stock fencing and deer

cookingfat

Well-Known Member
How many times have we seen this?
Got to this one very soon after she got caught, two of us did try and release her but could not get her out,
So dispatch was the only outcome :(
 

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people around here will buy a few hundred sq meters of forest and put one of them fences around it... I don't hunt around my area but we are always out on the horses or walking the dogs and find deer stuck now and then.... Never found a live one so can imagine the death....
 
Seen it far to many times, she was lucky you where there to deal with the situation, cant quite see why you would want to release her in the middle of the doe season though, unless you know she had dependants of course..
 
I like you have found many carcasses over the years and can only imagine the suffering.
Any got any ideas of the best combination of wire to help prevent this happening?
 
I like you have found many carcasses over the years and can only imagine the suffering.
Any got any ideas of the best combination of wire to help prevent this happening?

Easy solution is not to put the barbed (or any) wire 6" above where the mesh ends... worse still two strands both with 6" gaps.

We get our fair share of fallow caught in wire like this and usually only find them when it's too late. We also see and often shoot some that have managed to get themselves free, a mate shot a pricket a couple of weeks back that was an amputee from the ankle down on one back leg. One of the worst memories I have is whacking into a herd of fallow one morning and wondering why a fawn was left standing when the others had legged it - I hadn't shot her at that point but did as she was just 'not right' stood there. One of her rear feet was all swollen and full of puss (you could smell it when you got near) from infection caused by a wire cut from a fence she'd clearly been stuck in and the bones in her foot were clearly broken too.

Sad thing is in our area a lot of the fences where deer are getting caught are the ones put up by the local wildlife trust!
 
If u search back throu similar threads someone had a really good idea, damned if i can mind wot it was now :old:


Must admit if i find 1 now i just PTS it no matter how long it has been in, while i have no doubt it could survive many may not, but also if u let them go they just jump right to the top of ur cull plan (injured deer) so better just to finish it there and then. When u butcher them for dog food/curry quite often the pelvis is almost dislocated and a hell off a bruising poor animals must be in agony and take a while to recover.

DB if u can come up with a way to keep stock in the fields and let deer jump them safely, post away. With modern cattle breds u do need the 2 strands of barb in most cases, even then most cattle could clear them if they really wanted too.

My local estate carries a big herd off fallow and to give them crdit have tried all sorts of fences to minimise it, stock net with barb right on top, plain wire on top etc and i've sen fallow caught in them all, even seen them caught in just a single stock net fence. Think fallow are more porne to it as they often kick there legs out as they jump.

Possibly puting rails up at main deer runs might help. I'm sure someone did have wot seemed a good idea that might work in a previous thread thou
 
I have had trouble with sheep caught the same way. Almost always happens when:
a) the top strand of barbed is too slack, and
b) when the gap between the wire and the barbed where it's stapled to the post is 6" (or more).

I now put up all my fences with a maximum 4" gap at the top, and make up the difference by lifting the mesh slightly higher and running a strand of barbed below it, just above ground level. Therefore, the overall fence height is the same, but the critical gap at the top is reduced. Also make sure that the fence is properly tensioned, to reduce any tendency to sagginess. Don't seem to have any problems now.
 
To each their own, but my personal view is that deer found in fences should be shot, unless you saw it get caught, which I have twice and released both. The state of that leg in the first photo beggers belief as to why you would release it....... obviously trying to release it made it worse and more bloody, but if it had got away with the leg in that condition because of trying to free it it would have got infected and probably died a worse death.

If it had survived and I do see a lot of them up here, it becomes top of the cull plan before it ends up getting stuck with the other leg in a fence because it can no longer jump as well.

I don't see it as an easy cull animal when you shoot it in a fence, but more that you are ending the suffering not prolonging it by thinking you are doing the right thing.
 
I see your point i have put up over 30000 meters since i left school the only time i have seen deer stuck in fences are up the hills with the 6 plain wire fence not one many rylock fences on low ground most contractors have high standards round hear, I put stock fences up to 105 cm to top line wire then rylock 10cm below and a plain wire 5 cm below that seems to be a good hight for roe deer and red round hear, The red deer calves just run up and down the fence lines never seen one stuck yet. electric wires on top and off sets seem to work swell deer seem to keep a wide birth from them.
 
To each their own, but my personal view is that deer found in fences should be shot, unless you saw it get caught, which I have twice and released both. The state of that leg in the first photo beggers belief as to why you would release it....... obviously trying to release it made it worse and more bloody, but if it had got away with the leg in that condition because of trying to free it it would have got infected and probably died a worse death.

If it had survived and I do see a lot of them up here, it becomes top of the cull plan before it ends up getting stuck with the other leg in a fence because it can no longer jump as well.

I don't see it as an easy cull animal when you shoot it in a fence, but more that you are ending the suffering not prolonging it by thinking you are doing the right thing.
f

Yes I do agree,
This animal had just got caught up durring the drive, I have released them before unhurt, but you are right this one was never going to fair well even if we had got it out.
thats the third dispatch this week.

Tony
 
I get a fair few roos that toe in between the top and second wire during their hurdling with the result that the two wires twist over their feet and they usually stay locked in till death.
Of course when a bloke approaches to release them they go ape ***** and one gets the blame for their dilemna!
 
DB if u can come up with a way to keep stock in the fields and let deer jump them safely, post away. With modern cattle breds u do need the 2 strands of barb in most cases, even then most cattle could clear them if they really wanted too.

Sorry, wasn't clear in my post, it is the spacing of wire at 6" gaps that seems to be the problem, lesser spacing's don't seem to catch them - VSS mentions this and his idea of lifting the mesh and running one strand of wire below it and one above it seems a good one.

What is a real nonsense where we are is most of these fences are only to keep sheep in or even worse are around arable fields so not really an issue with keeping cattle in!
 
ever thought that the fences around arable fields are used to keep people and deer out.
 
Usually caused by the top wires being to slack,it can still happen of course but keeping the wires taught can reduce these incidents drastically.
 
I shot a buck fawn this morning that had lost one of its rear legs just below the joint - as a result of being stuck in fencing im sure. I normally shoot 2-3 per year with this injury. Its just another important reason for good deer management on the ground, and is a good conversation to have with people who are unsure about having a deer manager on their land!
 
I shot a buck fawn this morning that had lost one of its rear legs just below the joint - as a result of being stuck in fencing im sure. I normally shoot 2-3 per year with this injury. Its just another important reason for good deer management on the ground, and is a good conversation to have with people who are unsure about having a deer manager on their land!
Yes good point, like you I shoot 2-3 a year with whole legs or half legs that are missing, always wondered how they had lost it, for some reason it seems to be more does than bucks, and I had always put it down to shooting because a doe losing a leg in the winter has a better chance of recovery because of the lack of flies during the winter months.
maybe it's all down to fences as you say?
 
Fences are normally the cause around my part of the country, juvenile deer get legs twisted and then stuck, as the bones are very soft at that age they can break easily and heal very fast. The young have trouble clearing fences in persuit of their mothers. I think thats why when we shoot adults they are normally totally healed. Im sure some cases are due to bad shooting, but a shot leg will not heal as well due to bone shattering..
 
I've put up a fair few mile of fencing over the years and would actually say a 6" space between net and barb is quite unusual, atleast in any fence i've put up, most is double barb both 4" space i prefer 2 and 6.
The problem with anything bigger than a 4" gap from net to barb is beasts stick there head throu to graze the other side and thats when u get the big sags in the net, looks terrible, if the gap is bigger than 4" doesn't matter how tight wire is only prolongs it a bit till cattle stick there haeds throu

Like i said earlier the local estate has tried all sorts of things to try and help and they still get caught, althou not in the numbers they used too. I used to find around 10ish alive stuck in the fence most years about 7+ years ago down to 2-3 a year now if that, but they have really been culling the deer hrd and have got there numbers down quite a bit which i think has the difference rather than the different fencing. But u will never know

Must admit i personally hate barb at the bottom of a fence, nothing worse when ur digging years down the line and rip ur hand open on buried barb wire u weren't expecting to find. Would a plain wire not do the same VSS or are ur hill sheep a bit wild for that. I know wot wintering blackies can be like on inby farms, not long before a small hole is a bloody big hole, bloody wild b*****ds
 
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