Thread: Herd management and Playing our part

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

to some extent I agree...and to some,not so much....its borderline criminal for that to be shot via chopper for venison market and the head ground up for horn candy. if any foot hunter saw that stag,it would be shot and carried out.trophy of a lifetime.... now hunting stags post roar gives then chance to root and pass on genes,shooting them in velvet and stripping antlers does not...to me it is just about as senseless as stag hanging on strop under chopper or rotting in creek from poison.
but we all want to hunt roaring stags,for the thril of the chase ...at some point in our hunting it becomes the be all and end all,some stick with it,others dont. IM rather ho hum about it now.Ive shot some good stags but wont pass up another if find one. I will carry what meat I can. I wont kill myself doing so,thats silly,but if I brought out no meat,my Mrs would kick me out to sleep on street.
in some ways shooting hinds is even more playing gamble as cant see how good of genetics they carry... but yip they taste better.
when private blocks next door are locked up,there will always be deer migrating/moving back n forwards in and out of blocks,the riverbed areas are holding quite a few too,escapees and there multigenerational off spring.

Re the shooting of hinds with good genetics, a great hind has little impact on shifting the genetics of a herd compared to a stag just because she is limited by the number of offspring she produces per year. If we shot all the poor stags and left only the very top ones so that they covered 40 -50 hinds each we would see a dramatic improvement in antler genetics. Instead we shoot the good ones and leave the crap arse ones to breed. If you wanted to breed olympic sprinters would you choose Usane Bolt or Danny Devito as the sire ?

The managed wild herds in Europe that produce spectacular heads dont shoot the best stags until they are going down hill and are too old to hold hinds - 12 yrs +. They shoot all the crap ones out