Roe Deer Stalking in England

Roe Deer Buck Stalking Season in England

England	Date From	Date To
Roe Buck	1st April	31st October

The roe buck is the odd one out among English deer. Red, fallow and sika stags are a winter quarry, taken between August and April, while the roe buck runs the other way round, from 1 April to 31 October, with his close season through the winter from 1 November to 31 March. Those dates come from Schedule 1 of the Deer Act 1991, as amended by the Regulatory Reform (Deer) (England and Wales) Order 2007, and they are English dates. Scotland removed the close season for male deer altogether in October 2023, so the two countries no longer read the same way on this point, although most Scottish estates still stalk to the traditional dates.

Trophy bucks are normally found in good quality arable land with a mixture of hard and soft wood forest, with smaller headed bucks being in the hilly poorer quality land. Our English roe ground is that first kind: farmland and mixed woodland on estates we know personally, stalked one rifle at a time.

The season does not read the same all the way through. From April the buck is in clean hard antler and holding a territory, which makes him findable but careful. By the rut in late July and early August he can be called, and a buck that would not show himself in May will cross open ground in daylight to a call. September and October are quieter stalking again. Tell us which of those you want and we will place the day accordingly.

Either in the early morning with dawn breaking and the dew still on the grass, or in an evening outing where fading light is your greatest enemy, a roe stalk is your opportunity to see the day from a new perspective, as you hunt this most elusive and beautiful of deer. Our experienced stalkers will use their knowledge to help you find your roe deer, in a stalk where every quiet footstep may be critical, and they will guide you to the point where, with your heart pounding with excitement, it is time to take a steady aim and then inspect your prize.

 

Roe Deer Doe Stalking Season in England

England	Date From	Date To
Roe Doe	1st November	31st March

The doe season is the management half of the year. The close season for does runs from 1 April to 31 October, so the work is done in bare woodland and short daylight, and the cull is agreed with the estate before you arrive. It is the part of the year that keeps the ground in the condition that produces the bucks, and for a stalker learning the species it teaches more in a week than the summer does in a month.

 

What the Law Asks of Your Rifle in England

This catches visitors out more often than anything else on the page. In England and Wales there is no lighter rule for roe. Schedule 2 of the Deer Act 1991 sets the same minimum for roe as for red and fallow: a rifle of a calibre not less than .240 inches, a muzzle energy of not less than 1,700 foot pounds, and a soft-nosed or hollow-nosed bullet, meaning an expanding one. Scotland sets its minimum by bullet weight and velocity instead, with no calibre floor, so a light rifle that is entirely lawful for roe north of the border is not lawful for roe here. If you stalk roe in Scotland with a .22 centrefire, it stays at home for England.

That is why the suggested calibre below is .240 or above. We can provide a rifle and ammunition if you would rather not travel with your own.

 

Daylight Only, and Why

Deer may not be shot at night in England. The Deer Act 1991 makes it an offence to take deer between one hour after sunset and one hour before sunrise, and the exceptions are narrow ones for an occupier preventing serious damage to his own crops, not for sport. For roe that matters more than for most, because roe move at the very edges of the day, and the legal end of the evening arrives before the light does.

 

Bringing Your Own Rifle from Abroad

A visitor living outside Great Britain needs a visitor's firearm permit, issued under section 17 of the Firearms (Amendment) Act 1988. You cannot apply for it yourself. A Great Britain resident sponsors you and applies to their own police firearms licensing department, and the permit can be granted for up to a year, which covers repeat visits inside one season. Allow at least six weeks before you travel. We arrange the permits at the time of booking.

 

Only the roe buck carries antlers, short and erect rather than branched, and the coat turns from golden red in summer to brown or near black in winter. There is more on the beast, and on the other countries in which we arrange roe, on the roe deer stalking page, on roe in Scotland and on roe in Spain. For everything else we run in this country, see hunting in England.