Where Deer show up.

This is not a thread about how to find deer.

This is one about where they show up when you don't expect them to.

Deer to me, are a paradox. On the one hand they can be very hard to find, on the other they can be standing in your garden, scarfing down your fruit and veges, when you look out your window in the morning.

I worked on a small dysfunctional deer and sheep farm for about 18 months, long ago.

One day I got the quad stuck in the middle of a paddock with a herd of deer. After trying to get out, I conceded defeat and walked off to get the Hilux to tow the damn thing out.

I came back and to my surprise and mighty pissedoffness (there, I made up a new word), The bastard deer had been at my bike and yanked every possible thing off it into the mud. Gloves, fence tester, pliers, bits and bobs scattered in a kind of messed up halo around it.

They were all backed off, standing down the other end of the paddock with a smug "It wasn't me your honour " look about them.

They are curious, and sometimes, smart.

I've seen videos on you tube of deer tangled in christmas lights (thinking they were auditioning for santa's sleigh maybe?), heard stories of deer jumping out in the middle of the road and munting cars and themselves in Fiordland.

Been told of deer eating shrubbery between houses in the Catlins (No doubt being aware of the physics of over penetration: "You cant shoot me mofo, you'll have to pay for your neighbours window" )

So if you've come home one evening to find they've drunk all your beer, and passed out in your favourite chair while watching re-runs of Bambi, (Or something more plausible), add a comment below

Had one on the lawn of the school, had found a hole in the fence (full height deer fence) and the playground made a good spot for a feed. Couldnt find its way back out and had to be herded out.

Had the whitetail in the backyard regularly, wondered why the 5 finger kept shrinking.

My record is 17 deer driving round the roads for an hour over 2 nights, no spotlight just the headlights with them on the roadside

Just had one come up to the back step calling out. Made up its bottle gave it a feed and it wondered off back in to the paddock

Back in the days of WINZ tossing money around willy-nilly a mate of mine worked for a city church group and was in charge of teaching teenagers life skills. He thought up the great idea of taking a group to the bush in search of these life skills, so off to Pureora Forest a van load of urban know-nothings went...while driving through the forest a deer jumped out in front of them and my mate slammed the hired van into it, he jumped out and got the damn thing in a headlock, all the group piled out and watched, my mate was yelling for someone to get a knife from his pack, eventually someone got it for him and he killed the animal...those kids were in awe at what he had done and so somewhere in the city are people who have an entirely different idea as to how deer are harvested in NZ and have probably gone on to tell their children of Ken, The Bible Bashing Bushman of Pureora.

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Originally Posted by DavidGunn

Back in the days of WINZ tossing money around willy-nilly a mate of mine worked for a city church group and was in charge of teaching teenagers life skills. He thought up the great idea of taking a group to the bush in search of these life skills, so off to Pureora Forest a van load of urban know-nothings went...while driving through the forest a deer jumped out in front of them and my mate slammed the hired van into it, he jumped out and got the damn thing in a headlock, all the group piled out and watched, my mate was yelling for someone to get a knife from his pack, eventually someone got it for him and he killed the animal...those kids were in awe at what he had done and so somewhere in the city are people who have an entirely different idea as to how deer are harvested in NZ and have probably gone on to tell their children of Ken, The Bible Bashing Bushman of Pureora.

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I have a friend who malletted a yearling with an Estwing hammer (Caught it between a fenceline and his UTV)

Then took it back down the hill, Found one of those shiny helium balloons that you use for special occasions, tied it to a hoof,........... and presented it to a co worker for her birthday.

He's still alive, so it can't have gone too badly.

a good thread to share the story of my first ever deer... was a dusty new years day many years ago, we were staying in a small holiday town quite close to the start of a great walk in the south island. me and a mate decided to go for a walk, just to get out of the house (a walk, not a hunt). another mate offered for us to take his .270, and we agreed, not really sure why. it was maybe 3pm and baking hot. so we drove to the packed carpark and started walking down toward the start of the track on the tarseal roadway. people everywhere. my mate went back to the car for something so i was just milling around, happened to glance across the river and saw 2 velvet stags! set up for a shot, but realised my mate had the ammo, so sprinted back to get him, then back to the spot. the deer were gone. so we started walking around to cross and walk towards them (id never hunted deer at that point so our plan was just to go over to where they had been and hope for the best), but then they came back out! first shot, a clean miss. second shot nailed him. a very unexpected outcome. got some disappointed comments from tourists who had been watching them at the time as we walked around to find him. i then retrospectively paid for the ease of that first deer with about 10 more hunts before getting my second.

One of my dairy farmers told me the other day that he had a stag running down the road, jumping the fence into the front paddock with 4 bulls in. They came looking wtf is happening and scared him off over the fence into the horse paddock. The stupid thing went absolutely nuts so over the fence the stag goes again and into the garden this time. The sleepy dogs wakes up on the porch and starts barking so the stags carries on over the fence down the road again. Not many deer around that area so god knows where he came from...

The night and time of the first chch earthquake saw a fallow (private property) its a large property and so are its neighbors none of them have ever seen a fallow before or since.
Nobody knows where it came from or where it went.

About two weeks ago my brother was down from town with his wife and we were talking about how he wouldn't mind some venison. Nek minute, 2 Hinds and a Spiker walk down the road we live on, between my shearing shed and farm yard, over our farm bridge and set up grazing 300 yards from my front door.
Needless to say, I sent him home with some venison.

deer in particular young stags are really hard case to spread fertilizer in amoungst.....particularly if its dusty stuff like super and the day is getting on so it hangs in the air....the little snotbags wait till you on full run then sprint across in front of you.....then stand egging each other on to do it as you come back on next run.
it used to freak me out...now its game on..foot flat 45kmph down the paddock...little shits still give it heaps,one day one of them will slip over and I will have to explain to cocky....

Sitting watching TV a couple months back now, red hind walked across the lawn 10m from the house, I thought someone was taking the piss, I opened the door and stood on the deck, watched it just casually walk away not a care in the world.

This past July in England, staying at my sister's place, her garden backs onto cropping fields. Got up at sparrows to go to the Silverstone F1, very first of the light. Standing in the kitchen looking out the window, there's something moving in the corner of the garden. Little bit more light, well bugger me there's a roe deer in the greenhouse. That's not good I thought.

It wasn't. The wee deer had polished off all the vegetable plants, various flowers... I shooed it out and the cockerpoo chased it round the field for a couple of laps. Sister was farkin' furious with hubby for leaving the door open (again). Since then, the deer have eaten the entire new hedge they planted, several posh shrubs and been into the greenhouse (again).

I used to be scolded by my sister for wanting to shoot everything, but there's a standing invite to go shoot the damn deer now.

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Originally Posted by veitnamcam

The night and time of the first chch earthquake saw a fallow (private property) its a large property and so are its neighbors none of them have ever seen a fallow before or since.
Nobody knows where it came from or where it went.

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Makes me wonder if it was so unsettled by the quake that it travelled a long distance to find a safe spot.

Animals and quakes.....another thread maybe.

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Originally Posted by Max Headroom

Makes me wonder if it was so unsettled by the quake that it travelled a long distance to find a safe spot.

Animals and quakes.....another thread maybe.

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Exactly why I mentioned it,even private releases of Fallow are fairly well known in the Nelson region and there are none even remotely close that I or anyone I know know of.

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Originally Posted by bigbear

Just had one come up to the back step calling out. Made up its bottle gave it a feed and it wondered off back in to the paddock

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The cheeky thing came back tonight on dark wanting another bottle

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Originally Posted by Max Headroom

I have a friend who malletted a yearling with an Estwing hammer (Caught it between a fenceline and his UTV)

Then took it back down the hill, Found one of those shiny helium balloons that you use for special occasions, tied it to a hoof,........... and presented it to a co worker for her birthday.

He's still alive, so it can't have gone too badly.

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On reflection, I think I have two stories mixed up.

My friend found a live fawn and presented it plus balloon to the co worker .

The Estwing malletted yearling was delivered to work HQ in front of a bus load of startled tourists.

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Originally Posted by bigbear

The cheeky thing came back tonight on dark wanting another bottle

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Sounds like a alcoholic.

Neighbour came back from a week balloted at Molesworth Station, got no deer.
Up our shared drive and there was one standing in the middle of the drive at 10am

Down on the East Coast culling goats..........came across a Rusa Hind just on dark and scored some venison. While my mate was dressing it out I headed off in the dark with my lenser to fetch the quad. As I walked through a narrow steep cutting about 10m from the quad I heard a noise so I stopped, luckily for me I did cos if i had kept walking the Rusa Stag that fell 30 feet down the sheer bank on my right would have landed on top of me and probably killed me. As he lay on the ground less than 2m in front of me we eyeballed each other for about 20 seconds..........then all hell broke loose..........me frantically unslinging my rifle, at the same time fumbling for the loaded mag in my pocket and him digging holes in the ground with his feet trying to stand up. He beat me by about 4 seconds, turned and ran, jumped the quad and disappeared into the night. Took 20 minutes for my heart rate to drop from 4000bpm to something like normal............


Back a few years another mate and I were duckshooting on the Kaipara in my fully camo'd 13' boat. We were drifting silently up a narrow winding creek near Tauhoa with the incoming tide, hugging the bank which was about 8 feet above us. Heard some ducks quacking around the next corner so we got set to 'spring' them. Saw a dead mangrove tree out of the corner of my eye slowly move and turn to look at me..... turned my head to see a 16+pt red stag at the top of the bank looking down into the boat. Had time to notice the ear tag as I shouldered the 1187.
We stared at each other over the barrel for about 30 seconds as we drifted past each other and my mind was going through the 'shall I or shant I'......In the end he bolted........Later found out he had escaped from a local deer farm and they had been trying to get him back for 6 months, then gave up and he was fair game...... Glad I didnt take the shot as thinking back on it, if he had dropped off the bank into the boat he would have probably sunk us............

Seen one a few months ago 50yds from the main road between Tauranga and Whakatane. Travel that road a couple of times a week, and been watching the spot since, but not seen again.

Got many storys of the ones in the back yard etc.
But heres a different one.
This on Stewy Is.
A mate was going for a drive with his missus behind the wheel and they came upon a yearling whitetail ambling up the road in the headlights.
Quick plan was hatched to try and catch it.
Car speeds up and they managed to wedge it between the bank and the car. Mate jumps out and grabs deer and a hell wrestle and mate and deer are in the back seat on there way to another mates small deer enclosure to unite it to another deer living there.
It wasn't that far to travel but in the time the deer bit my mate repeatedly kicked the hell out of him and ripped the car seats and pooed and weed everywhere.
They got it to the enclosure opened gate and released it. Deer promptly got into top gear and shot to the far end and hit the fence and somehow got through the wire and escaped back into the bush. Leaving the deer wrangler looking decidedly second best, cut bleeding bruised and rather smelly thinking , im never doing that again.

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Originally Posted by ghosts

Got many storys of the ones in the back yard etc.
But heres a different one.
This on Stewy Is.
A mate was going for a drive with his missus behind the wheel and they came upon a yearling whitetail ambling up the road in the headlights.
Quick plan was hatched to try and catch it.
Car speeds up and they managed to wedge it between the bank and the car. Mate jumps out and grabs deer and a hell wrestle and mate and deer are in the back seat on there way to another mates small deer enclosure to unite it to another deer living there.
It wasn't that far to travel but in the time the deer bit my mate repeatedly kicked the hell out of him and ripped the car seats and pooed and weed everywhere.
They got it to the enclosure opened gate and released it. Deer promptly got into top gear and shot to the far end and hit the fence and somehow got through the wire and escaped back into the bush. Leaving the deer wrangler looking decidedly second best, cut bleeding bruised and rather smelly thinking , im never doing that again.

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Channeling Baldrick from "BlackAdder" : "I have a cunning plan"

I see them in some funny places down here sometimes, was raining one day and I was like "how did that bloody calf get in that paddock?" Turned out it was a fallow doe, taking shelter from the rain in a pump shed. Havent seen them but they come right up and nosey round the dairy shed and around the workshop and fuel tanks etc also, often see their little footprints dotted about the place, fuel tanks are only about 60m from the house. They have figured out what the calf meal feeders are all about. They're also assholes for running round on top of the silage stack and poking holes in the cover with their feet

Out spot lighting one night we shot a hind and then found it had a young one with it, young one run up the spot light beam into my arms, bundled it into the back seat. Took it to a mates place who had a horse loose box and had it TB tested, a few days later sold it to a deer farmer for $400...deer farmer informed me later that during an electrical storm the same night it got zapped and killed.

Living in London for a while next to Richmond Park I used to go running in there. One night in there in almost pitch black (but the gravel tracks were light enough colour gravel you could run them easy) just about got cleaned out by a hind jumping from one side to the other. Felt the rush of air on my face as she just cleared me.

Early Sept this year I think driving back from Turangi to home along SH41 and just after Kuratau and turn off to Western Lake road, about 12.30pm, what's that up ahead? It looks like, yep, arse end of a deer between some road side scrub. Took my foot off the gas and this stag reverses out just onto the edge of the road and looks at us. No ear tags (I know there's deer farms around there), scrubby short antlers, eyes widen then he clears the low fence just up the bank and bolts. Pretty steady traffic along the road so no idea how he'd managed to get onto the road there. It was a small bodied animal too. I'd swear it was a Sika.

Fallow stag wandered out of the bush into the paddock below the house while we where having smoko. Snuck halfway down to him for a photo but it came to an end when the builders fired up the nail gun, one quick look then back over the fence.

The day before we arrived at my mates place in Canada (rolling prairie country) he was out bowhunting. When he got home his wife showed him a video of a moose walking past the house, between the garage and the dogs, would have been 20m from their front door at the most.

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Originally Posted by Cigar

The day before we arrived at my mates place in Canada (rolling prairie country) he was out bowhunting. When he got home his wife showed him a video of a moose walking past the house, between the garage and the dogs, would have been 20m from their front door at the most.

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I never really watched the TV series "Northern Exposure' but I loved the theme, that and the moose cruising down the main street without a care in the world.

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I see deer-prints in the stream-bed at the rear of our property, but have never seen one in the flesh (day or night). Everyday I drive through a small patch of bush a few K's from my house (very small patch) I regularly see fallow jumping in or out. A few months back, a 'last-years' fawn danced in front of the car, then made eye-contact before jumping into the trees. I went around a slow-tight- bend, and there she was at the bottom, just her head sticking out of a bush right on the edge of the road, made sure I noticed, then disappeared. It seemed hilarious at the time.

I saw one living its best life in the exclusion zone between north and south korea
surprised to see it avoid all the mines in there and get to full size

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Originally Posted by Ned

Early Sept this year I think driving back from Turangi to home along SH41 and just after Kuratau and turn off to Western Lake road, about 12.30pm, what's that up ahead? It looks like, yep, arse end of a deer between some road side scrub. Took my foot off the gas and this stag reverses out just onto the edge of the road and looks at us. No ear tags (I know there's deer farms around there), scrubby short antlers, eyes widen then he clears the low fence just up the bank and bolts. Pretty steady traffic along the road so no idea how he'd managed to get onto the road there. It was a small bodied animal too. I'd swear it was a Sika.

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It may well have been. I've seen Sika on Pihanga, not that far as the crow flies really?

I've seen them in quite a few odd places, its surprising where they turn up and what they can tolerate..

Was driving to Queenstown from Cromwell one morning and I saw a cracker red stag cross the road in the Kawarau gorge mid afternoon not far from the Roaring Meg area. I'm not sure what he was doing but he sure was hoofing it.

Have seen multiple animals on the edge of the old golf course at the Chateau Tongariro..not to mention on the flat scrubby plain 100 m from the National Park petrol station.

The weirdest place I saw one though was in the Ngaruroro river bed between Maraekakaho and Omahu a few months ago, closer to the Omahu end. I was taking my dog for a walk in the riverbed and looking into the odd pool for trout. and I had approached the true left bank of the river at a point where it cut into the willows when the dog locked up. I followed his point to spy a red hind feeding her way into the willow trees. She had no eartag either..

A couple of years ago I was up at one of my regular goat spots close to town. By all accounts this block only holds goats and the odd pig. One particular afternoon we'd just put the rifles back into the boot and jumped into the front seats to head home after the hunt when all of a sudden 3 reds emerged from the edge of the block, ran across the road in front of us and disappeared into the private property across the road. Never seen any deer sign in there before or since, and the other guys I know who regularly hunt the same block were all in disbelief.

Not deer this time, but I was fly fishing an undisclosed Otago river in November 2015 with a buddy of mine. We were just walking and chatting our way back down the riverbank the few kilometers to the car at the end of the day when my buddy suddenly stopped and goes "dude, there's a ####### tahr right there!". Without looking up I simply replied "ah it'll just be a goat man"... but when I did look up, sure enough there was a bull tahr standing on the opposite bank about 30-40m downstream of us. He was watching us, but wasn't spooked. Had time to slip my backpack off, get the camera out and take a couple of snaps before he sauntered off up the hill and out of sight. The spot in question is only about 30-40km from the Otago east coast, and a couple hundred metres above sea level.

I was driving the Moonie Highway back to St George in Qld where I worked during the week on a early Monday morning 5am ish I passed this particular spot. Just off to the side of the road were a group of Chital. All had jumped the fence bar one and he jumped as I passed. So graceful and elegant with those spots and a decent rack. The herd although small numbered eight. All the times I passed the spot after that I never saw them again.

Less than a km up the Hacket just past Te Rata road,someone got an easy Red this morning, big animal, shot on the track/road,paunch and ribs over the edge.Loopies are gunna grizzle about the smell.
I have been running the dog up there for a while but have not seen any sign.