Thread: first fawns

Originally Posted by Ruger7mm

Hi all
farmed deer are mated 3 weeks earlier than the wild ones, stags on farms go out on March 15th normally, and the wild boys get into their work from about the 7th of April so should start to see wild fawns from the first week of Dec. It is about the abundance of food, nature has a way of timing it just right for the mums and their high nutritional needs for feeding a fawn. There will be some silly spikers out there now as they would have been ejected from the family unit, and they will be turning up in the most unexpected places due to not having mum to guide them, I had one follow me along a track for about 5 minutes in the Ruahines once without being scared of my scent , needless to say he made the remainder of the trip in a back pack. The yearling hinds will generally stay with the hind but at distance around fawning, but teaming up when the fawn is able to keep up, hence those family groups of three that are often encountered.

7mm

I went for a shot yesterday evening timing couldn't have been more perfect it had been pissing down & rite on que when I parked the truck it stopped , had a young stag trot off infront of me in the ''no shooting" zone , after walking around 300m from the truck walking over a rise I spotted a yearling hind 8 paces away facing away from me and walking down into a hollow in the scrub , never to be seen again I continued on to a long clearing that's produced the goods previously however nothing was on it so I figured for a change id watch it for a while , a couple of minutes latter out walks a little spiker he just kept walking directly towards me so when he got to within 80 yards I started making odd gruntal piggy noises on hearing this he stopped mid stride , he didn't go far after the shot the 22-250 hit him square in the chest 30m tops , he was one of the smallest reds I recall shooting , hed be the size of a fallow with 2 little bumps of velvet an inch long , must have been a late fawn , well conditioned though so will be good eating , managed a xmas tree on the way home too so I was a happy chappie.