Thread: Unplanned wander

Went for a walk this morning, this turned into a bit of a novel but was an interesting morning so thought you guys might enjoy

For some reason I was awake at 4am this morning, and laying there I thought since I was awake I should get up and go for a hunt, but hadn't obtained a leave pass or planned anything, bout 4.30 wife got up for something, so I muttered something about since I was awake should head out for a hunt, she said " that sounds like a good idea, are you taking Ness". (Since the end of pheasant season Ness has been going a bit stir crazy, super fit and not getting out as much). So that was all the persuading I needed and I was up, quick feed as I threw some kit together and off.

Arrived at the carpark just on day break, despite the forecast saying "Fine with frosts" there was an absolute howling wind in the hills, oh well, may as well go for a walk, stretch the legs and look at some new country. Climbed the hill and got to some ridge top lookouts, nothing was obvious on the slips around 5-700m away, but in the howling gale they would have been safe anyway. So I moved on.

At the next spot I had a quick glass and spotted a animal in the scrub, was tucked in a side gully and was away from main wind funnel, and only 310m away, so I setup for shot, was a prick of a spot to shoot from but eventually got right, first shot I'm not sure what happened, second it disappeared, I hadn't heard a hit but was off to investigate

Deer was in this clearing


Walking down the ridge to the deer I was keeping an eye on some slips on the other side, and I soon spotted a deer running flatout across one, I poked the rifle out through the leatherwood to get a clear shot and it went hooning back the otherway, I was tracking it in scope and eventually it stopped and stood still for about 30secs, but the wind was smashing the tree so bad I couldn't even get close to a steady shot, and it was only 150m away!!!

On arrival to rough area, Ness was keen and headed uphill to what I thought was the wrong area, but no she was right and quickly found the deer not where I had expected. This is the first deer she's seen shot (and only about 2nd deer hunt) so pretty good performance. When I rolled the deer over it was in a pretty poor state, I've never seen an animal this bad, missing most of it's hair and scabby spots on it, pretty bad state.

Does anyone has any educated ideas about what causes this? I've never seen anything like this and can't find anything on google





So then headed back to the car investigating some bush faces on the way, plenty of sign and Ness lead me to where I could smell them at one point but no luck. Anyway was back home for lunch, and currently have some Salmon smoking away for dinner so wife should be happy and hopefully get away on some more unplanned walks

Extremely low in copper would be my guess.. Just a guess though.

There are a few people who look like that in the old age home I'm in.

Looks like mange? Did you leave it there? Id be hard pressed to want to cut it up and put that in my pack.

God. I hope you didn't touch the bloody thing. Looks disgusting.

Tasty ......not


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Shame that you did not have a look under the skin.
Would has been interesting to see what those black spots are.
Show those photos to a deer farmer or vet they maybe able to shed a bit of light on it.
Let us know be interested to find out.

Just had a quick look on the net. It dose look like mange?
But do you have it in NZ?
If yes may pay to head to the vets and get a treatment for Ness

Originally Posted by StrikerNZ

Extremely low in copper would be my guess.. Just a guess though.

Shooting it with a Barnes projectile might help? Instant copper injection...

Good stuff Mike.
I shot one last year looked about the same. Also wondered what was wrong with it.

Originally Posted by kiwijames

Looks like mange? Did you leave it there? Id be hard pressed to want to cut it up and put that in my pack.

If it was mange, they live in the hair follocules so once skinned should theoretically be fine. Dont think I would be eating it though. Dog tukka maybe....

Thanks for the comments, I sent the photos to a friend from uni who is now a vet pathologist, i.e. someone who IDs disease for a living. Put her response below as thought might be of interest

From far away, it looks quite a bit like Dermatophilosis - a bacterial
infection, common in livestock but the lesions are not usually that
extensive. I can't rule out other skin parasites or even underlying
viral infections without microscopy.
The extensive lesions may indicate an underlying disease process (e.g. TB,
Johne's disease) so I'd be a bit uncertain about eating it. Regular
flea treatments etc. are always a good idea (also for the dog), mange is
fairly unlikely to jump across species and cause anything more than a
self-limiting issue but if weird skin issues turn up it may be worth a
vet check (and let the vet know about possible weird parasite exposure).

Thanks for that