It used to be thought of as the preserve of royalty and the gentry but deer stalking is now attracting people from all walks of life. 

Figures recently released reveal that the deer hunting industry is now worth more than £200 million a year and that more people than ever are applying for stalking certificates. 

The accessibility of the sport to people of lower incomes has been hailed as one of the main factors in deer stalking’s increasing popularity.  Shooting outings are now available for as little as £40 and this has opened up deer stalking to people in a way never seen before in the UK. 

Richard Thorne from the British Association for Shooting and Conservation told the Telegraph, “Stalking has had a very upper class image but there has been quite an exponential growth and the type of person taking it up now is your average Joe. 

“The average person we put through the Deer Stalking Certificate Level One (DSC1) course is just a regular working person looking for an outdoor hobby.” 

In confirmation of this, a Cheshire housewife told how she began deer stalking in 2006 and is now eagerly studying for her licence.   

50-year-old Andrea Mort said, “I have always been fascinated by deer and last year I just thought I couldn’t wait any longer and should give it a go.  The reason people do it is to see nature and to understand it.” 

This Cheshire lady is by no means the only female to have a passion for hunting deer and Angie Middleton, a West Midlands lorry driver, is a big fan of the sport. 

She told a journalist, “I have been interested in stalking since I was a child.  I’ve always been a bit tomboyish.  I must have been shooting a couple of dozen times now but have only shot one deer. 

“The kill is the easy part.  It is all about the trail,” she added. 

Deer stalking has been a regular feature in the headlines recently, not only because of its increasing popularity with the public, but also due to the revelation that David Cameron is a huge devotee. 

As reported earlier this month by Litt’s, the UK’s leading provider of hunting and shooting equipment and accessories, the Conservative leader is a highly skilled shot and regularly goes deer hunting on the Scottish island of Jura. 

His love of the sport has been criticised by animal rights fanatics but shooting experts say that deer stalking is one of the best ways of controlling Britain’s burgeoning deer population. 

It is thought that there are now over 1.4 million deer in the UK, more than double the figure estimated 25 years ago, and it has been said that without deer stalking the population of the animals could soon get out of control.