastimes I have ever engaged in. 

Yes, there will be days you’ll head home empty handed having woken up before the rest of the world and having walked for miles, but occasions like that only make victory taste that much sweeter when it comes. 

Even when I do head home empty handed from a stalking outing I usually find myself feeling grateful for having seen or encountered something magical that I wouldn’t have otherwise seen had I still been in bed or sat on the sofa: the perfect sunrise or sunset, a chance encounter with a rare songbird or even just a beautiful view.

How do you deal with success and failure?

If you are thinking of becoming a deer stalker you will need to ask yourself whether you are someone who can accept failure without it getting to you. There will be outings where it doesn’t go to plan and unlike many other pursuits you might not get another chance to rectify your mistake on the same day, it may be weeks or even months before you do. 

You also need to be the right sort of character that when you next head out after Bambi you don’t let the mistakes of the past get to you and you don’t lose your cool, get anxious or rush into something because you’re desperate to right a wrong. Deer stalking is a pursuit that requires patience and a cool head. If that isn’t you then that isn’t something to be ashamed of, there are plenty of other options for you!

Paid, permission or syndicate stalking?

If you’ve made it past that hurdle then the next question to ask yourself is how you’re going to engage in this pastime – are you going to try and acquire land to stalk on, join a syndicate, accompany friends or pay to be guided by a professional. A lot of people will start their stalking career by paying to be taken out until such point that they feel confident enough to take on a patch of their own and go it alone. 

Your level of experience and the amount of time you can commit to this new pursuit will probably govern this; realistically if you can only spare a handful of occasions a year to go deer stalking then I wouldn’t advocate trying to find your own patch because you won’t do it justice and what started out as a hobby may start to feel like an obligation. There are also a huge number of advantages to joining a syndicate or paying to be someone's guest such as knowledge transfer and variety, so don’t think this is second best.

What sort of stalking do you want to focus on?

I’ve always thought that deer stalking in England is very different to the Scottish Highlands. A lot of people will disagree with this statement, but I’m going to stand by it. When you stalk in England you generally stalk on much smaller areas and usually you are ambushing deer.

What I mean by that is that you’re hoping to cross paths or intercept something at some point in such a way that you’ll be able to take a shot at it. It's rare that you’ll spot deer from a long way away and then plan half a day's stalk to get into position.

The Scottish Highlands are the complete opposite – you get yourself to a vantage point at the beginning of the day, find the deer and then methodically plan a route into them. I suppose what I’m trying to say is that you’re unlikely to be able to recreate Scottish highland stalking in lowland England, so if that’s what you’ve fallen in love with then stick to it and make an annual pilgrimage to Scotland.

What's the right stalking set up for you?

So, you’ve decided on the 'what' and ‘where’, but what about the ‘how’? I love nothing more than chasing after roebuck in the summer with my single shot wooden stocked kipplauf rifle and nothing more than a pair of binoculars; the thermal spotter and all the other technical wizardry stays at home. 

Equally, when I’m hunting down fallow does in thick woodland in the winter I’m always grateful for the thermal, a fast reloading rifle and a scope with all the bells and whistles. If you’re going to dive into this pursuit head first then you may end up buying two setups – one traditional and the other functional, but a lot of people don’t. 

Are you a sucker for a synthetic stocked rifle with a stainless barrel, a Spartan bipod and a scope with electronic gizmos, or will you go for the more traditional wooden stocked rifle with a fixed magnification scope? 

Depending on where you plan to stalk and how often you’ll probably find yourself naturally being drawn to one option rather than the other, but a lot does come down to personal preference. 

Your choice of glasswear is right up there with the most important thing to get right. If much of your stalking is likely to be in wooded or densely vegetated terrain, you are likely to want a pair of binoculars with a wide field of view to help you locate beasts quickly, but strong magnification is likely to be less important. In more open ground, the opposite will be true.

Similarly if you're going to be doing lots of high seat shooting, early in the morning or late into the evening, low light capabilities are likely to be an important factor when it comes to choosing both your scope and binos. 

For highland stalking, where you might be taking shots out at a longer range, you may want to think about a high-tech scope like the SWAROVSKI OPTIK Z8i+, which offers 8x zoom and outstanding optics, allowing for excellent image definition across the whole field of view. 

Thermal spotters are not for everyone, but they can be a very useful tool for locating game both before and after a stalk.

Regardless of what you decide on for your rifle, or even your clothing (tweed vs Gore-Tex) one thing is for sure – you'll need a good set of shooting sticks and an even better set of binoculars. [Further reading: Choosing the right optics]

What about all that lovely venison?

The fifth and final question to ask yourself is ‘how do you want to enjoy the fruits of your labour’? Each deer you harvest will produce some of the tastiest and healthiest meat on the planet, but that doesn’t mean you should feel obliged to butcher and process it all. This is often something I see people feel overwhelmed by, and it doesn’t have to be this way.

If you’re lucky enough to have the space and time to process and butcher everything at home, then great, but if you aren’t then don’t feel like you’re precluded from enjoying this pursuit. I'm lucky enough to have my own larder and to really enjoy the butchery process, but that wasn’t always the case! 

When I first started deer stalking I knew another local stalker who was happy to store and butcher my carcasses for me until I had the space to do it myself, which was a great option as it didn’t cost me anything apart from the occasional bottle of whisky! I also know of friends who have arrangements with their local butcher who processes the carcass for them for a small fee. Regardless of your situation or where you are in the country there will be a solution, so don’t despair.

I've probably made it sound as though becoming a deer stalker is an incredibly complicated and convoluted process, but it isn’t, and each decision you have to make can be a really enjoyable experience. As with anything, you shouldn’t be afraid to make mistakes along the way, or ask for advice. Despite the solitude I spoke about at the beginning of this article, deer stalkers are actually a very collaborative bunch and love to help each other out, so take advantage of that and sponge up as much advice as you can! Good luck and happy hunting!