Thread: Stuff that I've learned about deer control

There is a difference between hunting and "pest" control. For obvious reasons, those lines are blurred in NZ. Unfortunately, I haven't had the opportunity to be a selective deer hunter, but I am a selective goat hunter. I don't want to destroy what precious little hunting I have in my area. Fuck DOC, I don't give them a moment's thought. If they want poison the forests for ideological reasons they are going to do it anyway.

Greetings Flyblown,
Great article. Thoroughly agree that deer population control must concentrate on the hinds. Hinds are the engine room of the deer population. Less hinds means less fawns. It's that simple. Less stags has little effect on fawn numbers. The stags are merely bit players in population growth.
Also thoroughly agree on keeping rifles and scopes simple. Keep it up.
Regards Grandpamac.

@bigbear this is a good read.

in cases like this with high deer numbers, plenty of scrub and bush surrounds and the cull of hinds that's needed, do you end up with a pig problem after the cull ? Imagine even if you taking the edible meat the paunch plus carcass would make good pickins for the local pigs.

I have always been a meat hunter so with the exception of the roar I have always shot hinds by preference anyway.
If I shot a stag it was because I hadn't seen any hinds yet.
But then my region is fairly renowned for poor heads.

Well written Flyblown. It takes on hands experience to share that experience....

Talking to my chopper mate who flies in the north island out of gisborne I think.
Had it happen a few times where the cocky gets him to go in and clean out the deer in the back bush/hill blocks.
Doesnt realise how many are in there until he takes him up for a look. In the hundreds. Farmer is gobsmacked.
Thought it was sika but its fallow.
Suggest most dont realise how bad it gets

Great write up Flyblown, that all sounds pretty logical to me. Of course as us lot know, logic and common sense is increasingly uncommon.

Originally Posted by chainsaw

in cases like this with high deer numbers, plenty of scrub and bush surrounds and the cull of hinds that's needed, do you end up with a pig problem after the cull ? Imagine even if you taking the edible meat the paunch plus carcass would make good pickins for the local pigs.

Interesting question.

My mates are pig hunters of the exceedingly committed kind. It's their life. Not interested at all in deer stalking. Only pigs.

So the pigs are "managed" and the carcasses are part of that. Sometimes pasture rooting is a problem but they are onto it like a flash. Saturday was a "pig rark up" with the junior dogs being given the task of chasing medium pigs, suckers and sows out of the paddocks into the bush. Part of their training.

The carcasses are being eaten entirely within 2-3 days. I've just come back from the back block in the lee side of this infernal wind, and all the deer and goat carcasses that were left on clear ground are gone. Just a stain. I shot two young ones this afternoon, they will be gone by Wednesday I expect.

I know who lives up there. I've seen him, and his cohort, several times. He ran down a fenceline no more than 40m from me last week and I got a real good look at him. A proper pig that in due course will be going to war with his canine enemies.

Yes, well written, good points when hunting such places and animal control is number one.
I dont have that problem, dont hunt private land, hunt DOC blocks that all have the green rain and a fair share of hunters. I wouldnt say the numbers are out of control, quite the opposite.

Still, i meat hunt and shoot what i come across, hinds, stags, yearlings, doesnt matter but only generally just one as its all im going to carry out and the others are there for next time,
either for me or someone else.
Pig hunters that get access to private blocks where the cocky want the pigs gone are prime example around here that dont follow Flyblown advice.
I know a few that have lost access because they release the sows or only get one pig and are happy and thats the hunt.

They trying to protect the block so theres plenty of pigs to catch and good boars avaiable for pig hunting comps.
Of cause they missed the point as the cocky wants them gone and stop the damage they cause hence they get the finger.

Years ago when i was pig hunting with mates we had a farm that whenever the pigs made a mess the farmer would ring and tell us to sort the problem.
One day we got 9 pigs with the dogs, couple of good ones and the cocky was that happy we were always welcomed back.

We all want areas where theres animal to shoot, but at the same time even in Doc animal control got to be number one when numbers are getting out of control.

yip we were the same on home farm with pigs....with low numbers,sows got let go where we could,much easier once the big holder teams werent welcome,but if pigs hit the good pasture/crop paddocks,they all got hit and came home for dinner.
listening to landowner wishes is always good policy.

A well written article very interesting Flyblown

Originally Posted by MB

My only successful door knocking was with my 6 year old boy in tow. Said I wanted to teach him to hunt (which was true). Get yourself a kid

I'm a tell you once. Bugger off! Already have the middy talking all excited and sad about the first baby and then a second!

Originally Posted by Russian 22.

I'm a tell you once. Bugger off! Already have the middy talking all excited and sad about the first baby and then a second!

Don't say I didn't warn you!

Excellent read Flyblown, well said. I too like the simple approach and prefer to hunt with my rather old 7x57 and 4X scope, animals just seem to fall over when I squeeze the trigger. I dont shoot many animals nowadays, prefer to see them rather than shoot them. But when I need meat for the freezer I just shoot 'em as I see 'em - hind, fawn, rumpty old stag. I do however leave any decent stags for the guys that like to hunt for antler, only shoot the ones missing their beys, or narrow spread etc. Thank you for the honesty, we all need to take heed for the sake of our hunting.