England’s Vampire Deer - Larry Weishuhn

My hunt in England had been an interesting one. It started with a visit to the Holland & Holland

store in London, admiring guns I could only dream about and hold momentarily. Admittedly, I

did get a bit of special treatment. At the time I was the hunting editor for Shooting Times

magazine back in the states. As such I got to see guns being built, and even got to shoot a

couple of gorgeous double rifles. If I sold my home back in Texas, plus all the guns I owned at

the time, I could have come up with the down payment for the one, I really liked that had been

built for a mid-eastern prince.

My primary purpose for being in England at the time, now nearly a lifetime ago, was to hunt

and hopefully take a really nice roe deer buck.

My host Merwyn Manningham Buller and I were slowly walking a trail through dark woods,

previously hundreds of years ago tread upon by the knights of old. “What was that?” I

questioned. We were hunting near the Castle Corfe, built in the 11 th century by William the

Conquerer. “Couldn’t have been an apparition or ghost. I don’t think it was a fox, wrong color

and too big and heavy. Looked somewhat like a miniature deer, smaller than a roe. Just caught

a glimpse as it ran across the trail up ahead.”

“I do believe you just saw a muntjac! A unique little deer now found over much over our part of

England. Reeves muntjac to be proper. Brought here from Korea and China back in the late

1800’s. Did it have antlers?” Commented Merwyn. I wagged my head in a negative manner.

“Must have been a doe. If we do see a buck and you are interested, welcome to take it. They

are considered invasive here in England.” I silently hoped we would see another a buck,

unfortunately we did not.

Back in the late 1970’s was the first time I had heard of Reeve’s muntjac (Muntiacus reevesi)

sitting around a hunting camp fire listening to the stories told by Bert Kleinberger. Bert with his

brother Chris hunted throughout the world beginning during the late 1950’s. They opened

numerous countries to hunting after the close of World War II. Said Bert, “Muntjac are a little

bigger than a Beagle hound. Bucks have antlers, upwards of three-inches long, some have short

browtines beyond a spike main beam.” He continued, “The bucks have fangs, long upper

canines about two-inches in length, truly unique! One of our guides in southern Asia back then

called them “vampire deer”. Ever since hearing Kleinberger’s stories about muntjac back then, I

wanted to hunt their kind.

Muntjac, sometimes called “barking deer” because of their dog-like bark, supposedly can even

today still be hunted in some of their native lands. But also, England has become home to

substantial “wild populations”. There are also Reeves muntjac on a few Texas exotic hunting

ranches ranch. I could have taken one in Texas, but I longed to hunt them in a “true” free-range

area. England was my best option.

Since first hearing about them from Bert Kleinberger, I longed to hunt “the vampire deer”.

Fast forward several years. John Landgraf and I were visiting with Stefan and Sofia Bengtssen

with Scandinavian Prohunters at a DSC Annual Convention and Outdoor Expo about our

upcoming moose hunt with well-trained dogs in Sweden followed by hunting whitetail deer in

Finland. “You should come to England with us and hunt the “fanged deer”, Chinese water deer

and muntjac. Fun hunt!” suggested Stefan.

I had previously hunted several times with Stefan and Sofia for red stag in Scotland and

Sweden, fallow deer in Denmark, reindeer in Norway, as well as roe deer and shooting

waterfowl in Sweden. All hunts my hunt with Scandinavian Prohunters had been perfectly

orchestrated and executed, and I truly enjoyed their company and loved hunting with my two

friends. That said, the moose hunt John, Bruce Keller and I did in Sweden and whitetail deer

hunt in Finland could not have been more fun and enjoyable, or, successful.

“OK!” Said John “We’ll hunt fanged, vampire deer in England in 2026. Can we do it in early

March? Our Texas deer hunting season over the last day of February. That OK with you, Larry?”

Stefan and John both knew my answer without my uttering a word. Moments later we had

booked our hunt.

Back in England, Chinese water deer “in the salt and the larder”, Stefan and I headed to the

property where had been seen a rather long-antlered muntjac buck. John headed to a high seat

in the forest. Our stalk produced one muntjac doe, not the buck we hoped to find.

Later that evening John and I hunted with our previous guide, Adam Gage. After walking a

considerable distance, having seen numerous Chinese water deer, we sat to watch an area near

tall trees and underbrush. As we waited, I asked Adam about munjtac. He responded, “As you

know they have both antlers and fangs and are highly reproductive to the point we have to

control their numbers to prevent habitat destruction for other species. They, too, are a very

primitive deer starting back in the Miocene, for more than 20,000,000 years ago. Interestingly,

they have changed very little since they first appeared.” He continued, “Sometimes they

respond to a butalo call, sort of a short, high pitched whistle sound. And, they do “bark” when

startled or concerned.” Just then we heard a rather gruff, short bark-like sound. “Ah, there’s

one barking now back in the woods!” I hoped whatever was barking would put in an

appearance, but they did not show.

That night back at the Waveney House Hotel’s restaurant, “Larry, you and John will tomorrow

go with Sofia to another property an hour’s drive from here. That estate has a lot of muntjac,

but also English red stag. John, I know you would like to hunt for a proper stag as well.” John

nodded affirmatively. Stefan continued, “I spoke with James, the gameskeeper a few moments

ago. He has managed that property for over 35-years, knows the land and its wildlife! He said

no need to get there early. Because of our full moon, muntjac and red stags are feeding mostly

during midday. Plan on leaving here at nine o’clock.”

The morning’s drive was quite pleasant, I enjoyed seeing the English countryside and its many

old and stunningly beautiful homes that lined the narrow road. Upon arriving, we met James.

After introductions we crawled into his vehicle for a quick tour of the property, complete with

herds of red stag, fallow and sika deer. We also saw several muntjac does and young bucks.

Finishing our tour said James, “Sofia, I will drop you and Larry in the forest where I have seen

numerous muntjac, then take John to hunt stag.” Minutes later James stopped the vehicle,

handed me a rifle and the clip containing four rounds. I noticed they were Hornady, perfect. I

nodded an approval. In a softer voice than I could hear James telling Sofia for us to walk in a

northerly direction. Unfortunately, and also fortunately, he assumed she heard him tell her

about a high seat, behind a screening of laurel. Fortunately, because she had not heard him

explain where the high seat, what we in the States would call a “ladder blind”, we did not walk

quite that far.

Sofia and I walked twenty steps, there I found a large tree to sit against where I could see a

decent amount of forest floor between the trees and underbrush. I sat down and got

comfortable. Sofia sat to my right watching another direction.

Twenty minutes later I spotted movement back the shadows, then watched a muntjac buck

step into a spot of sunshine. I noted what looked like three-inch long antlers, essentially spikes.

Before I could bring the rifle into position for a shot, he was gone. I assumed he had

disappeared behind a laurel thicket.

Sofia had seen the buck just as he stepped out of sight. I readied the rifle for a shot in case he

reappeared to the left of the thicket.

Seconds later, Sofia touched my right elbow and pointed in front of her. Obviously she had seen

the buck. A couple of tree trunks blocked my seeing it. I quickly, though silently, squirmed to my

right, spotted the buck walking angling toward us. Rifle, safety to fire, my scope settled on the

buck’s shoulder. I squeezed the trigger. The buck dropped. Even so, I immediately bolted in a

fresh round and again got the scope on downed deer. If he so much as kicked I intended to

shoot him a second time. Thankfully, there was no need, Hornady had fulfilled its promise of

accurate, deadly and dependable!

Moments later we were at my buck’s side. I was thrilled beyond words, not only were his

antlers relatively long, the right one had a short browtine as well. He too, had a split right ear

from the base to the tip from a recent fight. A forty years long dream had finally been realized.

After photos Sofia called James. Said he, “Congratulations! I’ll be there as soon as we

photograph John’s stag! After we finish I’ll leave him in a high seat to look for muntjac then pick

up you and your deer. I’ll then retrieve John’s stag and take both to the larder.”

A few minutes later James arrived, we loaded my muntjac, drove to the larder where it would

be caped for a shoulder mount to be done by Double Nickle Taxidermy

(www.doublenickletaxidermy.com) back in Texas, and, the meat properly taken care of.

James retrieved John’s stag. It was a perfect 10x10, one of the most beautiful set of red stag

antlers I had ever seen. The stag taken care of, we went to retrieve John to continue his hunting

muntjac.

Short time later I watched John crawl from his high seat. At the vehicle explained he had seen

two young bucks. We told him we had just seen a really nice muntjac buck in route coming to

get him. James suggested we return to where the buck had been seen.

We drove toward what in Texas would be a motte of hardwood trees. As we did I spotted the

bedded buck. James drove in a different direction, stopped the vehicle. Then he and John

stalked the muntjac buck. A few minutes later we heard a suppressed shot. John was smiling

broadly when he returned to the vehicle. Moments later James arrived carrying an excellent

buck.

John’s buck’s antlers were very close in length to those of mine although shaped a little

differently. As we were preparing to photo our bucks John said, “Let me show you an old

surveyor’s trick.” He pulled an America dollar from his pocket. “Our US paper currency is six-

inches long.” He folded the dollar bill in half, lengthwise and held it next to the antlers of our

bucks. “Both bucks have antlers over three-inches long. I’d say we took exceptional bucks, since

reportedly any muntjac with antlers longer than two-inches are really good one.” Knowledge

learned and a point well made!

Before heading back to our comfortable base camp, the Waveney House Hotel, we stopped at

the estate’s pub to share a pint, nay two, of Guinness with James to honor him and the two

exceptional muntjac bucks we had taken.

John’s and my England adventure for “Fanged and Vampire Deer” had essentially come to an

end. Next morning over breakfast, I spoke to Sofia and Stefan about the “Three Nation Roe

Deer Hunt” I would be doing with them during May 2026, and John of his Norway reindeer hunt

he and Bruce Keller would be doing with them later in September.

And, yes of course, we talked about another hunting adventure John and I could do with

Scandinavian Prohunters after those hunts were completed. I can hardly wait!