Thread: Bloody hell !

Originally Posted by JoshC

Most farm owners I know of, do let people on hunting for that purpose. If you knock on the door and ask to go shoot a yearling with your kids they'll say yes.

BUT - shooting a couple or five every weekend won't do anything to curb the numbers long term.

Hunters and hunting clubs aren't interested in knocking back numbers. They want to see deer and they essentially farm them. Local NZDA clubs down here have exclusive rights to properties with good deer numbers - but still need choppers and professional cullers to sweep through annually taking a few extras out to manage numbers.

If larger numbers of deer need culled, it needs to be done by people who know what they are doing, using the correct gear. Otherwise it is a waste of time.

And they're worth $7/kg at the moment, so there's money in it. If you had a 'deer problem' and they were worth $7 a kilo, chances are you're not going to be giving them away aye

Thousands have been shot on private land in Southland and Otago over the last couple of years, because prices are good. Some of these places you'd hardly know it has been done.

Friends of mine have taken 140 out of an area that's not that large in the last month. Very selective too mind you, several good stags left and no prime hinds shot. 99% of the stags shot were absolute rubbish. We had deer walking out of the scrub a couple of hundred meters off while the chopper was hooking on and slinging their mates off the hill down to the chiller truck.

Rec hunters are never going to shoot the volume required to check numbers.

Very good points raised there mate, I have had the same arguements with others over here who suggest all that is needed is for the ADA and recreation shooters get involved, and that will solve the problem. I have no problem with recreation shooting at all, but to say that is a cure for an over population of game animals is clearly a silly thing to say.

^^^ This is 100% correct. Its a simple question of sound farm management. Your working capital is not going to deliver, if your feed is getting hammered every night by as many deer as you have sheep or cattle. Goats are also a problem but there the equation is a little more sensitve, as they browse problem weeds and scrub and can help pasture quality, but they reach a tipping point where they too start to hit the good stuff too hard.

There are two professional hunting outfits in our area that deliver a bankable hunting experience, plus the half dozen or so of us that hunt the high country blocks for recreation but the number of deer we take is miniscule as a percentage of population. When I go into the native after a decent stag, the lack of feed under the canopy is really obvious, the deer hammer anything they can reach in there and because they are landlocked by farmland, they have to come out at night to survive.

I totally get the frustration felt by stalkers who struggle to even see a deer on the public land. @JoshC is right, a good well mannered presentation at the homestead and a willingness to go out of your way to give something in return will often pay dividends. Not always, but often, there are some strange buggers at the end of some of the roads, in the good areas. And I'm dead serious when I say you do need to be very very careful in some areas, with where you leave your vehicle and who you get your permission from. Especially the city folk with flash SUVs and not much clue about local history. And if the land owner says 'don't shoot this or that' then don't shoot it. Especially pigs or fallow, if those are your instructions.

In 2015 in Victoria we door knocked in the foothills of the eastern high alpine country and came up trumps first call, for accomodation (a barn to put our swags in and a long drop) and as many goats as we could shoot. I offered to straighten all the fence battens as we went, and re-staple any that needed it and generally tidy things up, that went down a treat. Rehung a couple of gates, a few strainer wires here and there. Cost me a couple of packs of staples and a black thumbnail and a few hours failing to teach my boys to bloody concentrate. Shot half a dozen fallow, recovered and cleaned them and hung them in the farmer's chiller for him to do with them whatever he wanted to. Happy days, we were there for a week and we can go back anytime.

I hunt on that property often.

This is but a drop in the bucket. They were gutted and processed.

Meat goes to a good cause, breast cancer research.

Sometimes it goes to the veterans homes.

Very good. I wish we had properties to hunt in CNI like that. Many of us would be delighted to help. Many hunters up here are having to pay upwards of $150 per deer to hunt fallow on farms.

Originally Posted by Woody

Very good. I wish we had properties to hunt in CNI like that. Many of us would be delighted to help. Many hunters up here are having to pay upwards of $150 per deer to hunt fallow on farms.

I know @Woody I'm one of them!

if only I could live in the land of milk and honey (the mainland)....

Originally Posted by 300_BLK

I hunt on that property often.

This is but a drop in the bucket. They were gutted and processed.

Meat goes to a good cause, breast cancer research.

Sometimes it goes to the veterans homes.

That is interesting, as the guy who posted the pic did so due to the thermal gear being bought from him......in Nelson

Originally Posted by Woody

Very good. I wish we had properties to hunt in CNI like that. Many of us would be delighted to help. Many hunters up here are having to pay upwards of $150 per deer to hunt fallow on farms.

It's getting up to 300 and above for an Auckland Fallow or Whanganui one.

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Originally Posted by Pengy

That is interesting, as the guy who posted the pic did so due to the thermal gear being bought from him......in Nelson

The property is located in the South island @Pengy.

Originally Posted by 300_BLK

The property is located in the South island @Pengy.

What? No gps co ords?

Originally Posted by Pengy

What? No gps co ords?

If I told you I would have to ...

Got a rough idea already

Yeah they get out of hand, was out back this morning and saw 250 odd in 100ha area. We would easily blast 15 or 20 in a nights spotlighting without a worry. Some people think it's rough or unnecessary but that's life, gotta be done.
But it's also a great asset to have on a farm, it's part of the reason we live in the wops

Originally Posted by Woody

Very good. I wish we had properties to hunt in CNI like that. Many of us would be delighted to help. Many hunters up here are having to pay upwards of $150 per deer to hunt fallow on farms.

there ARE numbers of deer like that in the central north island...always has been and always will be.

Don't think so mate., except on deer farms.

yes I KNOW so....and not on deer farm either..... and before you ask ..NO I wont tell you where ,but central north island is correct.