Posted on fb by a local retailer, extolling the virtues of thermal imagers
Attachment 93392
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Posted on fb by a local retailer, extolling the virtues of thermal imagers
Attachment 93392
makes it look like a fantastic harvesting and pest control tool
I thought this was going to be about the curry taste test with that heading.
That's a sad sight but if you want them gone it certainly works.
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any way it beats the green rain:thumbsup:
It doesn't look like they're gutted. If not, the n its cull to waste.
Some private land is riddled with them.
If thats the case, why don't the landowners contact NZDA. Would be a great way to get new hunters keen. (under supervision of course, perhaps as part of the nzda hunts courses.)
That's the way we hang them up when they are about to be gutted. Don't want to leave it too long though. They might be going to dog food.
@JoshC is right, in some areas private farmland gets smashed by wild deer if there's a substantial bush block on the boundary. We'll have a session like that in a mild year - like this year - the fawn and yearling survival rate is very high the last couple of seasons. There's a wide run of steep north facing paddocks on the one property with a bush block at the top, you won't see a deer on that land ever during the day but as soon as its dark they come pouring out. We wait for the wind to blow right then set up a couple of hours before dark with two hides either side. Have never used a thermal scope, just use quality torches and a very heavily suppressed .223. Believe me its not much fun, like shooting targets at the fair. The shooting is all over in a couple of minutes, they just bloody stand there staring, a few will run but then they stop again and look back. If they can't work you out, their instinct to get back to the bush seems to short circuit and that's their undoing. Quite sad really, I don't like it much.
Most farm owners I know of, do let people on hunting for that purpose. If you knock on the door and ask to go shoot a yearling with your kids they'll say yes.
BUT - shooting a couple or five every weekend won't do anything to curb the numbers long term.
Hunters and hunting clubs aren't interested in knocking back numbers. They want to see deer and they essentially farm them. Local NZDA clubs down here have exclusive rights to properties with good deer numbers - but still need choppers and professional cullers to sweep through annually taking a few extras out to manage numbers.
If larger numbers of deer need culled, it needs to be done by people who know what they are doing, using the correct gear. Otherwise it is a waste of time.
And they're worth $7/kg at the moment, so there's money in it. If you had a 'deer problem' and they were worth $7 a kilo, chances are you're not going to be giving them away aye ;)
Thousands have been shot on private land in Southland and Otago over the last couple of years, because prices are good. Some of these places you'd hardly know it has been done.
Friends of mine have taken 140 out of an area that's not that large in the last month. Very selective too mind you, several good stags left and no prime hinds shot. 99% of the stags shot were absolute rubbish. We had deer walking out of the scrub a couple of hundred meters off while the chopper was hooking on and slinging their mates off the hill down to the chiller truck.
Rec hunters are never going to shoot the volume required to check numbers.
Cripes. I wish we had some hunting available up her in the central NI like that. It's really tough up here now.
There are high numbers down here mate in places, that's what a lot of people don't understand. Mobs of 20 plus aren't uncommon on some places.
It's certainly localized but there's still plenty of deer around/throughout these regions in general if you put in a decent day on the hill.
Very good points raised there mate, I have had the same arguements with others over here who suggest all that is needed is for the ADA and recreation shooters get involved, and that will solve the problem. I have no problem with recreation shooting at all, but to say that is a cure for an over population of game animals is clearly a silly thing to say.
^^^ This is 100% correct. Its a simple question of sound farm management. Your working capital is not going to deliver, if your feed is getting hammered every night by as many deer as you have sheep or cattle. Goats are also a problem but there the equation is a little more sensitve, as they browse problem weeds and scrub and can help pasture quality, but they reach a tipping point where they too start to hit the good stuff too hard.
There are two professional hunting outfits in our area that deliver a bankable hunting experience, plus the half dozen or so of us that hunt the high country blocks for recreation but the number of deer we take is miniscule as a percentage of population. When I go into the native after a decent stag, the lack of feed under the canopy is really obvious, the deer hammer anything they can reach in there and because they are landlocked by farmland, they have to come out at night to survive.
I totally get the frustration felt by stalkers who struggle to even see a deer on the public land. @JoshC is right, a good well mannered presentation at the homestead and a willingness to go out of your way to give something in return will often pay dividends. Not always, but often, there are some strange buggers at the end of some of the roads, in the good areas. And I'm dead serious when I say you do need to be very very careful in some areas, with where you leave your vehicle and who you get your permission from. Especially the city folk with flash SUVs and not much clue about local history. And if the land owner says 'don't shoot this or that' then don't shoot it. Especially pigs or fallow, if those are your instructions.
In 2015 in Victoria we door knocked in the foothills of the eastern high alpine country and came up trumps first call, for accomodation (a barn to put our swags in and a long drop) and as many goats as we could shoot. I offered to straighten all the fence battens as we went, and re-staple any that needed it and generally tidy things up, that went down a treat. Rehung a couple of gates, a few strainer wires here and there. Cost me a couple of packs of staples and a black thumbnail and a few hours failing to teach my boys to bloody concentrate. Shot half a dozen fallow, recovered and cleaned them and hung them in the farmer's chiller for him to do with them whatever he wanted to. Happy days, we were there for a week and we can go back anytime.
I hunt on that property often.
This is but a drop in the bucket. They were gutted and processed.
Meat goes to a good cause, breast cancer research.
Sometimes it goes to the veterans homes.
Very good. I wish we had properties to hunt in CNI like that. Many of us would be delighted to help. Many hunters up here are having to pay upwards of $150 per deer to hunt fallow on farms.
I know @Woody I'm one of them!
if only I could live in the land of milk and honey (the mainland)....
The property is located in the South island @Pengy.
Got a rough idea already :thumbsup:
Yeah they get out of hand, was out back this morning and saw 250 odd in 100ha area. We would easily blast 15 or 20 in a nights spotlighting without a worry. Some people think it's rough or unnecessary but that's life, gotta be done.
But it's also a great asset to have on a farm, it's part of the reason we live in the wops
Don't think so mate., except on deer farms.
yes I KNOW so....and not on deer farm either..... and before you ask ..NO I wont tell you where ,but central north island is correct.Attachment 93477
Attachment 93479 cause you mentioned fallow
Suit yourself then. Shrug.
Woody mate, hate to break the news but micky d is right... I’m central N Island and I see mixed mobs of deer, 20-30 animals, hinds, spikers and a couple of good stags, sometimes more, sometimes less, on a very regular basis.
Not farmed deer, not on farms, but near farms or ex-farms now regenerating into scrub and native for the bees....totally 100% free ranging wild as red skins for the most part but also shit loads of fallow lower down. And I can tell you for a fact those sika are in places you wouldn’t imagine as well. There’s heaps of deer on DOC land but bloody hard to get to and also hard for the WARO boys. I flew with the honey guys last summer on several jobs across a broad area of the CNI, far out there were bloody thousands of deer.
I work in two main regions, either side of the island, its the same in both areas. And I can think of a third area in the North Island that I visit once a year that is teeming with deer but you’ve got to be pretty keen to get in there. But make the effort and you’ll be stoked you did. Not being flippant, just reckon if someone hasn’t found them yet, they’re not getting out and about enough.
Leave the wife and kids at home, go on a road trip for a week, just follow your nose. Its only a small place the CNI but there’s some very cool remote spots. Good manners and a sensible looking non-bling ute go a long way to making friends. Not being all kitted up in brand new Kuiu or digi camo Hunters Element also helps...
;)
A mate and the crew have just harvested 500 from 5 blocks top of south, all for export.
My only comment is the export part: charity begins at home but for this red tape.
Prefer this any day to dropping poison and leaving them to rot into nothingness.
Not the biggest mob Ive seen in the last ten year while hunting different placesAttachment 93586
Holy shit I've been hunting in the wrong place haha.
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sat back watching over a farm few years back and counted over 150 follow. I know since then they have had a chopper in and have had a big cull and left them on the ground to rot. big bucks to fawns. Want even let locals on that place.