Thread: STAGS SHOT 2021

The Lewis rha for example is a one area where more animals need controlling, was down there not long ago and would've seen 80 odd deer in the 3 days hunting, even the pilots reckon there's way too many deer around and they waro and fly in hunters for business.
Keep those stag pics coming!

Originally Posted by bigbear

What this has done is put people off posting pictures and writing up there stories and you are asking why? You can have your view but like usual on here people like to wreck the good threads.

No one likes to wreck threads. But why should someone be able to say things like 1080, helicopters, XYZ is going to kill them so shoot everything which is opinion not based on any solid fact. But if someone questions this it's not OK. I once again state no one condemned anyone for shooting anything. There's tonnes of young animals in this thread. Doesn't bother me as each to there own but don't recruit to a mindset and get upset if someone rebuts it. I didn't think this thread was a ragging rights thing it was a thread so we could all see what sort of animals are coming out of the bush around the country and to show cool experiences getting out and having young hunters starting which is 10x more important than the size of a stag. That why I haven't jumped on anyone with a young stag as I shot/shoot young stags when I started and completely get it. Shit some of the young stags in here mean more to the hunter than a big stag will to others anyway.

Originally Posted by Pongo12

I'm all for opinions and everyone is entitled to them, but it ain't gonna stop me from banging them over in my backyard playground. I always let good up and comers grow out to be shot at a later date. But when there's hundreds of the bastards smashing our pdks and crops they end up getting the 7mm treatment .
You could swing a cat around in areas of pureora atm, there's literally deer everywhere. Shooting more animals should be encouraged in national parks. Cunning big stags get shot every year and elude hunters every year also so don't stress over it.

I don't think anyone told you to stop. Rees maybe had a bit of a pointed question but hardly. I also understand that you do deer control as part of your job to protect pasture etc from plague numbers of deer which is highly relevant and is maybe a context it wouldn't hurt to mention.

Originally Posted by Pongo12

The Lewis rha for example is a one area where more animals need controlling, was down there not long ago and would've seen 80 odd deer in the 3 days hunting, even the pilots reckon there's way too many deer around and they waro and fly in hunters for business.
Keep those stag pics coming!

Agreed but even if you shoot 50% of stags in a year with the hind numbers so high they are 100% replaced by the next year anyway where as if you knocked out 50% of hind you'd also half the recruitment rate. I've even seen higher numbers in there and make a point of shooting hinds October through January until fawns drop. If you talk to pilots you will also find most have been mentioning high hind numbers and that hunters they fly in almost solely come out with stags which shows its not working to control numbers and its degrading animal quality.

Amuri tried to organise with the NZDA a discounted rate where they could fly in 4 parties of 4 where each person could fly out 2 deer each meaning the oppurtunity to remove 32 deer with full recovery of the animals. Cost would have been 495 a person pickup drop off from windy point. I believe the NZDA was going to cover half that cost as well. There wasn't enough interest and it fell through. If we want to control numbers we either need to accept we will leave meat on the hill in which case sure kill everything. But if we want to recover meat we really need to target hinds to make use of the hunter hours.

Anyway you really should join the off topic to save this thread and secondly because a range of opinions from both sides is important to have useful discussion.