Thread: What Sort of Deer Is This ?

I shot this yesterday in the Kaimais. It's a pretty small deer, actually. I only got 4kg of venison boned out from the back legs and backsteaks.


Here it is next to my standard sized rifle (22" barrel).


Here's the head side on.


and at a bit more of an angle. What's with the pale area around the eye ?


The tail and rump patch were a bit more cream and red coloured than this photo shows:


It wasn't too skinny and the venison looked good. But I didn't do a thorough dissection looking at the liver and lungs.
It was a male but to call it a stag would be overstating things. There was no sign of velvet at all. So, too big for this year's fawn and too small to be a year old and a spiker ? What do you make of it ?

red deer

Red deer, likely lost its mum at a young age so maybe malnourished

Hamish

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last years red fawn who probably lost mum early on... been doing it very hard.

That's what I was thinking too.
It was on a south side in deep bush.

I seen a new born fawn this year during the roar and in the last ten years its not the only fawn i have seen out of season.
Couple weeks ago i shot what i would called a yearling hind (different area) small like above photo in poor condition. I didn't bother taking any meat and left it where i shoot it

I have picture of a young stag of a couple of years ago with that exact same distinct clear ring around the eye. Could be relative if shot not too far from old kaimai Rd.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

last years red fawn who probably lost mum early on... been doing it very hard.

yes a red runt

Originally Posted by Friwi

I have picture of a young stag of a couple of years ago with that exact same distinct clear ring around the eye. Could be relative if shot not too far from old kaimai Rd.

It was about 20 km from there.

It will be a red that was born out of season because its mum was still a fawn when she first cycled probably in late june. poor start all round. born to a tiny mum going into winter.

I shot one last month there that was feeding on grass but was small (a bit bigger than yours). Probably lost its Mum ... oh deer

I've shot more runts/poorly grown deer over the last 12 months than ever before. Their heads look out of proportion to their body size. And Ive shot a mature dry hind and a dry doe on my last 2 hunts - thats unusual. In this case its over population. The further from the main scrub block you get and into the farm proper the better the deer get. There's about 1500 acres of shit scrub country right against high production sheep country that has plenty of cover for them but they persist in living in the shit stuff. Reds and Fallow. They could have the life of Riley if they migrated 500 yards and further. I shot 66 last year and still see 25-30 each time Im out. It's a shame because there are some excellent bloodlines. I target females a lot but it's a shame at the moment that because of the fawns the spikers are copping it.

Originally Posted by Tahr

I've shot more runts/poorly grown deer over the last 12 months than ever before. Their heads look out of proportion to their body size. And Ive shot a mature dry hind and a dry doe on my last 2 hunts - thats unusual. In this case its over population. The further from the main scrub block you get and into the farm proper the better the deer get. There's about 1500 acres of shit scrub country right against high production sheep country that has plenty of cover for them but they persist in living in the shit stuff. Reds and Fallow. They could have the life of Riley if they migrated 500 yards and further. I shot 66 last year and still see 25-30 each time Im out. It's a shame because there are some excellent bloodlines. I target females a lot but it's a shame at the moment that because of the fawns the spikers are copping it.

one of the best eating reds I ever shot was an older dry red hind - had an inch of fat all over the back steaks - dont think she had ever had a fawn

Looks like a dead deer to me

We are starting to see out of season fawns here in the uk.
Might be the same there as a few have said.
God knows they won’t survive the winter here if we get a cold blast from the north.