From the High Seat; Seat Life

It will soon be Chinese water deer season so it's time to check and carry out maintenance on all our high seats. There are always seats to check, build and locate, the older seats need checking for ageing, rusting, rotting or even malicious damage because some people don’t understand what we do, how we do it or why and they feel that damaging a seat is helping the deer and hope that someone tumbling out of it is wildlife pay back.

Over the years, we have put in a lot of seats from purpose built single seaters, purpose built two seaters and some homemade seats and observation towers, improvised from stacking IBC frames and crates but all have their place and can take a beating from the weather during the space of a year, I even had one stolen!

Shooting from one of our two seat high seats

Today though, we just had to check security of the structures and the seats and all was well, a little pruning and we are good for our first outings of the season. We all know where we are going to be sitting on the first day of the season and have a reasonable expectation of what we could see but of course, the wildlife isn’t briefed, so it could do something completely different! And that is the joy of it, it’s not a computer game, it’s not predictable, it’s the application of skill and knowledge against an infinitely variable set of circumstances, wind and weather, a tractor showing up unexpectedly, a dog taking its owner for a walk or a particularly wary deer spooked by a strange deer showing up on its patch.

We’re as ready as we can be but on the day, we are at the mercy of so many factors out of our control and we may need to use all of our skill and experience to overcome any challenges which may occur, the important thing to remember is that a session in the high seat or foot stalking is to be enjoyed not endured, I am as happy with a picture or a memory as I am carrying out 20Kg of warm venison!

Enjoy!

MG