Thread: 223 on deer

Originally Posted by 30.06king

Congrats to your son on a magnificent first stag. I'm sure he will never forget that, especially when hunted with his dad.
In my heart I hope you might someday explain to your son that he has a choice of what to do should he ever encounter such a velvet stag again. Not preaching here, and I'm not suggesting for a moment anything wrong has been done, because it hasn't, but believe it or not if I had come across this stag I would let it walk, and been happy to do that. That's simply my personal ethics talking. In hard antler though I would definitely shoot.
But actually I'm glad you didn't stop your son from taking the shot. I remember my early trials many moon ago trying like hell to just shoot my first deer. It was such a life changing moment when it finally all came together.
A few years ago when hunting with my hunting son we came across a velvet Sika 8 pointer but nowhere as nice as your boy's stag. My son already had a few deer under his belt by then. We debated whether to shoot or not. I told him it was his decision. He declined the shot so we sat and watched the stag until he fed out of view. It remains in my treasured memories of special times we shared.
Sorry about the rant. Congrats agian to your son. I'm glad you're getting the velvet preserved. It's a beautiful trophy.

In days gone by I might have shared the sentiment.

But these days you need to shoot everything you see on sight. Young hunter / first stag aside, the only way I would’ve let this deer walk would have been if there were hinds nearby. The over population of deer of all species across the central North Island is unreal and we cannot afford to be fussy. That includes shooting to waste if you have already got a full backpack.

Recreational hunters need to do their bit in trying to control the numbers. Even if everybody did, it probably wouldn’t be enough such is the out-of-control breeding rate.