Thread: When stags get... hard

I find late summer autumn stags the best condition eating too which is more important to me than bone. Although I do like a fence hanger

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Originally Posted by Cartman

I find late summer autumn stags the best condition eating too which is more important to me than bone. Although I do like a fence hanger

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Yeah fair enough! Shot a young fallow buck at @Ryan_Songhurst place a few weeks ago. Was great condition and very good eating.

Watched a 12 pointer with his mates 2019 last week in January and they still had velvet but looked hard. Saw the 12pt again 09.02 and was fully stripped - he is on the wall now ...

Waitangi weekend rule of thumb as has been mentioned. Should be fully stripped by late feb. If not, they're likely not a mature animal.

I've seen a couple of reds around here that have been stripping, nothing that was polished right up yet but obviously hard and ready to go. I wonder if the great start to summer with plenty of growth and the rain keeping things green longer than normal has contributed to earlier full formation this year? There should be some great animals about anyhow due to the abundance of feed, saw a real ripper stag in velvet back at start of December he was huge already, mind you he had been making regular raids on a lucerne paddock!

Up our way the older stags will be starting to strip and if not they will be ready to strip. Younger animals are a bit later. I remember shooting a stag in Whirinaki many years back on the 7th Feb stripped and stained.

All were soft- 7 days ago.

Weekend just gone. He should be hard underneath, have shot them from now onwards in years previous and they were hard.
I agree, think there’s going to be some good stags about this year due to the good start of summer, I’ve already seen some good ones and a couple rippers all on public land

Most mature red stags should be hard now if not almost there.

I saw a good mature 12 with stripping hanging off him last Friday. But several other smaller stags still in velvet.

I reckon they are pretty awful looking just stripped until they get a bit of natural stain on them.

This is one of the younger stags. Not far off stripping I guess but not worth the risk.

They will tell you when they ready, they let out a roar. Must be about that time some one come along to say they heard a stag moaning

Looked over 30 on the weekend, 5 mature stags had fully stripped with one with a bit if a colour and one random spiker. The other 25 odd had velvet in varying stages

Shot one about 3 weeks ago, hard as and starting to strip

Originally Posted by Smiddy

Shot one about 3 weeks ago, hard as and starting to strip

Was that the stinky one in the back of your ute

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Cheers for the advice!

If (big if) the weather plays ball I'll have a look for old mate and his older mate this weekend.

Will report back on levels of hardness. Nothing weird about that.