Thread: Woodhill Block 1 advice

To go hunting

Well, we got on the road before 4am and arrived at the locked gate in time to lace up our boots and have a piss before the gate opened at 6am.

We parked the car on the NE boundary and legged it south to the bottom corner of the block. We cut across the southern boundary and headed for the dunes and more open fringes with the wind in our favour, bumping several mobs of does along the track on the way just after first light.

Within minutes of sitting and glassing the open areas, we'd seen another 3 does, but no bucks. We moved and glassed, moved and glassed and saw lots of small mobs of does, but again no bucks.

By lunchtime, the sightings were slowing down and we still hadn't seen a buck so we opted to head into the pines in the hope of finding the boys. That was a waste of time. We covered a lot of ground and didn't see a single deer over the next 3hrs.

We then made the call to head back to the dunes (despite the roaring of 4WDs, dirt bikes and dunes buggies)... eventually they buggered off and we sat and glassed until the deer started moving around.

By now, we had decided we weren't going to see a buck so the ballot winner made the call that he would take a doe, and duly did so after cresting a small dune and securing a solid shot on a doe at all of 30m. I had a doe permit, so i followed suit within the next couple of little gullies, my shot being sitting unsupported @100m but still good enough to put her on the deck.

We stayed out until last light in the hope of a buck for the guy with the buck only tag, but no such luck.

There's certainly no shortage of deer in the block, but i still don't know where the boys hang out. We did more than 12 hrs "on the hill" and covered a bit more than 21km. We would've seen 20-30 different does and yearlings throughout the day. Legs are a bit jaded today

That sounds almost identical to my experience.

Nice one, thanks for the report

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According to what I have read, the bucks live in a separate area to the does most of the time (apart from the rut), but I don't know if that still applies in an area like Woodhill.

We had block 6 years ago and we had a good long hard day seeing many deer and a large boar. I wounded a good buck which we went back with one of the management team and his dog but still to no avail there was so much sign about we couldn't even track him. It's a great spot alright and you guys had a good day out well done.

I have had similar experiences in block 6

Huge numbers of does, and only spikers seen to represent the lads

But great fun with the camera

Not sure if it's still allowable, but I used to go to my allocated block on a weekday, the week of my hunt, and recce the whole block. That way you knew where the deer were.

I was wondering about that. Good idea. It looks like access is limited - but I'll email them to confirm!

No Recce's allowed..

Is the 4x4 stuff still happening on the other side of the dunes or have the fun police stopped it? I had thought the deer would be used to it, but based on my experience last time, I'm not so sure. They were bloody loud. Maybe it would be a good strategy to get as far away as possible from that noise once it starts up?

Had confirmation from WFMC that it's an operational forest and no recce's.