The biggest roebucks live in the open: Craig Boddington’s spring stalk on the Berkshire Downs

Ask most keepers and deer managers where the best roebucks live and the answer comes back the same: the wood, the thick stuff, the edge where cover meets the crop. A spring stalk on the Berkshire Downs with the American hunting writer Craig Boddington, guided by Alex Nielson, one of the most knowledgeable stalkers in the country, produced four mature bucks in three outings and a challenge to that received wisdom. Nielson’s trail cameras and years of observation say the biggest bucks on his ground are field animals, and that the woodland bucks run about a year behind them. Writing in Fieldsports Journal, Simon K. Barr told the story of the trip; for anyone managing roe on farmland, it is the observation, as much as the sport, that earns a second reading.

Roe stalking ground on the Berkshire Downs

The ground lay in the heart of Berkshire, just south of the market town of Newbury, where chalk downland meets ancient woodland and farming has shaped the landscape for centuries. The Berkshire Downs extend southward here, their gentle undulations giving roe, muntjac and fallow exactly what they want: open arable interspersed with copses, thick hedgerows and remnant woodland that traces its lineage back to the great forests that once covered southern England. It is the mixed farmland-and-woodland estate that most lowland keepers will recognise.

For six weeks before the trip last May there had been barely a drop of rain. The drought left the ground firm underfoot and made for ideal stalking conditions. The spring vegetation, late for want of rain, was still lush enough to give the deer cover, while the wide, prairie-like fields gave clear chances to work quietly along hedgerows into safe shooting positions with a proper backstop.

Nielson’s knowledge of the patch went well beyond knowing where deer might be found. He understood their daily rhythms, their preferred feeding areas and, most usefully, where particular mature bucks hung out, intelligence gathered over many hours of observation and through an established network of trail cameras. That is the same groundwork a keeper puts into a cull plan, and it is what turned three dawn outings into four selected bucks rather than three long walks.

Hunting with Craig Boddington

To share the field with Craig Boddington is to stalk alongside one of the most storied hunters alive. A former United States Marine Corps colonel who served in the Gulf War and Kuwait, Boddington has written more than 5,000 published magazine articles and 31 books on hunting and shooting, published across six continents. His expeditions have taken him to more than 56 countries in pursuit of some 300 species, and he has achieved virtually every hunting milestone there is, Africa’s Big Five, 100 Cape buffalo and all nine principal spiral-horned antelopes among them. He holds both the Capra Super 30 and the Ovis Super 20, along with multiple North American grand slams.

In 2017 he won the Weatherby Award, an accolade given not for a tally of animals but for the breadth, difficulty and ethical standards of a hunter’s lifetime achievements.

For all that, he keeps a deep appreciation of simpler, more traditional sport. It had been almost a decade since he and Barr last stalked roebuck together in Britain, that time in neighbouring Hampshire, and his enthusiasm for our native roe was undimmed. Barr’s verdict was that of a countryman watching another: a true gentleman, still a student of the animals, and respectful of everything that lived on the ground he walked.

The Rigby Highland Stalker in .275 Rigby

Boddington had chosen a Rigby Highland Stalker chambered in .275 Rigby, the modern incarnation of the classic sporting rifles that made Rigby’s reputation in the early twentieth century in the hands of Karamoja Bell and Jim Corbett. With a walnut stock, hand-cut chequering and traditional Rigby-pattern iron sights, it weighed 7.8lb, and with its 22in barrel it embodied everything that makes a British sporting rifle special. As Barr put it, a plastic rifle would have done the job, but it would not have put so much of a smile on anyone’s face.

The .275 Rigby is one and the same cartridge as the 7×57 Mauser, developed in 1892 and rebranded for the British market in 1907, when John Rigby & Co. judged that a metric designation would have less appeal to British customers than an Imperial one. The 7×57 had also been used against British troops in the Boer War, so a new name that carried the Rigby association with adventure made commercial sense. It is one of the only cartridges with two names and can be fired from rifles proofed for either, a legacy of the partnership between Paul Mauser and John Rigby that goes back well over 100 years and has thrived again since 2012, when both companies became part of the Blaser Group.

Rigby modernised the cartridge for sporting use, loading solid and expanding 140-grain spitzer bullets, and its 1924 catalogue claimed a muzzle velocity of 3,000fps. The Highland Stalker Boddington carried was the “High Velocity” variant, optimised for 140-grain bullets through a modified throat that gives better accuracy with the lighter projectiles.

For roe he ran Hornady 140-grain soft points, a sound choice for the species: moderate velocity, reliable expansion and the accuracy to place a shot at the ranges farmland stalking offers. It is a combination that puts deer on the ground cleanly without wrecking a carcass destined for the larder.

Leica optics for roe stalking

The rifle wore a Leica Fortis 1.8-12x42i scope in the Glossy edition. Each Glossy Fortis is hand-polished for an hour and a half, which makes every one of them individual. With a vintage Leica badge and its retro look they suit the Highland Stalker exactly, while keeping the benefits of modern Leica glass and an illuminated reticle for the first and last of the light, when most roe are shot.

For rangefinding, not that shots were likely to stretch beyond 200m, Barr lent Boddington his olive-green Leica 8×32 Geovid Pro binoculars. They are compact beside the 10×42 Geovid Pro, and Barr’s view is that he would rather give up a marginal amount of last-light performance for something that small around his neck all day. They are, he says, his favourite rangefinding binoculars.

Roe deer biology and the antler cycle

Roe are one of only two deer species truly native to Britain, the other being red deer, and archaeological evidence places them here in the Mesolithic, between 6,000 and 10,000 years BC. In the late medieval period their populations were severely reduced, probably by overhunting and deforestation, until by the sixteenth century they were confined largely to parts of Scotland. Today’s boom is the reverse: roe are now estimated at more than 800,000, the most wide-ranging deer in Britain, with populations growing at about 2.3% a year. It is why they now occupy the culling plans of farms and estates that had none a generation ago.

They are a small deer, standing 24 – 30in at the shoulder and measuring 33 – 55in long, with adults typically weighing 18 – 48lb. Bucks carry short, erect antlers that normally show three points, or tines, on each side when fully developed.

The antler cycle is the species’ oddity. Unlike most cervids, roe cast their antlers in autumn, from October to December and peaking in November, and regrow them through the winter, shedding the velvet in mid-February to March. So they carry hard antlers through spring and summer, which is why the May stalk found the bucks in full head. The cycle is driven by hormones, with testosterone governing growth, mineralisation and eventual casting.

The rut runs from mid-July to late August, when bucks become highly territorial and aggressive, defending ground and competing for does. After mating, the doe delays implantation of the fertilised egg until January so that the young are not born in the worst of the winter, and two white-spotted, scentless kids are typically born to each doe in May.

Roe deer seasons in England and Wales

In England and Wales roe are stalked under strict seasons: bucks from 1 April to 31 October, does from 1 November to 31 March, so the species can be managed year round. The law sets legal minimum calibres and muzzle energies and prohibits shooting at night except under licence, the framework that keeps deer management sustainable and its standards high.

For a visiting Gun, the estate rifle rule matters: a hunter may borrow a rifle from a licence holder under it, which makes travelling from abroad to stalk far less of a trial as the airlines become less helpful with firearms. It is also how a keeper can put a suitable rifle into the hands of a guest who arrives without one.

Why the biggest roebucks live in open fields

The hunt was three outings, each with the 4am starts that May’s long daylight demands. At 51 degrees north, dawn breaks remarkably early in late spring, and roe are at their most active in those golden hours when the countryside belongs to stalkers and deer alone.

Nielson’s knowledge proved invaluable, and it also upset some fundamental assumptions about roe behaviour. Conventional wisdom says roe prefer woodland edges and thick cover, seeking security in the shadows under the canopy. His observations over many seasons show a different pattern.

“The larger, more mature bucks are consistently found in the open fields rather than the woodland,” Nielson said as the party glassed across a promising piece of arable land. “It seems counterintuitive given that the fields offer less cover, but the evidence is overwhelming. Woodland bucks take approximately a year longer to reach the same size and consistently develop smaller skulls than their field-dwelling siblings.”

The biology backs him. Open farmland offers richer nutrition than woodland browse, particularly in the growing season, and the high-protein crops and varied plants of the field margins supply the building blocks for antler and body condition. Woodland offers security at the price of nutrition, a trade the bigger bucks seem to understand instinctively. For anyone drawing up a cull plan, the lesson is worth having: the mature bucks may not be where the cover is, and the trail camera on the field margin can tell you more than the one on the ride.

Four mature bucks in three outings

The stalking itself was everything downland can offer. The party moved carefully through the early morning, using every fold in the ground, every hedgerow and every copse to hide their approach to the bucks they had glassed. The firm, dry ground allowed unusual stealth, while the spring growth gave cover to deer and stalkers alike.

Patience was rewarded with four mature bucks across the three outings. None reached medal class, but each was a worthy head and the end of a properly planned stalk. One carried fascinating malformed antlers, an asymmetrical formation that delighted Boddington. Deformed antlers are not uncommon in roe; the most extreme form is the perruque, a spongy mass of bone and velvet that forms when testosterone fails to arrest antler growth, usually after a testicular injury, an occupational hazard for a buck leaping barbed stock fences in southern England.

Shooting at 73, a week after cataract surgery

What made the trip more remarkable was Boddington’s recent medical history. A week before arriving in England he had undergone cataract and lens surgery, a procedure that transformed his vision overnight. “The clouds have lifted,” he said during one morning stalk, explaining that the operation had restored a clarity he had not known for years, and had rekindled his enthusiasm for using iron sights on a forthcoming African hunt, something he had reluctantly given up several years earlier as his eyesight faded.

At 73, his speed of target acquisition and precision of shot placement were extraordinary. His ability to judge the safety of a situation quickly, find his mark in the scope and deliver a precisely placed shot was a masterclass in field shooting, decades of experience combined with newly restored sight.

More impressive still was watching a left-handed shooter run a right-handed Highland Stalker. He reloaded and cycled the bolt with his left hand in a fluid, practised motion that spoke of years of adaptation. Asked about it, he smiled and explained that he had been forced to develop the skill because left-handed versions of many rifles simply are not made. “You learn to adapt,” he said, “especially when you hunt all over the world with different rifles.”

Sustainable roe deer management

Roe now present both opportunity and challenge for anyone managing land. They can do serious damage to young woodland and to crops through browsing, yet many landowners and rural businesses run stalking and venison sales as supplementary income. Modern management balances a sustainable population against the needs of the habitat, and culling levels of 15 – 25% are typically enough to prevent an increase in most British roe populations.

The trip was exactly that kind of management. Each buck was selected on age, condition and its contribution to the health of the herd. None was a young animal with its best years ahead; all were mature individuals whose removal would benefit the population structure. It is the selection any conscientious keeper or deer manager makes, and the reason a guest with a rifle can be an asset to a cull plan rather than a liability.

As the hunt drew to a close there was time to reflect on the particular pleasures of roe stalking in the English countryside, with a nice rifle in hand. Pursuing our native deer in their ancestral homeland connects a stalker to centuries of British sporting tradition, and the combination of challenging stalks, beautiful country, perfect weather, a walnut stock and exceptional company made this about as good as it gets.

Boddington’s genuine enthusiasm, for all his international experience, is a reminder of why roe hold such a place in the hearts of hunters the world over. These are not exotic trophies from distant lands but our own deer in our own countryside, which somehow makes the achievement mean more.

Rigby’s Highland Stalker performed perfectly throughout, proof that traditional design married to modern manufacturing can produce a sporting rifle of exceptional quality; life, as Barr says, is too short for poor rifles. The Leica optics showed why they remain the standard for serious hunters worldwide.

Most important of all were Nielson’s observations, which challenged the party’s preconceptions and deepened their understanding of the animal. That mature bucks choose open fields over woodland security reveals the calculations these deer make every day, putting nutrition before immediate safety in their pursuit of dominance and breeding success.

As the final buck was gralloched and loaded into Nielson’s Toyota Hilux, the sun climbed higher over the Berkshire Downs. The hunt had been everything the party could have hoped for, from sharing England at its spring finest with a sporting legend to witnessing some exceptional shots and the camaraderie along the way, and a reminder of exactly why the spring roebuck season is worth every early alarm.

The author wishes to thank Alex Nielson for his exceptional guiding and deep knowledge of roe deer behaviour, and Craig Boddington for his friendship, companionship and knowledge over many years.

Kit box

What Craig Boddington used on the roe

• Rigby Highland Stalker .275 Rigby rifle
• Leica Geovid Pro 8×32 rangefinders
• Leica Fortis 1.8-12x42i (Glossy Edition) riflescope
• Hornady 140gr .275 Rigby soft point ammunition