Thread: the OFF TOPIC to Stags shot 21 (discussion of wild animal management)

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

the last couple of issues of major magazines have had good articles on managing herd structure for the benifit of all....took a bit to read through it...but it does make sense once you stop to think about it.....when you shoot a stag you remove 1 unit period....thats its total impact on population
when you shoot a hind you also remove all her possible fawns in future years...so maybe 5-6 units in total
lots of stags means lots of roaring going on and big competition for hinds...the big boys get to root and the younguns dont get a look in
lots of hinds means the few stags around are pretty much guaranteed to pass on genes no matter how good they are...and they need not roar as know where the girls are. I am a meat hunter and shoot what deer I see....have let a few stags walk when heads in velvet...and my wife gives me absolute arseholes about "looking at pretty antlers" instead of filling freezer...but like has been said above,it might be someone elses head of a lifetime or first stag...so bugger it, I will find something else.

It can be a hard change but these are the points that swayed me early. Plus when number get high there can be plenty of food about all year till that winter pinch hits and then animals get strained for nutrition meaning poorer fawns being produced (reduced potential) and stasg struglle to gain the condition back again leading to reduced quality.

I see it as for a small inconvience of not shooting some young stags we get the improved benefits of better population control (help to stop things the tahr cull happening), better quality stags (imagine what 4 or 5 years of low stag harvest would do for the general stag population. Look at some of the Wapiti come out this year), and arguably better meat quality by shooting hinds.