Red Deer Stalking Season in Scotland

Only if you bring your own rifle. A visitor from outside Great Britain needs a UK visitor's firearm permit, and the application must be made by a sponsor resident in Great Britain. Hendry, Ramsay & Waters acts as your sponsor and submits the application to Police Scotland on your behalf. Police Scotland says a typical application takes up to six weeks to process, so we ask for your details at least six weeks before you travel. The Police Scotland fee is £48 per visitor, or £240 for a group application. You will need a copy of your home firearms licence (European visitors: your European Firearms Pass) or, where you hold neither, a letter of good character from your police or government. Carry the permit with you and declare your rifle and permit to UK Border Force when you arrive.

If you do not have a rifle, or would rather not travel with one, an estate rifle (.270 or above) and ammunition are provided, zeroed and ready, and you use it under the supervision of your stalker under the UK's borrowing exemption. No permit is needed for this, and it is how most of our overseas guests choose to stalk. If you bring your own rifle, your stalker will check its zero on the estate's target before you go on the hill, because a rifle that has travelled in an aircraft hold can shift.

Sources: Police Scotland — visitor permits and BASC — visiting the UK to shoot.

A professional stalker guiding you one-to-one on the estate for the day, access to the ground, the use of an estate rifle and ammunition if you need them, and every permit arranged by us before you arrive. We organise your accommodation at whatever level you prefer, from self-catering to five-star, and advise on transfers from your arrival airport. Tell us what you want from the trip and we build the package around it.

Red stag stalking is normally priced per stag taken, with a daily rate for the stalker and the ground; hinds are priced per day. Prices vary by estate and by the time of the season, so we quote each trip individually. As a worked example from our current 2026 red stag offer: four nights’ bed and breakfast on the estate with three days of guided stalking, two representative stags of up to 10 points, rifle hire and head cleaning is £3,090 + VAT (£3,708 including VAT) in the estate’s second hotel, or £3,674 + VAT (£4,409 including VAT) in the estate’s own hotel; heads above 10 points are £150 + VAT per point. Send us your dates and party size and we will come back with a full quotation, with no obligation.

Red deer stags: 1 July to 20 October. Red deer hinds: 21 October to 15 February. The rut, when the stags roar on the hill, runs through late September and October and is the most sought-after time for a stag.

Fly into Edinburgh, Glasgow or Inverness, whichever is nearest the estate we choose together. If you are bringing your own rifle we sponsor your UK visitor's permit (allow six weeks); if not, an estate rifle is waiting for you, so you can travel light. We arrange the estate, the stalker, your accommodation and the permits, and we advise on which airlines currently carry firearms. Many of our American guests combine a stag with a day's driven pheasant or partridge, or with roe buck stalking, in the same trip. Read our guide for American hunters.

Hendry, Ramsay & Waters (Scothunt) is a Scottish sporting agency. We arrange red deer stalking on private Highland estates for sporting clients from the UK, Europe and the United States, and we handle the estate booking, the permits, the accommodation and the paperwork so that you only have to turn up and stalk. Fill in the enquiry form or contact us.

As a rough guide only: every estate has its own rules, linked to the quality of its stags, so the figures below are an illustration rather than a tariff. Most stag programmes include a representative stag of up to a stated number of points in the price, and heads above that are charged per point; on our current 2026 offer, for example, a representative stag of up to 10 points is included and each point over 10 is £150 + VAT. Head cleaning is normally included, shoulder mounts and trophy shipping are quoted separately, and any levy for carcass damage is charged as it arises. We confirm the estate's own trophy rules with your quotation, and your stalker will tell you what is in front of you before you take the shot, so there are no surprises.

Highland stags are stalked on open hill and a reasonable level of physical fitness is needed: expect several hours of walking, some of it steep, with the final approach on your stomach through wet heather. Bring broken-in waterproof boots, quiet muted clothing in layers, a waterproof jacket and trousers, gloves and a hat; the estate provides the rifle, the stalker and the pony or vehicle to bring the beast down. If you are bringing your own rifle, .270 or similar is the usual recommendation and it should be zeroed before you travel.

Tell us your dates, party size and what you want to hunt and we send a written programme and quotation. A 50% deposit confirms the booking and the balance is invoiced before you travel; if you book less than eight weeks before the start, the full amount is payable in place of the deposit. Overseas clients are invoiced in pounds sterling, the programme states whether VAT is included, and we recommend you take out your own cancellation insurance. The full conditions of booking are on the site.