Thread: How to hunt from fresh deer poop?

Originally Posted by Alex_Z

I was trying my luck the other day in the forest and bumped into fresh deer poop. This was my first encounter of fresh deer signs and I was so excited. I then tried to look for footprints to see which direction the deer went. From the one print I was able to see I followed the trail which then lead to 3 different trails/directions. The bush was thick and dry so with every step I take I made a lot of noise. All 3 trails went to dead end or to an even thicker bush. Am I doing the right thing? or should I just waited at the spot? I did waited for about 15 min but I can only see about 15m ahead of me. What should I have done instead?

Cheers

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well you got some replys - some funny- some good advice - taste test now who would fall for that ??? - feed feed feed - learn your natives - deer shit simply means deer been there -why is more important - was it travelling to a feed area - summer likely good feed lower down clearings creek edges grass grass grass - winter no- to cold lower for growth so deer will wander looking for anything palatable - summer they will camp up high up -winter likely to live up higher to avoid cold valley bottom - -they need to sit and chew their cud so they will find a spot in the sun with security - now looking at your photos north island beech ridge and why is there a lot of undergrowth - because nearly all of it is not deer feed -they will pass thru that area to get up to a suitable bedding site -get up high and then slowly stalk down -I would bet if you went into the guts and have a look you may find better feed areas --on the ridges they look for windfall leaves and small regrowth - hard to hunt when feeding like that as they will travel -when they leave a bedding area they will start looking for food and browse as they go -find where they are going -this time of year I bet down to find good feed areas - learn mahoe, pate, karamu, five finger , fushia , this is not a full list but an easy way to see if its palatable try snapping leaves - all of these are soft snap easy and none grow more that about say 6-8 metres - now that twisted coprosma pictured low down in your photo try snapping that -yup bloody stringy tough not nice- there are always exceptions - a lot of places I hunt there are a lot of grass clearings - if left undisturbed and all that good grass they wont move very far -the bedding areas could be only 100-200 metres away and regularly used - but some north island bush it could be 1000 meters up and not always same each day - this has been a bit of a rambling reply but what I will do next few days as I am of wet days I will try to find ex Forest Service or DOC publications on deer palatable species -Forest Service especially did a lot of work on deer in sixties and seventy's a lot in Kaimanawas and Te Urewera - see what I can find - now you find a book on NZ natives start swatting time well spent

@Barry the hunter. Probably the best reply so far. I hunt South Island bush same way. 28 deer shot since May 2022, mostly bush, and after looking at gps tracks it would appear my average travel speed was around 400 meters per hour when in hunting mode. That was probably too fast as well. So as the old saying goes, Make haste slowly.

Originally Posted by woods223

@Barry the hunter. Probably the best reply so far. I hunt South Island bush same way. 28 deer shot since May 2022, mostly bush, and after looking at gps tracks it would appear my average travel speed was around 400 meters per hour when in hunting mode. That was probably too fast as well. So as the old saying goes, Make haste slowly.

that GPS dam handy gadgets - one can find clearings feed faces - and GPS for a look at late evening or early morning - speed well when I was culling there were two types -some would travel miles and get deer by covering a lot of country - others would hunt a smaller area but slowly and carefully and get their timing right to be in good areas at right time - I dont believe either was right or wrong but I did notice the speed hunters did well early on in a block and the carefull ones did better than them later on when it had been well disturbed - I do know that wandering around North Island native with a rifle and no pattern or system of hunting it is really only armed tramping - to start to identify good areas and then hunt at right time is starting to learn bush hunting

Alex Z try this for a start NZ Journal of zoology- Diet and diet preferences of introduced ungulates Forsyth Coomes Nugent and Hall

Originally Posted by Barry the hunter

Alex Z try this for a start NZ Journal of zoology- Diet and diet preferences of introduced ungulates Forsyth Coomes Nugent and Hall

Brilliant, thanks

Identify your target beyond all doubt because you never miss (right?) and I'll be missed.