Great photo, looks like a nice eater also.
I cannot wait to see my typical spindly spiker walk in again acting like a 14.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Printable View
Great photo, looks like a nice eater also.
I cannot wait to see my typical spindly spiker walk in again acting like a 14.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
They will be there somewhere as there are very high hind numbers in the area.
I have been going there for a few weeks a year for 10 years now and refrained from shooting a single female deer.
Also never shot a really decent stag myself there ( put some others onto them ) in all that time, but have shot a few spikers and culled out some very munted red stags as mercy killings to improve the genetics.
So one day maybe I will pick up something special there.
With that approach I'm sure you will :thumbsup: good luck
I have only run into stags in the rut that I have seen in the late summer that do not have to travel far for their needs.Quote:
Originally Posted by Pointer
Otherwise it seems a lottery.
Major river valleys etc they can move anywhere and seem to travel a fair distance.
I seen one a few years ago from the machine in the Haast river valley. He was definitely a shooter.
Looked for him on foot before, during and after the roar.
Never seen him until around the same time the following year out of the machine again. 😆
I try to not do any recon until mid to late March.
Never had any real luck doing it any earlier.
I have even seen stags that you would think be dominant get moved off by smaller stags early in the Rut.
I rather search areas I know have good genetics and read the sign as best I can.
Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk
Some work to do here!
Attachment 60701
That's better girl!!
Attachment 60702
She is really getting into it Gibo. Look at the scrunched up toes.
The video is quite amusing:DQuote:
Originally Posted by Rushy
Post a clip from it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gibo
How?
Ha ha ha ha you are baking that question of me Gibo? I am the anti geek. Ask someone else that knows that a hard drive is not really the section of road through Skippers Canyon.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gibo
Ok went out for a short walk this afternoon and found a freshly used wallow ! And mud on a couple of adjacent trees.
Crazy early for a red to be wallowing isn't it? Can only assume he's also stripping velvet at the same time. Either young and confused or stupid. Saw a good 10 or 12 pointer in same area last year. Hope it's him.
Will go back and put trail camera out tomorrow
At a favourite spot of mine this weekend gone and a wallow is being used, can only put it down to the heat recently
All deer will wallow to rid themselves of parasites etc.
Or just cool off, especially this time of year.
If it is still used mid to late March and stinks like it should, then it's worth a bit of time visiting.
Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk
What heatQuote:
Originally Posted by Pointer
Canterbury weather has been crap all summer.
Deer wallow year round :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Pointer
Stags & hinds will wallow, we used to see them doing it quite a bit in the summer time on the farm to cool off, the younger ones would splash around playing in the dam too.
There are a lot of velvets' hitting the ground at the moment - and a good proportion under a spotlight. The hunting facebook pages are full of them. There has always been tension between those hunting for meat and trophy hunters, but currently the avowed meat hunters are quite scathing of the trophy hunters. It might be because there are so many deer around at the moment. I'm inclined to think it is promoting a cavalier "they are still making them" attitude. Maybe its all become a bit too easy? There is certainly a lot of bravado bullshit being talked - if half of these guys had to actually work for a deer I think that they would soon disappear back to doing something easier in their spare time.
Then again, maybe only the fringe is being picked off and further away from the tracks and out of spot light range the stags are thriving. I'm not a trophy hunter, but I hope so.
I personally think shooting high potential stags or hinds this time of year, says a lot about people that do it.
I haven't been out for a look this trip home yet, but last month I seen shit loads of deer that were either hinds, stags or too big for me to carry out.
Don't usually struggle to find a yearling this time of year, but I have been the last couple months. Only seen 1 since I took one in October.
There definitely appears to be a few more stags around than normal.
Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk
Lots of deer around and more hinds than stags. Yes theres a heap of velvety stags getting eaten lately by a lot of hunters me included. Even deer in spots that haven't had them in years. It should be easier for the newer hunters.
I shot my first stag for 2017 during this last weekend.
A very compact 10 pointer.
Not a monster but really wanted to see if he was fully hard as I have had my eye on another few bigger ones and just wanted to check.
Also created a vacuum now with that group of hinds for a better stag to fill, hopefully.
Heaps of fun getting in to range with hinds all over the place and a howling southerly.
Attachment 63041
the pre roar recon is starting to pay off.
And was he hard
Sent from my E5823 using Tapatalk
Yes totally hard.
To be fair this summer in Canterbury has been very unusual.
Wet, windy, cold, hot ... any three in one day usually.
So I wouldn't want to read too much into this one being fully hard .... but due to all the above reasons I would have to say that it has been an exceptional season for deer feed growth ... and therefore Im picking there will be some very fat stags out there.
Yip, pinged a large 10 pt stag this weekend and velvet was hard as......some really nice stags about. He was in a group of 5 stags and freezer was empty so enough said
8 pointer last night.
Was hard under the velvet.
Poor pic from late last night. He's big, but missing his bey tines I think. Its the third time I've seen him.
Attachment 63116
@Monk , I drove past your place at midnight on my way home. Bed 2am.
Cant say i agree with your first sentence above when it comes to shooting high potental stags at this time of year. Hunting and what you shoot, when you shoot it is up to the individual.This time of the year for a meat hunter stags are in prime nick and if you not a trophy hunter then no one else has the right to tell you that you cant shoot that 12 pointer in velvet because you should leave it for another hunter so he an shoot it in the roar, take a rack and either waste the meat or turn it into small goods because its too rank now to use as prime venison!Quote:
Originally Posted by R93
Any hunter doing the hard yards looking for prime venison should be looking out for themselves first rather than worry about someone else and there opinion. I personally like chasing a rack in the roar, and if i saw a good stag in a area i hunt in velvet i prob would leave it and hope i got lucky later on or if i was hunting a area i normally wouldnt go and there were two stags standing there, one 14 pointer and a scrubby 4 in velvet etc i shoot the scrubby four and leave the trophy one for someone else, thats just me.
If someone else thou in the same postion shot the 14 pointer i feel no ill feeling at all toward them, even if it was in the area i was saving for the roar etc.
. Each to their own, if that hunt made them happy good on them. Hunting DOC land thats just life, doesnt worry me, hunting is a personal choice and its your decision what you shoot, when you shoot it and im not going to say to anyone else you cant shoot that or do that etc as its none of my business and nobody has the right to tell others what to shoot for their own personal benifit do they?
Totally agree with deer243 it's annoying when some people run others down, especially young fellas starting out for shooting a hind or velvet stag. The way I look at it is we all went through the early years shooting most animals we seen so why jump on a newbie for doing the same as we did it many years ago. We had our day it's there choice now.
My nephew shot a big Rusa stag in velvet last year which still needed a bit of growing and was criticized on face book for doing so, he has had the head mounted on a board and the velvet cured and is more than happy with the trophy, each to there own.
Nice work mate.Any other time of the day you could of called in for a cuppa.��Quote:
Originally Posted by Tahr
I fail too see how anyone can justify intentionally shooting a potential trophy stag in soft velvet or a hind with fawn, this day and age for friggen household meat.
But fill your boots I would never say to anyone that they couldn't or shouldn't.
Do what ya want. Ya will anyway.
But it is certainly telling where someone is as a hunter if they choose to do so.
Especially with animal numbers where they are at the moment.
Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk
I knocked a hind & fawn over this week mostly because 95% of the time the deer beat me in this spot so when I got my chance I took it felt a little bad for 5 minutes but shit happens fawn back straps look good! went out this evening saw 6 porkers 1 cat & 6 deer..all hinds closest was 20 meters took off when I tried to take a photo ..some more came out next gully over.I agree in principle with R93 shouldn't shoot promising stags or hinds this time of year but on another breath if everyone takes the feel good option of shooting young stags,spikers as opposed to a hind that may or may not have a fawn well really that's not good for a trophy hunter far better off shooting hinds especially when numbers are higher a good selection of stags is better than a good selection of hinds.
Attachment 63146
I will shoot yearling hinds or stags and am happy to shoot hinds from late March thru the early winter months. I just haven't shot a mature hind for years.
I also do not meat hunt areas where I know there is trophy potential.
There are heaps of areas you could shoot a thousand stags and will never harm trophy potential. Especially on the west coast.
But shooting a large body early spring stag with good bez tines and mass or a hind between late October and March for meat is just appalling to me.
Unless you get the fawn as well.😆
I have only shot one mature red stag since 2007. He was wound up and wasn't afraid of me.
I had no where to go. I shot him at 2m with one hand while trying to hide behind a flimsy bungi.
Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk
Well. i fail to see why anyone has to justify to anyone else what they shoot. Shooting a 12 pointer in soft velvet for some people maybe as good a trophy as it would of been in hard antler. A trophy is in the eyes of the beholder. If a hunter still believes that soft velvet stag he just shot made his day, and hes got his trophy its not for anyone else to say that sucks , ..should of left it for me or someone else to shoot in hard antler:wtfsmilie:Quote:
Originally Posted by R93
All those spikers people shoot are potential trophy stags also are they not.
The fact is some hunters hunt for the table and dont give a rats arse about antlers and if its a trophy or not. With 1080 , Waro , DOC cullers and other hunters knocking over potential trophy stags it is what it is.
I know what you saying, but many hunters arent trophy hunters, couldnt care less and a velvet stag is prime eating and if food is one of the the prime reason you out there its far better to shoot one in prime nick rather than when its skinny, rank just for the timber on its head.
With the price of meat these days i cant see how anyone can justify that ;) but the fact is no hunter has to justify what they shoot, when they shoot it to anyone do they? Places like Fiordland are totally different, people go their for trophys, not to shoot meat animals and the effort and money spent in producing such trophys shooting young bulls and velvet trophy ones are a no no and thats fair enough.
People that get up tight over someone shooting top velvet stags in DOC blocks have to ask themselves what gives them the right to tell others what they can shoot and what they cant.
To me its each to their own, i do what i like and you can do what you like, its a free country.
For the record i rather not shoot a trophy velvet stag and hope im the lucky one to shoot it later on or at least someone else gets the chance, thats all good but if im short of meat, or just feel like getting some prime venison im happy to take one if thats all thats on offer and thats my choice, not someones elses
Im hearing you on the stag front mate shot a stag 2 weeks ago (red) pretty close to where you got that cracker fallow last year...ripper head 12 pt & big wasn't hard seems pretty stupid to me rather shoot a hind
fawn meat its almost vealish & so soft :)
Attachment 63148
I have an opinion and aired it.
I am entitled to it.
It won't change anything except maybe wind you up .243😆
I also have not told anyone what or what not to do. So please stop insinuating that I have.
I guess I am fortunate I hunt and associate with hunters of a similar mindset and do not have to suffer idiots unless I read a glossy hunting mag.
A meat hunter may not care about trophies and hinds with fragile young, fair enough. I just see a heap of flaws if said meat hunter knowingly tips them over for meat.
Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk
How did u get on when you were shooting from a helecopter r93?
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Totally different issue and has nothing to do with my ethics on how I hunt for myself.Quote:
Originally Posted by Frosty
But I will bite.
I have never taken a trophy stag as a shooter or pilot as long as I have been involved in waro.
I only shot hinds with fawns at foot if I was sure I could get both.
I never hounded/hunted known trophy areas.
A number of stags I have left I have never seen again or they ended up being a glossy mag article.
Not all waro guys are blood thirsty, money hungry people.
We are hunters and conservationists as well. And we love and have as much right to the backcountry as anyone.
Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk
All good R93. Everyone has a opinion . I know what you saying, and leaving such stags is a good thing but im just saying people get carried away about hard antler, some hunters it just doesnt matter and prime venison is why they hunt and they prime venison and its their choice if they take one or not. I have never shot a trophy stag in soft velvet,
Most meat hunters have a heart, and dont shoot hinds when they have fawns, no one wants animals to suffer just like most hunters like a clean kill.. All very well saying you havnt told anyone what to shoot and what they can, but you clearly have a de grading opinion on hunters that shoot velvet stags and thats your opinion but what gives you the right to think less of a hunter on what makes the hunt for them and what they want to shoot?
Many so called meat hunters could think the same about trophy hunters that dont worry about the meat on a rutting stag, such a waste for some timber but thats their opinion as well.:)
Our area animals are in low numbers but in high animal number areas the best way to control numbers and to get a balance is to shoot hinds and in some of those animal rich areas more need to be shot for a healthy balance of the population
So how's the recon going guys :ORLY: :cave:
I like fawns. Fawns are tasty. Better carrying too
