Thread: Spring Rusa Activity

G'day guys.

Planning on doing a big mission into rusa country in November once Uni is over, does anyone have any info on how rusa behave in the spring? Being a tropical deer species they obviously like the sun, but in November the weather is much warmer anyway so I'm thinking the classic tactic of watching sunny faces might not be as productive as in winter, even more so because the bloody things are so elusive already...

Any tips or advice would be bloody great... I know they're are rare as hen's teeth and people know bugger all about them but it's worth a shot!

Hunt the same places as in the winter, they don't change their habits a lot seasonally as they live in a particular habitat, and this doesn't move. The difference between winter and spring/summer behavior relates to temperature change through morning/day/evening like it does to other species, so as the sun starts to rise earlier they are active earlier and when the temperature gets too high for them they typically take cover and park up until the evening when things start to cool off again.

The Rusa in the winter favour the slips etc for the sun and warm and are quite often out sunning themselves at anytime of the day.
Maybe in the warmer temperatures they will be in the same areas for the feed but you may need to be up early and stay out late when the temperature drops a little, and the deer start to move about.

Join the Facebook group nz sambar and rusa. You will realize how little you know when the galatea locals tell you what to do

Originally Posted by Dusty Fog

like how many dogs one needs

Dogging is done in Australia. It's not new although must be bad for the meat quality

Depends where you are hunting. If you are hunting the faces country from lookouts, I think you will find you don't see anywhere near as many as winter. They are there but I've found it's not it very productive with long boring periods between animals. Give it a whirl though as you never know your luck.

Dogging Rusa is very common here aswell.

Dogging is a mega common practice in that part of the country. If you aren't doing it on horseback with dogs or thermals/spotlights did you really hunt rusa