Telegraph today

You beat me to posting this.

I think doing more to push hind stalking is a good thing. I was speaking to someone recently who works on an estate where they will be taking 300 hinds off the hill this winter. Only 50 will be with paying clients.
 
Indeed red hind stalking can be most challenging, however trying to sell it to overseas customers and or even people south of the border is not easy.
There is a short time to get a hind cull done and a good many days are lost through bad weather. You also want clients that will put up with bad weather, very short days, and shooting not one but several hinds if possible to get the cull done. This can put pressure on the hill stalker/deer manager who needs to get on with the job, and also take out the right beasts as well. Not something you can leave to the hands of a client who is not that experienced with Red Deer stalking, especially on high ground.

After a considerable number of years stalking the highlands I get sick of hearing the same old story from the greenies and people in offices who do not have much of a clue. One only has to look at the amount of fences being put up in the highlands these days, and the damage sheep have also done to see that the deer are gradually being fenced into smaller areas.

If they decimate deer numbers in the highlands there will be little income for many estates and there will be even more deer stalkers looking at redundancy IMHO.
 
'Blood in the snow' is the key to managing herd numbers as 'any fule kno'...

Perceived [as opposed to actual] tribal memories account for a lot of the envy politics...'the poor downtrodden masses, without a single shoe for their 37 children, wholst the grain rotted in the streets...'etc etc ad nauseum

Being a Laird costs a shedload of cash, rarely makes a profit and generates considerable income for the local economy
 
'Blood in the snow' is the key to managing herd numbers as 'any fule kno'...

Perceived [as opposed to actual] tribal memories account for a lot of the envy politics...'the poor downtrodden masses, without a single shoe for their 37 children, wholst the grain rotted in the streets...'etc etc ad nauseum

Being a Laird costs a shedload of cash, rarely makes a profit and generates considerable income for the local economy

​Well said
 
Highland Estates and Highland Rivers are vlaued on the basis of the number of deer and fish present and the number shot or caught each year. Until the market dynamics change, the market will dictate the numbers that are shot each year, unless there is government enforced legislation etc etc.

Apologies though for being so dimwhitted, of course after we obtain freedom, all land will be for the people!
 
Reforesting Scotland, another environmental group, argued in its submission that landowners should change their marketing of stalking to emphasise shooting hinds instead of stags, with the “experience and the venison” being the trophy.

As alluded to by other posters. There is some merit in this. After all it is the hinds that are the volume.
 
If you want to read the ultimate in 'this land is our land' socialist environmentalism, read anything by George Monbiot on 'rewilding'

Our George tells it like it really is and just how terribly beastly those ghastly landowners are, them and their forelock-tugging raptorcidal lackies.... etc etc
 
I would quite happily stalk hinds!
Trophies to me are not what I am here for - its the venison and the experience that I am intersted in.
 
So if hinds and Does are the secret to reducing numbers why is it that the government pay as much to a contractor for shooting males. Shows what you lads know its not about Females its about numbers. :oops:
Regards the red deer cull its all politics and does not have much to do with a hand full of deer.
 
Agreed so maybe bringing prices down would help.

Prices for stalking Red hinds is not that high really. On average it is about £160 plus VAT per day. The trouble is everyone wants to kill stags and not so many want to kill hinds. And as the winter progresses it gets harder to get onto them.
 
Malc touched on it before but really a stalker taking and guiding a client out on the hinds is actually a hinderance not a help in most cases.

Apart from all but the most experienced clients the stalker would have been up the hill quicker shot more and into the next lot, and throu the winter everything is against u, weather, daylight, ground conditions for extraction etc
 
Hind stalking is great value for money as it is and can be a lot more challenging than stags.
As said before though, hinds are hard work with shorter hours and much harsher conditions to get the required cul figures.
 
I'm with you, scubadog. Although I would like to have one Hind Stag and one Sika Stag, for memories in later years, hinds will be what I would rather stalk.

I am so looking forward to getting in with the stalking when I get there next year; after I get my DSC1 & 2 and my butchery of course.

I will be retired and have only time on my hands, so I believe I should be able to help with the harvest, a wee bit.
 
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