Thread: Should I have shot this Deer?

TLDR: After a successful trip this weekend where I shot a spiker and a young stag for meat I'm after the guidance of the wiser and more game management minded hunters on this forum on whether I should have shot the young stag or not.


This is my second year hunting big game and I'm loving it!, headed off out of Christchurch on Friday afternoon for what I wanted to be a overnight hunt, but turned into two nights. I was targeting meat animals, whilst mindful that this region has alot of deer and hunters are encouraged to manage them as much as possible.

On the second night (because I spooked everything on night one and morning one) shot the larger of the two stags pictured first then shot the spiker. There was a third stag, looking same age as the larger one but with 8-10 points, so to me looked like it had alot of potential and was an easy choice to leave.

I didn't have the chance to shoot any hinds without fawns, which I would have preferred to over the stags.

I took all good meat off both animals and pack'd it some 6km with 1000m of elevation change in about 5hours back to my car, so I'm happy I didn't waste meat or an animals life. Pack weighed 50kg so right now I'm in some pain for it. Last time I carry two animals out solo.

My question for those of you with more experience and a heart for game management: Is the stag something I should have left because it has good potential or because we should always target hinds over stags or any other reason? If the stag has some marker of potential what is it?

Another perspective might be, that with high animals numbers in the area, as many as possible should be shot.

Are you hunting for food or pest control?
Pest control, knock em all.
Food look after your food supply

Don't get hung up about it. It is your decision, and your conscience that will dictate whether you pull the trigger or not.
I have shot animals that, in hind sight, I perhaps should have left and conversely have not taken a shot when perhaps I should have. You may not get it "right" every time but we all have our own standards and ethics. Just make sure that when you do shoot you do your best to make a quick, clean kill.

I haven't shot a heap of deer but for myself being that far from the car I would have only taken the spiker, only to keep pack weight manageable.
It's always nice to choose what you want but usually for me it's the first one I can get on the ground. The last deer I shot was a hind just before Xmas which I thought was a yearling. Luckily she was possibly older and she was dry so no guilt about leaving a fawn starving to death.

What are you even asking. Knock them over. Take the meat.

Its a deer,shoot it and fill your freezer.

Second year hunting; shoot anything you can carry. Worry about being a grumpy old man once you’ve shoot 100!
Honestly you did the right thing. There’s miles to many deer around, they’re better in your freezer than rotting after being shot by a helicopter.
Enjoy your hunting journey and develop your hunting ethics from close strong relationships with people you know and trust, and more importantly hunt with.
That’s what I’d do if I was you.

You fulfilled your obligation to yourself, you shot two and recovered all the meat to fill your freezer.. As you have said, two was too much so next time, take one for the freezer. As Shearer stated above your call, some shoot for trophy's, some shoot for food.
You haven't done anything wrong.

Average-Lad.....Lets say you are the ripe young age of "x"

Hunting ethics may / have / did apply in the past?

But just do what your mind tells you to do.

In general as it has been stated on this forum many times, its never been so good for animal numbers.
As above comments just shoot the things.

Be interesting to know on D.O.C. land what has the most amount of deer been shot in a day by a ground hunter doing deer pest control work in recent years?

Nothing wrong with that.

You may find this interesting. I was talking to a old hunter recently and he said one of his regrets was not shooting younger stags more. He said the many scrubby 6 and 8 pointers he never shot because they might be "better next year" doesn't work. If they are scrubby as a young deer they will be scrubby as an old deer and in the meantime they have left their scrubby genetics in future stags. Proper hunting is cull the inferior out to improve the genetics for our future generations.

given what deer numbers are like at the moment, shoot whatever.

given the price of meat at the supermarket: shoot whatever

If you wish to participate more effectively in management for improved herd and habitat, it would be wise to shoot hinds instead.

Shooting stags rather than hinds in areas with too many deer likely makes the problem worse - removal of some acute feed competition will allow more hinds to breed if fecundity is nutrition limited.


This is not a value judgement, it is just answering the question.

In direct answer to your question, neither animal will make a future trophy so you can have a clean conscience for taking them.
The spiker is late and will always be small even as a mature animal. Only one spiker in a group of half a dozen will be worth leaving normally. Big well grown deer with a broad skull and strong thick spikes.
The two year old stag lacks Bey tines and his Brows and Treys are too short, he is also late as most stags start to rapidly harden from Jan 15th and his head should be grown out by now.
Some public access areas - parts Mt Oxford, Harper Avoca get a lot of pressure and hinds are not out of control so shooting poor stags as you have done is what I would do too to maintain a hunting resource.

So first I would say that no one should begrudge you shooting any deer you want given your stage of hunting career. You have to learn and you wont learn everything you can by worrying at this stage about trophy potential. You also need to have some successful hunts, so good on you for shooting them, but also good on you for asking the question.

Honestly, I go through threads like this and many of the replies disappoint me as a hunter. It does not matter wether we are trophy hunters or meat hunters, we should be working together. We wont have deer herds for meat to feed our families if we dont treat them with respect and value! if we let the herds get too overpopulated they will be taken from us at some point. The best thing we can do as meat hunters, is shoot the females at this point in time. There are too many out there!
Same go's for trophy hunters. You are not doing anyone including yourselves any good walking past females and the world does not understand humans who wish to kill an animal for bone and leave meat behind.
We improve our herds by targeting females, and we also improve out herds by letting promising males reach their potential. Our best reason to hunt in the publics eye is to feed our families.
So I think you have the potential to be a thinking hunter by asking such a question.

My personnel approach is- I have trophies on the wall, and a full freezer. I have shot enough deer so that I leave promising males alone while very quickly pulling the trigger on males that show little or no potential or have reached it. Right at this moment in time I avoid shooting females unless they are not feeding offspring or I can shoot both- The back legs of a fawn, boned out and sliced thin make the best schnitzel you can imagine! They will also tempt those who say they dont like the taste of venison.

Dont listen to those who say it doesn't matter. They are just being selfish. Dont list to those who tell you you should leave them. They have forgotten where they came from.

Just learn and decide for yourself where you need to be.

Good on you for asking the question. If you've done the work to have the deer in your sights then it's your decision, based on your ethics. There will be no shortage of stags on public land for those prepared to put the work in so don't be too worried about that aspect.

Good on you for not shooting hinds at this time of year. I'm not too judgmental about what people shoot, but I simply can't understand the ethics of a hunter who will shoot a lactating hind and leave a fawn to starve to death.

A good effort for someone newish to hunting - keep up the good work.