Nocturnal Muntjac?

mick w

Member
Hello everyone I've got a bit of problem I need some help with. Through doing the pest control on a local farm I have gained access to a wood which is about 600 yards by 100 and judging from the slots well used by Muntjac. The problem I have is the woods are used by dog walkers and the farmer has given up on trying to keep them out. I got up at 5 the other day trying to beat them to it only to bump into someone at 5;45 walking their dog. Afternoon sessions are much the same with about the last 20 mins of light being the only chance I get, including getting into position. I have seen the Muntys when lamping fox and am wondering if they've become totally nocturnal due to the disturbance. Anyone got any suggestions how to improve my chances.
Regards
Mick
 
Put up some shooting signs?
Where I am there is a wood with a footpath through it which is not public, but the public use it, joggers dog walkers, horse riders.
The farmer prefers this to them using a public footpath across a field, so reduced crop damage.

Or get a permit to shoot them a night from Natural England I think. May not be easy to get?
 
reply

high seat (with warning) and baited kill zone.

Nothing to stop you shooting if the public are about as long as you dont shoot too many of them :eek: :evil:
 
Shootingduckdog
Thanks for the advice, can you explain the baiting bit please, what when how etc..
cheers
Mick
 
bait

Not my field of expertise but it keeps coming up on the site. Molasses and sheep nuts (feed not testicles :eek: ) seem to be a recurring theme. I'm sure others will pitch in with their 2penneth.

Really you are just looking for something the munties like to come for and that might keep them in view long enough to plug one.

Obvious alternative is to locate the seat in an area where there is lots of evidence of actvity anyway. You might need to put a bit of work in to clear your line of fire, target area etc but I'm sure it'll be worth it.
 
Mick

Is the wood used for pheasant shooting at all? If so, think about siting a pheasant feeder in the line of sight from the high seat. I can't remember how many munties I've shot that were eating pheasant corn....but it's a lot.

willie_gunn
 
pheasant feeder

To be fair you could put a pheasant feeder out whatever, works for roe, munties and fallow. A spring on the bottom (sycon type) makes em work for it a bit.
 
Dont put out feeders with springs in if you have any amount of badgers about they simply wreck them even with spikes in the bottom of them. I must go through about 10 springs a year totally wrecked by badgers , and bins they cant get at the corn they tip over by standing on hind legs and rocking them over . Have put 4 legs on some as 3 seems to easy for them to tip over . Certainly feeders work for deer once they find them try to get metal ones as squirrels will eat into plastic ones as will rats set up a colony near feeders .good luck i know what you are going through i have the same problem with the public in one wood i have MUDDY
 
woods

Hi Mick
I was told a long time ago that a very good way
to keep people out is to put up sign's stating
BEWARE POISONOUS SNAKES
and i have used them ,it works well
JayJay
 
I have possibly a similar problem on a new shoot that I have just picked up.

It consists of about 200 acres of farmland, used to rear pheasants (hence I can only shoot it outside the pheasant season), bounded along one border by a a series of spinneys, which are typically 100 to 200 yds long by say 20 yards wide. They are mostly well overgrown with bramble etc, providing plenty of cover for munties, and there are no real clear paths within the spinneys due to the limited width.

There are munty slots around the peripheries of the woods, but despite being there on several occasions at both first light and last light I have yet to see one anywhere near the open. So I too am wondering whether they are very nocturnal; or just very nomadic moving around between various spinneys; or just very rarely venturing out of the spinneys because there is enough food inside.

It probably isn't helped by the fact that the pheasant season having just ended, there isn't much for them to eat out in the open - the pheasant feeders are empty, and the cover crops are being ploughed / re-sown at the moment.

I have put down some salt licks soaked with molasses, and poured molasses on a couple of tree stumps around some hot spots on the edge to see if that will tempt them more toward the open side of the spinneys.

Don't know whether the owner would be particularly pleased if I started filling pheasant feeders to feed the munties - that's the reason he wants rid of them - because they scoff his pheasant feed! And also, there is a badger sett in the area!

Any other ideas will be gratefully received!

Regards

Roe Hunter
 
Re: woods

JayJay said:
Hi Mick
I was told a long time ago that a very good way
to keep people out is to put up sign's stating
BEWARE POISONOUS SNAKES
and i have used them ,it works well
JayJay

It would be more politically correct for the sign to read

"It is illegal to harm vipers
(They are also poisonous)"!
 
What about a sign dsaying.

"please do not feed the cats" then play a looped recording or lion's/ tiger roaring should do the trick.

Surely if you put bait down you'll attract more in have you tried calling them with a butelo? plus when the clocks go forward should give you at least an hour to get them.
 
I used to stalk for munties on a pheasant shoot in the Chilterns and experienced similar problems. We had 2,000 acres but due to footpaths and bridleways and the fact that early morning joggers and dog walkers didn't even keep to those meant we could only safely stalk about 800 acres.

In terms of disturbance I would say that the walkers made little impact and the deer were certainly not particularly nocturnal as we would shoot them well into the mid-morning.

The biggest problem that we had was having to explain to the public who saw us loading a carcass into the 4x4 why we were shooting the cute little deer. Having done so we usually had very little comeback from them.
 
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