What am I doing wrong???

DCN808T.......Take the offers that have been made to you.

Perhaps some one will suggest a DOC hut you can drive to that has a few red deer handy and high thar numbers that you can see with a spotting scope from the hut or valley floor?.......and then obviously just go and shoot yourself an animal. :)

Shooting a deer these days is no big deal to an experienced hunter....sometimes?

Ramblings.....Research and commitment to hunting? Perhaps some DOC land has higher concentration of deer than other parts of DOC lands, obviously. So what DOC land has the most amount of deer on it.....:P

What’s the best tactic when you find a few established deer trails that cross each other in bush ?

well that is like a bit of string question....... if its near clearing/farm edge and in heavy cover..ideal spot to place trail cam and work out when they using them..then find spot to sit back and snipe as they come out into open.
if its in deep bush ..well deer come through there SOMETIME, so you could sit up wind and watch if your a patient type,or find out where deer came from and are going too...somewhere in that loop will be deer,if you play cards right you may shoot one by seeing it before it sees you.
you could mark it on GPS and plan your stalk for day to come through area or a combination of all three.

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Originally Posted by Micky Duck

well that is like a bit of string question....... if its near clearing/farm edge and in heavy cover..ideal spot to place trail cam and work out when they using them..then find spot to sit back and snipe as they come out into open.
if its in deep bush ..well deer come through there SOMETIME, so you could sit up wind and watch if your a patient type,or find out where deer came from and are going too...somewhere in that loop will be deer,if you play cards right you may shoot one by seeing it before it sees you.
you could mark it on GPS and plan your stalk for day to come through area or a combination of all three.

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It’s the second scenario, seems like they are busy trails though.

I pulled up this morning in the dark got all my gear ready and walked 20m from my ute and spooked a deer that crashed off onto the bush. Unfortunately it was too dark for a shot . Would have been the easiest carry out ever

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Originally Posted by paremata

What’s the best tactic when you find a few established deer trails that cross each other in bush ?

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Install traffic lights.

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Originally Posted by 257weatherby

Install traffic lights.

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Not bad , not bad at all

I'm hunting a spot right now where there are game trails everywhere however the problem is all the terrain is shoulder to head high with foliage.

The only chance I have is to sit back and watch a 5 metre sqaure area and even then the grass is long.

Very difficult!

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Originally Posted by 7mm Rem Mag

I'm hunting a spot right now where there are game trails everywhere however the problem is all the terrain is shoulder to head high with foliage.

The only chance I have is to sit back and watch a 5 metre sqaure area and even then the grass is long.

Very difficult!

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It’s similar, just the trees are a bit taller by the sounds of it.

consider flattening some grass down to make that 5mtr area bigger.....maybe???? amazing what looking from vantage spot and trimming off a couple of branches can do to increase visibility...some of us have been known to climb trees with handsaw...

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Originally Posted by Micky Duck

consider flattening some grass down to make that 5mtr area bigger.....maybe???? amazing what looking from vantage spot and trimming off a couple of branches can do to increase visibility...some of us have been known to climb trees with handsaw...

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Good suggestion MD however there seems to be no vantage points.

Im not keen on crawling on my hands and knees following the trails as the place is crawling with pigs :huh:

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Originally Posted by paremata

It’s similar, just the trees are a bit taller by the sounds of it.

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You may be able to set up in one of the trees

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Originally Posted by 7mm Rem Mag

You may be able to set up in one of the trees

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Do many people in NZ use tree stands ? The only time I’ve heard them mentioned is hunting Whitetail in Stewart island.

It’s weird finding long grass in high traffic areas , I would have thought deer would eat that in preference to leaves .

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Originally Posted by paremata

Do many people in NZ use tree stands ? The only time I’ve heard them mentioned is hunting Whitetail in Stewart island.

It’s weird finding long grass in high traffic areas , I would have thought deer would eat that in preference to leaves .

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I think a tree stand would be good in this situation, the problem at the moment is all that rain and the warmer wearher has made a ridiculous amount of growth