My hunting trip took place over 3½ days. Griffith-Jones picked me up each morning about 5 am at the inn where I stayed in Sturminster Newton and returned me by 9 am for a late breakfast. From 6 to 7 pm, we went out again until about 10 pm, at which time it is still light in late May, which is when I was there. We drove about five minutes from the inn to a different dairy farm each day. At the property, we hiked to a vantage point and glassed the open fields, which were broken up by well-trimmed hedgerows. If we saw a deer we wanted to take a closer look at, we would proceed with a stalk. Sometimes we spotted a good-looking deer 500 to 600 yards away, and by the time we reached the spot where we had seen it, the animal had moved on. Fortunately, we would soon see another. Deer numbers were high on all of the farms I hunted. We saw three to four mature bucks every day, along with smaller bucks and does, plus countless gamebirds, most notably pheasants.
British wildlife authorities classify six species of deer as vermin, including roe deer. There is no license required to hunt deer, and there are no limits. Griffith-Jones and Raison set their limits in consultation with each of the 70 farmers they work with. Some farms never get hunted more than once........(continued)
