Just away from Dorset’s Jurassic coast is one of the greatest concentrations of wild
deer in the British Isles.
They are the sika herds around Lulworth and they are a huge draw for both local and foreign
stalkers.
But why make life easy for ourselves?
Today, I am with professional deer stalker Carl Harrison of Devon Stalking, and he is
after roebuck.
Happily, the open country here means it is not long before he finds one.
We've got a very nice potential middle class roebuck out in front of us.
Out down there in the field just here, what we are doing at the moment, is we have a good
backstop.
We are just waiting for him to clear some of the vegetation in the way and when thats
clear, the wind is in our favour and we will take the shot.
We had the buck in sight for quite a while there was a few concerns about the backstop
so we waited until he cleared the unsafe zone and then eventually a shot presented itself.
It was a lovely broadside on shot probably about 130 yards, off the quad-sticks and took
him nice and cleanly.
He fell to the shot, there was no run.
So we are pretty confident that it was a strike right through the heart there.
Carl shoots 180-grain softpoints in .308 and the big slow bullet went straight through
the animal, causing terminal damage along its path.
If it misses the shoulder its just going to punch through flesh and it will come out the
other side straight away.
This boy here tonight, we've come through the shoulder perfect placement on the side
of the animal and actually come out front shoulder edge.
It just goes to show, as soon as it hits that carcass it can come out anywhere it wants
to.
This story is all about bullets.
Are you torn between fast-travelling polymer tips which shatter on impact causing instant
death, and punchy softpoints, which mushroom on impact causing instant death?
Well, now there is a new kind of bullet – a polymer tip that promises the benefits of
a softpoint.
Winchester Extreme Point Deer Season is specially designed for deer.
Of course they promise massive knockdown power and precision accuracy – who doesn’t?
– we will be putting that to the test.
First up, why are they different?
With the polymer tip you're getting a good strike and getting that little bit of penetration
first before the expansion starts.
Thats what the polymer tip is designed to do.
With the soft points you're getting a lot more controlled expansion and its a lot slower
in the animal and great results at the end.
I am keen to try these cartridges on deer.
First, however, let’s test them for accuracy.
Carl takes me to a shooting range on Dartmoor, near where he does most of his stalking.
And who should be there to try out the Winchester Extreme Points but Jamie Chandler, the shooter
with no hands, normally on our airgunning show AirHeads, who is learning stalking and
big-bore basics with Carl.
This is utterly, the first three shots I've ever taken.
It was extraordinary.
I was told a couple of years back that the recoil was like a goose cartridge or a wildfowl
cartridge.
Its nothing, its absolutely nothing.
And because I've got girly little shoulders, I always thought that would be the stopping
point.
But honestly its no worse than a spring airgun.
Are you hiding a sissy pad under there?
No I'm not hiding it, its just coming out now.
So why is it underneath that green coat?
why are you not loud and proud about your sissy pad, saying I didn't think I was going
to cope with the recoil.
Well, because obviously coming out does take time, you know you don't want to rush into
these things.
Some people, theres a bit of prejudice out there.
Just how we are experiencing with you, calling it a sissy pad.
In fact its a recoil pad for gentleman.
And so as you can see I'm coming out gently but not too much.
Jamie goes through novice shooting and stalking instruction with Carl.
He needs to know that when we come to that situation how he is going to react.
Where I'm going to tell him to stand.
How he places the rifle from his shoulder and place it onto the sticks.
And then the words of command he may receive after the shot has actually been released.
Im always worried about how people teach me because people tend to applaud and other things
because I can just do it.
I don't learn anything from them.
You know, they see me doing it and they say thats fantastic.
What Carl's done which is kind of unique for me and theres only a few people who do it.
Is look at what I do without seeing me with no hands or whatever.
Just see me as someone trying to put bullets into a target which is accurate enough to
drop a deer.
And he's done it the mans a legend.
Jamie even gets to try a fellow shooter’s rifle, an Accuracy International AT 7.62.
It’s all go on the big bore front today.
Back to the bullet, Jamie shows that Winchester’s Extreme Point shoots straight, even in the
hands of a newcomer to shooting.
Now we want to see its effect on deer.
We leave Jamie and Carl in Devon and head to my home county of Somerset.
I am going to stake out a broadleaf plantation in front of the old railway line.
It is a perfect evening in late July, t-shirt stalking position this is English roebuck
at its best.
That was day one.
Nothing doing.
Day two sees me back in the same place, and it is not until Day three, when I bring my
Dad as a spare pair of eyes, that I see the buck I have come to shoot.
Unfortunately it is off camera by the time I squeeze the trigger, and Dad’s on binos
not cameras, so you will have to take my word for it.
Straight through the shoulder and out the other side it came out slightly far back.
It was slightly quartering onto us.
But clearly I completely destroyed its heart so it was going nowhere.
Now think back to the start of this item, when we talked about the difference between
polymer tips and softpoints.
The Winchester Extreme Point is a polymer tip, so I am expecting it to be light and
fast, like a polymer tip bullet should be, but then to shatter on contact with the deer,
causing instant trauma but a lot of meat damage.
Well, dead this deer is, but meat damage there is not.
Just like Carl’s softpoint, the Winchester Extreme Point goes right through the animal.
There – the benefits of a softpoint with the ballistics of a polymer tip.
It’s a match made in, well if not heaven certainly Devon.
You can find Devon Stalking on Facebook.
For more about Winchester’s new cartridge, visit Bit.ly/extremepoint