Thread: The choice is yours.........

Originally Posted by 338 man

Good to see im not alone in supporting the force, for all you darkside followers i stand by my view that only ones conscience should dictate a trigger pull or not. still no judgement here !
( Tahr ) I guess with almost 2500 post you dont get much time hunting so go hard and shoot those spikers. ( in your hunting area )

Don't be fooled by post quantity, unlike some internet hunters @Tahr talks the talk and walks the walk

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Originally Posted by R93

I don't really get the leave the spiker shoot the hind theory as it could grow into a trophy because it has long spikes? Really? I would like to know what that is based on.

Do some research on your hunting area. If it has good genetics and has produced a 300+ DS stag every 5-6 years, fair enough leave the spikers.
Otherwise your extemely unlikely to be shooting a potential trophy no matter how old it gets. Shit heads don't get better if left a few years.

I personally wouldn't even go near an area that has good genetics if I was meat hunting.

I don't shoot hinds anymore as a matter of choice. A yearling hind definitely. March thru till September only if I need the freezer stocked, otherwise I will hold out for the perfect eater.

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That's about it for me too. At present I probably wouldn't shoot either of them, opting for a yearling instead. Regardless of public vs private land.

The whole leave spikers thing doesn't really work for me either, especially so in places where big heads aren't common. In saying that, I have been known to 'select' small spiked spikers from mobs, in the hope that the longer spiked animals would grow out to be something special eventually. Whether this works or not is beyond me. Reality is, stags simply don't get the age on them to reach their full potential.

There's no point leaving a spiker, then shooting a 3-4 year old 12 pointer or 5 year old 14 pointer in the roar, then harping on about trophy potential!

In the past on private land where we can sort of control what's shot, and where numbers are low, shooting a hind is a big no for us. Get the numbers up and then start selecting more. But then, getting the male/female mix right for a 'fun' roar, vs the best for herd development is a bit counter productive. It's a hard one.

For meat around this time of year, I won't ever shoot a hind. The thought of a young fawn starving to death makes me feel sick. So if I'm after meat, normally I'll have a look for a fat little yearling or summer time stags in velvet. They are normally easier to select a poor head vs potential good head - malformed antlers, tine length, spread, timber weight, amount of velvet up etc; these are obviously far more easily evaluated on a stag, than on a spiker. If it has a shit head at 2-5 years of age, chances are it isn't going to get better.

The 'mature' stags are easy to pick out of a mob of stags, and if they've been carrying a bit up top, they'll have dropped early and be well into growing a decent head of velvet by now, they're the ones I'll leave for sure.

Horses for courses. Every place is different, and everyone hunts for different reasons. I generally don't comment on peoples choices on why they shot an animal, because I wasn't there to see the situation play out or don't know their experience. But if I am taking a new hunter out, I'll normally try to drop a few hints from my experience and whatever they choose to take from that is up to them.

Originally Posted by 338 man

Good to see im not alone in supporting the force, for all you darkside followers i stand by my view that only ones conscience should dictate a trigger pull or not. still no judgement here !
( Tahr ) I guess with almost 2500 post you dont get much time hunting so go hard and shoot those spikers. ( in your hunting area )

Hah. You know nothing about me.
I dragged myself away from the computer long enough last night to get this. A nice step up from spikers' for me

Way to go Tahr.

Originally Posted by Tahr

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Hah. You know nothing about me.
I dragged myself away from the computer long enough last night to get this. A nice step up from spikers' for me

Oh no, the trophy potential of area is now ruined.

The dog looks well proud!

The funny thing with that whole discussion, is that everybody choose to do different type of hunting ( meat vs trophy) and has different opinion on what they ought to shoot.

Now imagine in one specific area over a year, visited by a bunch of meat hunter and a bunch of trophy hunter( that would be late February to mid winter depending of area). Between them they might shoot pretty much everything in sight apart hinds and fawns.

So as a whole group they might do the same damage as the guys who shoot all type of animals all year long.

Originally Posted by Friwi

The funny thing with that whole discussion, is that everybody choose to do different type of hunting ( meat vs trophy) and has different opinion on what they ought to shoot.

Now imagine in one specific area over a year, visited by a bunch of meat hunter and a bunch of trophy hunter( that would be late February to mid winter depending of area). Between them they might shoot pretty much everything in sight apart hinds and fawns.

So as a whole group they might do the same damage as the guys who shoot all type of animals all year long.

And that my friend, is exactly what happens.

Originally Posted by Tahr

[/COLOR]

Hah. You know nothing about me.
I dragged myself away from the computer long enough last night to get this. A nice step up from spikers' for me

None of those high post count twats go hunting ,it must be photo shopped ...

I have a massive post count cos I have a wife that watches tv..... I also stopped posting any trip reports a long time ago...................

Originally Posted by veitnamcam

None of those high post count twats go hunting ,it must be photo shopped ...

I have a massive post count cos I have a wife that watches tv..... I also stopped posting any trip reports a long time ago...................

Ooh I must be a good hunter then cos I don't have a high post count.....ppffff yeah right Tui ad

There's a bit of dribble out there alright...


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Don't get your knickers in a twist guys

Calm down and ask 338 man to tell us how it is done. VC you especially appear to need lessons mate, you fellahs only got four on that trip last week.

Good call Rushy, My comments about post number were tongue & cheek and wasnt ment to offend anyone.
As far as asking me for advice, not the best plan as im not a pro. Last night i did shoot a hind that was eating grass the velvet stags needed though. HaHaHa