Owen Beardsmore and Cervus UK have provided us with plenty of fantastic hunting
opportunities over the past few years from UK dear including all six British
species Red, Seeker, Fallow, Roe, Muntjac and Chinese Water Deer
to hunting Chamois in the Slovenian Alps.
We've made the trip over to Prague on several occasions
and have taken part in Owens annual driven hunt.
Each and ever time we've hunted with Cervus UK
with service UK we had a great time and a successful hunt.
Tonight we follow Cervus UK head honcho, Owen Beardsmore,
as he heads across the continent on his own special hunt.
He's heading to the Alps with good friends on an incredibly
challenging hunt for Chamois.
Hi, my name is Owen Beardsmore from Cervus UK and tonight
I'm in Switzerland, I'm in a place called Crissier, with a good friend of mine over here hunting.
and tonight we're guests of one of my clients at his fantastic restaurant.
Five star Michelin and we're going to have a nice meal.
A little fine dining before they head out into the mountains
and Owen enjoys his evening.
In the morning, there's time for a coffee before
the hunting party gather for a day on the hill.
I'm over here with Team Wild today trying to climb a big mountain to try and shoot a Chamois
I've hunted Chamois on many occasions now but never on the French Alps and that's where we are today.
It's mid October, there's a crisp feeling to the air and all the leaves are starting to change.
It's really just fantastic to be up here
We've got a long climb and hopefully we're going to find a decent Chamois buck to take on film.
The scenery here is breathtaking.
From the snow-covered mountain tops, to the quaint village in the bottom of the valley,
Chamois hunting is a very special trip the most hunters.
The small goat like creatures live high up in the mountains and can be very tough to get to.
There's often plenty of walking and high altitudes to contend with
before you've even got a Chamois in your sights.
The air is thin and walking can be tough.
Okay, we've just been walking solid for an hour, straight up and then up this little stream
and we've come up to a little glade and we've found a salt lick just like I've put up at home.
Tied it into a tree and when it gets wet it drips down
and all the animals, the Red Deer, Chamois, Roe Deer take advantage of this additional mineral supplement.
I'm glad I don't have to carry mine this far.
Any way, we've only got another hour up and then we should be levelling out and hopefully finding some Chamois.
As they climb higher and higher there's even more signs of life.
As they move through the cover the trees, they keep their eyes peeled.
As the glass the mountainside it's encouraging to see this game on the move
it's up here on the steep mountainsides that shell was spend their days
Well, we've climbed right up to the top now, just got our breath back.
The air is a little thin up here. I don't know what we're at, must be at 2900 meters or something like that.
You can see the most wonderful panorama up here, down below is a mountain house.
or as they say in France, where we are, Le Refuge.
If we ever have any problems they'll be here. It's twenty past four now and it'll be dark at seven.
So, I don't think we're going to get back down in daylight.
We'll see how it goes, we may even end up in there for the night.
It's absolutely fantastic. We're looking for Chamois on this bank.
It's getting towards the end of the afternoon, we've got to get down in the next two hours.
We've just seen a vulture catching some thermals on the top here, which has also made my afternoon.
As an ex-falconer, I think it's absolutely fantastic.
Well, we've seen so much wildlife here today. We've seen
Roe Bucks, Red Deer, vultures, falcons, loads of different bird species, including a black cock and a hazel hen.
We're just walking back down here and we've just come across this massive wood ants nest.
There a lot bigger ants that what we have at home around the house.
and they make this huge house by collecting all the little bits of wood and pine needles.
There, it's a female.
Well, that was nice. We're just walking back down and 20 meters below us is a female.
Charlie thinks it was five or six years old. How he can tell is amazing because I can't even count the rings when i'm near it.
Really excited and a nice finish to a tough day.
Day two and Owen is out just after dawn.
Just beyond the cover here, there are two Chamois in the open ahead of them.
Okay, we've just climbed up this steep bank and we've got a family group in front of us.
and we've seen some very good buck.
we're just going to try and get into position to take a shot.
It's about 285 on my range finder binoculars so i've just got to get into a good position.
Owen has a Chamois in his sights. It's standing broadside and Owen takes his chance.
Spotted the group about an hour ago and there was a real good buck amongst them.
Took a shot and he reacted to the shot. On my binos it was about 280-285 meters or something like that
and he's now lying about 170 meters in front of us so we're going to walk up to him now.
Thank you Charlie. Fantastic.
Well you've probably just seen a fat lad trying to get up some scree
and this is what I was coming up for. It's a fantastic buck
How old do you think it is Charlie?
I don't know.
Well you just have to look.
That shot was bang on the money and you saw him come down
fantastic buck, do you mind just taking that, it's empty Charlie.
I'm very happy with that. Just before the rut
incerdible beast, how they live up on these scree slopes
just living on the little bit of brows that they can find, it's incredible.
He's such a big boy, biggest one I think I've shot. Thank you, it's been an absolute pleasure.
Well we've had a great hunt, this is my guide Charlie, thank you for a fantastic time.
I think I've lost a few kilos just walking up here
Charlies 29 years old and he's been guiding for the last six or seven years
and it's a pleasure to be out and guided by someone who knows the area like he does
While we've been up we've heard birds squeaking
and as you can hear in the background that's a cow but earlier on we could hear a red stag
just across from where we are is a national park and it's just stuffed with wildlife
on the way up we saw a black cock just on the side of the road
and the other game we can get here is a roe deer, red deer, chamois, wolf
Wolf? Yes, wolf and fox. The wolf is becoming more and more over here.
Over there is a national park and the population of the roe deer go down due to the wolves.
Worrying. We hear it a lot in the european shooting press, how the wolf is coming in the east now, coming into western europe
and the problems it's causing with livestock
I'm sure one day it will come back onto the hunting list, i'm sure in the end
as the population comes up they'll have to do something to control them
But anyway, that's enough about the wolf, this is my chamois. We need to get it down and let's go and have a beer to celebrate.
As always theres a tough walk to get into a shot but it's always worth it now it's time to process
now it's time to process the animal it's been another fantastic
hunt provided by Cervus UK and Owen has bagged his chamois.