John:
Major stroke, by all accounts!

Every red stag and hind I have ever taken have been with that compact Ruger RSI with the WALNUT Mannlicher-style full-wood stock. What a lot of members here call a stutzen.

I did use a borrowed 6.5 Swede with a laminated timber stock to take a couple of chital stags and a hind many years ago, as at that time I couldn't get a booking with a firearm-friendly airline into North Queensland on short notice.

Just remembered something funny:
there's a photo floating around of me taking a few shots at the range with a stainless Remington 700 .308 in a particularly ugly AICS chassis. What my mate Marty called a "Planet of the Apes" rifle! The owner was a young Captain in the Army who carried it as his hunting rifle (!) but was disappointed that it wouldn't shoot. I had no trouble making a one-hole 5-shot group with it at 100m from the sitting position, elbows on knees, which result pointed out a few home-truths to that young fellow. I have to admit, that horrible contraption could certainly shoot, but its owner couldn't!

Didn't make me want to race out and buy one though....

Thread well-and-truly hijacked now!

Sorry Norfolk...