The Hunter’s Experience, a week in the wild Scottish Highlands.
For the many who haven't yet heard of The Wild Order, we are a blossoming new business with a mission to disrupt the stagnant and outdated hunting scene in the UK.
The biggest challenges to hunters in the UK come in irritating forms, such as finding access to land where hunting is permitted. In most cases, hunting takes place on private land, and obtaining permission to hunt on someone else's property can be difficult or expensive. However, we do have Scotland, and the hunting up in the highlands is world-class.
The Wild Order was conceived on the principles of access, diversity and affordability, With all this in mind, we designed The Hunter’s Experience. Having now proven our concept (see my ramblings below) we are now building new courses and experiences to deliver throughout the year.
Early success for one of our guests and a traditional blooding
Busted Rangers, sleepless nights, and a dose of success to ease the pain.
December came around quickly. Alex, official photographer, and I were set to drive the 650 miles north in my Ranger that was currently in the workshop having yet another issue sorted. A few pennies later and our love-hate relationship was firmly set in stone. I cursed her all the way home, then packed her up, begged for forgiveness and prayed she behaved on the long journey.
Our 10 guests were due to arrive in a couple of days, which gave us enough wiggle room to get to the 20,000-acre estate which we’d leased for the week, pack out the fridges and freezers with enough food for the duration of the course, sort out the mountain of gear, pick up Matt, one of our trainers, and maybe get a cheeky outing up into the hills for a pre-course hunt.
At this time of year in Scotland it can be cold real cold. However, the forecast still had us all a little surprised, snow warnings for the week and daytime temperatures set to hit -12c + windchill with lows at night of -18. Us soft southerners were a little shocked but stoked that the rain, otherwise known as Scottish mist, wasn’t going to dampen our week.
We chose Scotland in December primarily because it’s red and sika hind season, and from a management perspective ’tis the season to get deer on the deck. This meant we could get our guests' multiple opportunities whilst not incurring insane costs. Like many places, we have a large and growing population of red, fallow and sika deer that need careful management to ensure a healthy herd and landscape.
We only have two truly native deer species in the UK: the red deer and the much smaller roe. Fallow are now seen as naturalised here but, as with the sika, they are an invasive, and one that, if left unchecked, can be incredibly destructive. We also have the muntjac and the Chinese water deer, the latter in modest numbers but the muntjac is spreading across the country. It's an incredible deer, very small (think small dog size) but hardy as hell and delicious.
The hunting for our guests was a mixture of hill stalking where a more selective approach is taken when choosing a deer to kill, this is judged on their condition. The landscape being more of a Southern Alps vibe gives the deer some serious weather to contend with in the winter, so health and condition is everything. We also had the forestry blocks for stalking, where they had zero tolerance for any legal deer which meant sika and red hinds.
The landscape in the highlands is mind-blowing; vast views across heather-blanketed hills, imposing mountains, and peat-stained rivers with large lochs breaking up the landscape. The terrain is hard going but the payoff is sweet.
When the big day came around and our guests began to arrive, I was pretty nervous. I also hadn’t really slept, but my old friend adrenalin kicked in and life was good again. The guests all seemed sane and super keen so the first two battles were won.
A morning on the range ensured everyone was comfortable behind the rifle.
Day 1.
With a busy hunting schedule ahead of us we needed to get down to the range with all our guests. The estate had two Tikka t3 lite in .270 for our guests to use. It was important to get everyone behind a rifle and nailing a 4-inch target at 100m and 200m before we could let them have a go at the real thing. Our guests, with incredibly clear tuition from the estate staff, took amazingly well to their new companions. They practised prone and sanding shots using bipods and quad sticks.
We spent most of the day on the range which wasn’t that long considering we only got 6 hours 50mins of daylight this far north.
That afternoon we got two parties of three hunters out, only our photographer took any shots — the deer were not playing ball. The other four guests, Sam (the estate head stalker) and myself took a tour of the estate. Rangers loaded up with coffee and spotting scopes, we headed up to a quarry to glass some deer and talk deer and land management.
Day 2.
Was a big day, the pressure was on, we needed to get our guests successfully shooting deer. After all, that's what they all came here to do. We split the guests into groups and they headed out for the day with their guides. I eagerly waited back at the estate while organising the evening's workshops, whilst never being out of earshot of the radio so I could be the first to go and congratulate our guests that had been successful. To witness the laddering, the dram of whisky, and the not-quite-dry blood on the faces of the proud new hunters we had initiated to this wonderful world was a great sight to see after many months of planning for this trip.
The snow had started to come down thick now and although it wasn’t settling it was almost certainly playing havoc with the visibility for our hunters. It didn’t matter though, I knew everyone would be fully buzzed to be out in these conditions, learning from the guides and earning that Venison dinner that was being prepared back at the accommodation.
Despite the poor conditions, two red hinds had been taken off the hill cleanly, lardered, and were hanging safely in the chiller.
For the evening workshop, we had organised two well-hung sika deer for us to skin and butcher. We were using the estate cold room built over 100 years ago. It certainly lived up to its name and was consistently in the minus during our stay. However, the guests were not put off, and all got stuck into the skinning although a few complaints of frostbite and tick bites were heard but quickly coshed, as neither of these things could be had together.
As two groups of five, we broke the animals down into quarters, backstraps, tenderloins, and of course the offal ready for tomorrow's butchery session.
One of our guests already looking like a ninja while performing the gralloch
The pursuit of the Red and Sika hind continues
Day 3.
Much the same as the previous day apart from one glaring difference. The whole landscape was now thickly coated in eight inches of snow which was not only a novelty but also cool as hell, it made for epic photos too. It did give us one rather big issue, camouflage. All guests being novice hunters didn’t have fancy camo, let alone snow camo. In a moment of inspiration, Sam (@spthompson) suggested one of us “nip to Inverness” to get plasterers' suits. These proved both cheap and insanely effective.
We saw some great efforts from our novice hunters, with dam cold conditions and many hours hiking through deep snow on the hills.
Some fine animals were taken too, which was fantastic news. Many of our hunters had now shot, butchered, and gralloched deer, and many were eager to take what they had killed home, so there was plenty more butchery to come.
For the evening butchery session, we moved on to breaking down the haunches into the eight primary muscle groups, rolling the shoulders, and removing the rib meat. Just as important as learning to shoot is learning to butcher, so we put in some hours to make sure everyone was comfortable. We had already trimmed up the back straps for dinner that night.
@spthompson in his impressive snow camo
Days 4 & 5
Days 4/5 went similarly well with nearly all our hunters having bagged themselves some fantastic meat in an incredible location while helping the estate manage the deer population, all for an affordable price. Myself and the team had a blast too! We had a few hunters miss deer and ultimately that meant they didn’t get a deer on the deck. But it's all good learning. Hunting isn’t easy, it's not for everyone and sometimes you leave empty-handed. It’s what keeps us hungry for more!
All considered the week had gone insanely well, everyone was happy, well fed and fired up for more which is exactly what we want and need. Bring on the new age of hunters who want that meaningful connection, who want that great meat, aren’t afraid of some hard work but with none of the pomp.
The last night began with mulled wine around a white-hot BBQ in the freezing temperatures telling tales from the days past and hearing feedback on what went well or what could be improved.
The BBQ was not for warmth but it was welcome, we all stood in awe as the grill was adorned with an army’s worth of heart kebabs. These went down a storm.
Dinner that night was a feast for us all to enjoy together, with the estate guides too, it was a night to remember for sure.
In summing up this exciting new business's first course, we are under no illusion, we know that the battle is not won. For the UK hunting scene to emerge from its murky past a lot more is needed to transform it into a sustainable, modern, ethical and of course, accepted model and way of life. A large part of this is debunking the view that hunting is only for the wealthy elite or for those that grew up with it.
We believe a great force for change is when people truly gain a connection to the land and their food while spending meaningful time in nature with like-minded people, it’s a powerful combination.
We still haven't managed to achieve one of our main goals which is to have a scholarship position on every course but we’re working hard to achieve this and hope to bring it to this year's The Hunter’s Experience.
We’ve got some big plans and lots more courses for 2023/24 so keep an eye out, give us a follow and drop us a line if you’re interested in what we’re doing.
Stay Wild
Arthur Petherbridge — Founder The Wild Order
Photography by @alexcattphoto
