First for me.

[oowee]

Out walking the dog on Friday and dropping a few pheasant's I spotted some unusually large slots. Back later I was faced with a group of large red deer. I dropped a medium sized stag. There were much bigger options, but there was just me and a CRV. 

That was the easy bit. So different from the roe I normally shoot. The animal must be 100kg +, had hair like steel wool, blunted my knives, smells like a horse, gas in the belly 🐽. I then spent the next two hours trying to get it into my car, it very nearly killed me. It's too big for me to process so it's gone to a local butcher.

Saturday was spent cleaning out the car. 

[marsh man]

Yesterday on the very last drive of the day the light was already fading , a young lad was standing with his dad and took a shot at possibly the last bird of the day , I had my back to this wood and I could see the bird was hit , it went down in the wood just behind me and I sent my dog and the next picker up came with his two Spaniel's to help out as it is full of nettles and brambles with water in the middle , I could see the dogs working in the swampy bit in the middle , out of nowhere this Red Deer came charging through and went straight through where the dogs were , for a minute or so we couldn't see a dog and then the picker up said your ole dog have got the Pheasant and he wasn't sure if his dogs were injured or not , no worries as very soon all three dogs were back and all waging there tails as if nothing had happened , but could easily have ended with a different outcome  

[London Best]

Anybody else can shoot the Reds for me, thank you.  
I have two hernias from trying to lift Fallow bucks into the Land Rover. 
Lifting Reds is a job for a Scotsman! 
Your Red stag would stink because it has just finished the rut. 
I like Muntjac now, one under each arm.

[oowee]

1 hour ago, London Best said:

Anybody else can shoot the Reds for me, thank you.  
I have two hernias from trying to lift Fallow bucks into the Land Rover. 
Lifting Reds is a job for a Scotsman! 
Your Red stag would stink because it has just finished the rut. 
I like Muntjac now, one under each arm.

Give me Roe any day easy to move, easy to skin. I may change my mind when I pick up meat Monday 😁

[scolopax]

Saves you right for shooting it

[Scully]

There are Reds in the S.Lakes, but none have got to where we are in the North, but I doubt I’d have shot one anyhow. 
Have even stopped shooting Roe now, which are plentiful around here; far too easy to shoot and a chore to process because no one wants them. 
Funnily enough our old game dealer from way back got in touch shortly after I gave up my CF rifle, asking if we could get him some, so who knows come next renewal? 

[oowee]

On 18/11/2024 at 17:01, Scully said:

There are Reds in the S.Lakes, but none have got to where we are in the North, but I doubt I’d have shot one anyhow. 
Have even stopped shooting Roe now, which are plentiful around here; far too easy to shoot and a chore to process because no one wants them. 
Funnily enough our old game dealer from way back got in touch shortly after I gave up my CF rifle, asking if we could get him some, so who knows come next renewal? 

Do you not eat them yourself? 

[TIGHTCHOKE]

On 17/11/2024 at 20:58, London Best said:

Anybody else can shoot the Reds for me, thank you.  
I have two hernias from trying to lift Fallow bucks into the Land Rover. 
Lifting Reds is a job for a Scotsman! 
Your Red stag would stink because it has just finished the rut. 
I like Muntjac now, one under each arm.

Been there, done that. Great fun.  

[Scully]

16 minutes ago, oowee said:

Do you not eat them yourself? 

No. I don’t have the facility to freeze that much meat really. I used to give it away, but the processing up at mates farm ate into my day and I didn’t want to shoot them and not use the meat, so we clad a lot of saplings and ring fenced most pheasant feeders. 
I was fed up with bouncing around in a draughty old Landrover at stupid o'clock also, so sold my CF. 
There was a time all I wanted was a CF rifle, but I don’t miss it if I’m honest. 
If I did get another it would be a Ruger No 1, but I digress. 

[ditchman]

On 17/11/2024 at 20:58, London Best said:

Anybody else can shoot the Reds for me, thank you.  
I have two hernias from trying to lift Fallow bucks into the Land Rover. 
Lifting Reds is a job for a Scotsman! 
Your Red stag would stink because it has just finished the rut. 
I like Muntjac now, one under each arm.

Muntjac taste better..

[TIGHTCHOKE]

6 minutes ago, ditchman said:

Muntjac taste better..

They do seem to......................................

[Dougy]

Ive seen both Roe and Muntjac get flushed from a wood when dogs have gone in to retrieve shot birds, but no Reds, due to not many around these parts. Having dragged a few Fallow and only a few i am quite happy sticking to Muntjac. 

I have been very very close to a nice Red Stag running full gallop at me, when your so close to be able to see the glint in its eyes and its looking into yours too , its close. There's a couple on here that may remember it, shouting from close by that i dont shoot it , i dont think i could have afforded that fee, likely i'd be taken into the woods and paid in kind by a few Croatia'n beaters. 

[oowee]

2 minutes ago, Dougy said:

Ive seen both Roe and Muntjac get flushed from a wood when dogs have gone in to retrieve shot birds, but no Reds, due to not many around these parts. Having dragged a few Fallow and only a few i am quite happy sticking to Muntjac. 

I have been very very close to a nice Red Stag running full gallop at me, when your so close to be able to see the glint in its eyes and its looking into yours too , its close. There's a couple on here that may remember it, shouting from close by that i dont shoot it , i dont think i could have afforded that fee, likely i'd be taken into the woods and paid in kind by a few Croatia'n beaters. 

Awesome, that's the sort of thing that stays with you forever. We had a chap last year that shot a warthog heading towards him at speed on a guinea foul drive. That was a sight to see.

There are supposed to be no Reds here but as if by magic 

[B686]

Had these out the back of where I live loads about here last couple of years.

[London Best]

I once went out supposedly for Muntjac. On that basis, and because of the distance (Derbyshire to Norfolk) I took my wife’s Audi A3. Fortunately, I grabbed the larger of my two deer trays. Good job I did, because I was suddenly confronted with five Red stags trundling down the field towards me. Having a ready customer for such a beast, (and being stupid!), I completely forgot I was in a small car which had zero off-road capability.  
So I flat-packed the first one that stopped trundling.  Suddenly I was confronted with a dead weight the size of a small horse, or at least a decent pony. And three fields from the car parked by the road. Gralloching completed I explored the A3’s off-road prowess. Fortunately it was August and everywhere was dry and stubble. The Audi did ok, it was just the one shallow ditch which presented a problem. I tackled it diagonally. Horrible noises came from underneath but the front spoiler somehow survived. 
I phoned a friend for help, and with rear seats folded flat the carcass was loaded. I found a different route back to the road avoiding the ditch. When I arrived home Mrs. LB had stayed up in case I needed help (I have an electric hoist by the chiller). She was not amused to see her car quite so full of deer and immediately started looking for blood. Luckily, there was only one tiny spot the size of a thumbnail. Close shave.

[marsh man]

Why is it, if there is a variation in taste from the different species of deer we have got in the UK that the venison for sale is not labeled with the species of deer it came from , I bought some venison from one of the supermarkets once because it had been reduced , getting home I noticed it had came from New Zealand , we have got venison which is a job to give away and yet they are bringing it here from half way round the world , it don't really make sense .  

[TIGHTCHOKE]

Just now, marsh man said:

Why is it, if there is a variation in taste from the different species of deer we have got in the UK that the venison for sale is not labeled with the species of deer it came from , I bought some venison from one of the supermarkets once because it had been reduced , getting home I noticed it had came from New Zealand , we have got venison which is a job to give away and yet they are bringing it here from half way round the world , it don't really make sense .  

No it doesn't make any sense at all.  

Much tastier when you shoot it yourself too.  

[marsh man]

3 minutes ago, TIGHTCHOKE said:

No it doesn't make any sense at all.  

Much tastier when you shoot it yourself too.  

Tell yer the truth Dave , I have never fancied shooting a deer . we once had a Muntjac deer shoot on the estate with shotguns, they ordered the cartridges from Richardson's and thought they had done everything to the book , I didn't fancy that and I lent my wildfowling gun to one of the chaps as mine would easily take the heavy cartridges , they shot a few on the day they went and cancelled the next day as they found out you were not allowed to drive the deer towards the standing guns , how right this is ? I don't know but they never shot any more to be on the safe side .   MM 

[TIGHTCHOKE]

Not meant to shoot deer with shotguns at all in England.

[marsh man]

20 minutes ago, TIGHTCHOKE said:

Not meant to shoot deer with shotguns at all in England.

I am pretty sure at the time that shooting them with shotguns would had been covered and I believe the cartridges were Triple A ,we were run and still are as far as I know by Saville's and any advice on those sort of matters would had came from them . MM

[oowee]

26 minutes ago, TIGHTCHOKE said:

Not meant to shoot deer with shotguns at all in England.

I think the deer act of 1991 allows it using AAA under ''farmers defence''

[TIGHTCHOKE]

4 minutes ago, marsh man said:

I am pretty sure at the time that shooting them with shotguns would had been covered and I believe the cartridges were Triple A ,we were run and still are as far as I know by Saville's and any advice on those sort of matters would had came from them . MM

 

4 minutes ago, oowee said:

I think the deer act of 1991 allows it using AAA under ''farmers defence''

Fair enough.

[marsh man]

46 minutes ago, TIGHTCHOKE said:

 

Fair enough.

I have now been retired 17 years so it was around the turn of the century , I have looked it up and if they were doing crop damage then it was legal to shoot them with a shotgun if using triple A shot , not sure if that is still in force but now all deer are shot with a rifle and most of the guns have to pay for the privilege to do so .  MM

[TIGHTCHOKE]

Noted, NEVER too OLD to learn.

Thank you

[Bigbob]

16 hours ago, TIGHTCHOKE said:

Not meant to shoot deer with shotguns at all in England.

I will admit Marshmans a bit older than me LOL , But i am sure i remember the Forestry Commission shooting deer with shotguns and leaving them lying , then later just cutting them in half and taking the haunches , Way before my time we got a 270 and shot 6 days  a week and everything went to the larder