To me the term deer management implies culling deer to a set objective which has been determined by "managers" monitoring the population. In many parts of the world deer managers dont even do the shooting, they leave that up to others who arent considered managers, just shooters.
How many "deer managers" on here do property based management plans & go out & monitor the deer to establish indicies of relative & absolute abundance to establish the trends in population & the cull target?
Some of you guys do see there is a difference I hope? I someone turns around & says "yeh, I shoot every deer I see" no problems, but you are just shooting. Unless you are monitoring the population trends properly its a bit disengenious to call it management, its just shooting, & from what I see here a lot of it is commercial shooting, which IMO should be kept very seperate & distant from those who set the actual cull targets.
There are many things about the UK system I like, small acres access, excellent training & safety, utilising & valuing the carcase. However, commercial hunting, is commercial hunting, why do some call it management, when it is just commercial hunting?
How many "deer managers" on here do property based management plans & go out & monitor the deer to establish indicies of relative & absolute abundance to establish the trends in population & the cull target?
Some of you guys do see there is a difference I hope? I someone turns around & says "yeh, I shoot every deer I see" no problems, but you are just shooting. Unless you are monitoring the population trends properly its a bit disengenious to call it management, its just shooting, & from what I see here a lot of it is commercial shooting, which IMO should be kept very seperate & distant from those who set the actual cull targets.
There are many things about the UK system I like, small acres access, excellent training & safety, utilising & valuing the carcase. However, commercial hunting, is commercial hunting, why do some call it management, when it is just commercial hunting?