Thread: Deer numbers

Originally Posted by Tahr

I'm cool about knocking the numbers back so long as we maintain our respect for what are a magnificent animal. Clean kills for the particular purpose of controlling numbers and not just for the sake of it. I would have no qualms about shooting a hind right now so long as I could get the fawn too and velvet stags so long as they aren't special in some way. I prefer to recover the meat but some areas are getting to where just a pack full of backstraps might be the result from a day's hunting. 55 years of recreational and commercial hunting and I never thought I would be saying that.

And like it or not the land owners hold the trump access card, so the natural consequences are that the gates aren't going to be thrown open, which will mean a lucky minority will be shooting a heap of animals.

The big numbers are on private land but no matter where they are we just have to control them or we will have a Tahr situation without the backstop of Memo of Understanding with DOC.

Im with you. The only thing I wouldnt shoot at this time of the year would be a thumping stag. Everything else is fair game.