There was a shepherd, a farmer, a welder, a roofer and an ex-huntsman. No, it’s not the beginning of a joke but the attendees who gathered in Clynderwen Community Hall, deep in the wilds of Pembrokeshire, to undertake the Deer Stalking Certificate Level 1 (DSC1). This certificate is increasingly required by landowners and institutions before giving permissions to control deer but luckily the course is run right across the country. Our teachers for the week were two best of breeds: one very English, the other very Welsh. Steve Woolley, former headkeeper for the Forestry Commission, would not have looked out of place among the archers at Crécy or Agincourt. Intensely good-natured, he was our instructor: nobody knows more about the job. Standing to his right, slightly wider than the door, was the former Wales tighthead prop, international skeet shot, and BASC training and education officer Richard Fussell. Both had the calm eyes of a marksman and neither looked likely to take any nonsense.

Classroom instruction

DSC1 – starting in the classroom

The first phase of this fascinating and essential course is classroom based. Very quickly we all realised just how much we had to learn, from meat hygiene legislation (did you realise you are considered a processor if you skin a carcass before taking it to a game dealer?) to the differing number of foot-pounds legally required from a rifle to shoot deer in different parts of the UK. It’s 1,700ft/lb here but 1,750ft/lb in Scotland – “because Scotland is higher up” we were told. Subjects such as shot placement and the vanity of this odd craze for headshots were taught interactively. “How many rounds could you put in this at 150 yards?” asked Woolley, holding up a matchboxsized yellow tag. “How many do you want?” replied Owen the Roofer, arms folded. This was not exactly the looked-for answer but probably a valid question from Owen who was a deadeye. Since we had all done a bit in the field, Woolley regularly opened the floor and welcomed interjections.

Checking groupings after the assessment

Many of these were both serious and important: you must aim a little forward to account for the diaphragm of a doe moving up in late March; remember your eye relief will be well out if you forget that you have on a rucksack strap. Others were less serious. Fallow bucks gather in a ‘lekking ground’ where they make coital groans, paw the ground and competitively display their strength. This, said Phil the Farmer to Rhys the Welder, is how ‘Chip Alley’ (properly Caroline Street) works after a night out in Cardiff. And just as with fallow bucks, the same rutting grounds in Chip Alley are returned to year after year, we all learned.

Each night we met up for dinner in Narberth to swap stories and generally set the world to rights. Most people who enjoy activity in the fresh air get on naturally with one another, and the DSC1 team was no exception. The classes over the three days were comprehensive, from deer biology and ecology to legislation, stalking techniques and taking the shot, deer identification, safety, shooting and large game meat hygiene. Put simply, nobody ended the course without having been taught a lot of important stuff they probably didn’t know before. On the second day we covered a lot, and coffee was drunk in biblical quantities.

Safe handling of the rifle is non-negotiable during the practical elements

As the classes ran through, what impressed most was the practicality of what we were being instructed in. How to gralloch cleanly, where to get a good knife from and how to keep it clean and sharp. What to do if your quarry crosses a boundary and needs to be despatched as an act of mercy. The trick of wearing two sets of hygiene gloves so you can pull one off, how to tell a blood clot from a liver fluke and recognise anthrax – plus what to do if you find them. All this alongside the banter you’d expect from hunting people: the fact that Lidl does a shrink wrapper for £20, that Abrox has done a good pair of thermal rangefinder binoculars and so on. After a long second day we all repaired to The Angel in Narbeth where fresh seatrout and dry-aged Welsh beef prepared us for exam day.

The safety walk is a mock stalk wtih deer targets that need to be spotted and assessed for safety

You may turn over your papers

The written exam on the third day is just like all tests: the anticipation was worse than the event. Joe the Shepherd was looking a little nervous. He neither has a computer nor, I imagine, wants one. This meant that the USB stick with the handbook saved on it had been largely decorative, and he had used his iPhone for revising. Phil the Farmer, 72 years young and a veteran of the Commonwealth Games Skeet team in Brisbane, quietly suggested Woolley calm his fears. This is the sort of kindly thing Glamorgan farmers do. The DSC1 written exam itself is a multiple choice, with sections on all the areas we had been taught. Everything you need is in the handbook you are sent before the course starts but I strongly recommend doing the online practice tests.

After class on day three I met Owen the Roofer in the Morrisons carpark at Haverfordwest. He was taking me out into the valleys to zero my Mannlicher before our shooting test, and this required some doing. The old Stutzen clearly felt the fitting of a moderator was impertinent. After a bore scope by the baffled Owen, and a sincere apology, she eventually came back to some sort of group. (Read 10 things to take to the hill when deer stalking.)

Next morning we convoyed to a nearby estate, where there was no sign of the shepherd. Nerves mounted as we waited for hope; aim precisely and narrowly at it and keep aiming through the trigger. Two shots, then, from prone at 100 yards and now two more shots off the sticks at 70 yards, then two humane despatch shots to the brain. Imagine my astonishment to see by far the best grouping of my life. And then came the sinking realisation: I had shot Owen the Roofer’s deer. With saintly forbearance, Woolley raised his eyes to heaven and made me take the test again. This time at the double. The safety walk is the final hurdle for your course, and I was taken by Meurig Rees, with The Field’s photographer Philip Barker (who had also completed the DSC1 a few years before) in attendance. It was far from certain, as a former huntsman, that Rees and I would get on together as well as we did. His job, which he thoroughly enjoys, is shooting foxes, as he was not shy about telling me. Well, nobody’s perfect. Putting that aside, we then carried out a pretend stalk together, with deer targets in the woods that needed to be spotted and assessed for safety. Safe handling of the rifle is the key thing but, as you go along, you have to answer sensible questions such as what would be a good fail-safe to alert others about a problem if there’s no mobile signal (a pre-agreed three shots close together). As we milled around at the end, a vision appeared from the valley: Woolley’s wife with an armful of hot beef and horseradish rolls from Andrew Rees & Sons in Narberth.

The DSC1 requires two shots into the chest killing area from prone at 100 yards

Reflections on the course

So, what would I change about the course? Not a thing. But I would consider adding two things. First, I would include a dedicated section about dealing calmly with the general public and how to avoid misusing social media. With people out there who put razor blades in the ladders up to shooting high seats, the licence to operate is crucial. A rifle on your back makes being calm, polite and explanatory a crucial skill set. Second, I would take a little quiet time to impress upon all course attendees the solemnity of the kill and the seriousness of hunting. In this age of on-the-hoof video, and thermals and scopes that make your coffee for you, not all the things people talk and post about are pretty. (Read shooting from a high seat.)

For the next generation of stalkers, nothing will be more important than demonstrating the respect and veneration for our quarry that is right at the heart of stalking. The word ‘venery’ itself comes from the Latin word to worship, venerate, treasure and respect. When my teenage son gets a deer, he’ll say a short prayer of thanks in the quick air because it has always been the hunters who love their quarry the most. A stalker sighs with regret at a deer smashed on the side of a road, while commuters drive past unseeing. The final word goes to Owen the Roofer, who said everybody going out to shoot a deer should do the DSC1. You cannot know too much, and who wouldn’t want to help BASC and the other organisations that run these courses protect and conserve stalking for those who follow after us? (Read lowland deer: where to find local deer stalking.)

Antlers as a classroom aid

More information

BASC’s DSC1 courses are held regularly throughout the year, providing an insight into and a wider understanding of stalking techniques and deer management.

Next steps

If you want to get your Deer Stalking Certificate Level 1, the first thing to do is contact the organisations that run these courses. As well as BASC, the British Deer Society and the National Gamekeepers’ Organisation host DSC1 courses. There is also the Proficient Deer Stalking Certificate 1, an accredited course delivered by the Shooting & Hunting Academy. Do the pre-learning: it will make the course a lot easier. You can do a lot of this online via YouTube videos. Practise the shooting test, at the right distances, to see how your rifle behaves – especially for the humane despatch shots at short distance. Pick a friend to go with – it’s a convivial thing to do.