How wild are the animals you stalk?

[nelsons_column]

Hello, I have been watching some deer stalking videos from the UK on youtube. It seems a lot of times we see some chaps stalking for fallow deer, make a shot and in the closing sequence they are practically feeding other fallows with grass.

How much of a hunt is this?
How wild are the animals?
Is the stalking just play for the camera, a ritual that you go through as a hobby, with the shot at the end as a conclusion to an afternoon off?
The red deer in Scotland seems to be wilder animals that you cannot just go out and shoot.

I'm not trying to be condescending, I'm just genuinely curious about deer stalking in the UK.
In Norway, we have a more primitive approach to the whole ordeal. (and what seems to be wilder animals)

 

[nun_hunter]

Where I am the fallow are wild and get shot a lot so if they even vaguely sense you then they're off and will be a long way away before you even really know it and they won't stop running. I have shot some from a highseat and had other then just wander about until I approached as they didn't know what had really happened. I find roe very inquisitive and even if they see/smell you they are often quite happy to stand and watch and let you get a shot off. If roe do run it's often not far and they'll stop and have a look back to give you a second chance!

 

[HappyHunter]

Have only ever stalked and shot fallow. They are certainly wild enough on my permission and don't take much to spook. I don't think the beasts we have are shot heavily elsewhere either judging by the numbers but still a stealthy approach needed or you'll just be having a nice walk.

 

[Tom D]

Compared with Norway many parts of the U.K. are densely populated so deer see a lot more people. We still have a lot of wild places too. Where I shoot the deer are very wild, however today I was surveying in an urban woodland surrounded by houses, roads and a railway. I came up on a roe buck, he didn’t run off until I was at about 50m away, 20 miles up the road where I shoot he would have been off if he saw me at 300m.

 

[mchughcb]

Stalking is easy and cheap compared to buying a pizza in Bergen so it all evens out in the end.

 

[tusker]

In my experience I think Fallow are the most difficult as there are usually many pairs of eyes looking for danger, they are the most alert of all the species in this country IMHO and once spooked they just keep going. I have culled park Fallow and that is very different so perhaps the original poster is looking at that.
tusker

 

[mchughcb]

There is nothing like watching hunting for free on youtube and critizing it. Especially those self filmed hunts.

 

[kenbro]

This morning, out in local (Heywood) park with dogs at 06.50 talking to another dog walker. Across the river, less than 100 mtrs. Away was a roe buck, doe and what looked like a last years youngster. They moved slowly along feeding as they went in a grass field. After about 10 mins they jumped up a low wall and walked into the wood.
Our dogs, (4 total)which were playing together and making noises, and him and me talking didn’t concern them one bit. Obviously a river separating us, but, that wouldn’t have hindered a bullet.
Ken.

 

[kieran222]

Can you post some links to what you have seen?

 

[RCS Deer Management]

I have shot deer all over the world, and I would say the deer I stalk in the uk are definitely the wildest as they are under the most pressure.

 

[Sylvanius]

To be fair, I do not think the OP is criticising, just asking a question, and if your only experience of British deer was seeing park deer culled you might not realise the difference between that pure management activity and the stalking of truly wild deer. At a friends farm, the fallow are so used to muscling in when he is feeding the sheep that they stand only a few metres away from you, and if you saw that, you could get a totally false impression of how it is to stalk deer which are not used to human interaction, like say roe in woodland or as he says red deer out on the hill.
So to answer your question nelsons_column, no, most deer stalking here is very different from what you describe seeing.

 

[VSS]

Perhaps we just have better stalkers in the UK, capable of getting much closer to wild deer without spooking them.....?

 

[Monkey Spanker]

I don't really see how the difficulty of the stalk makes any difference? If the deer needs to be shot, then why make it any more difficult or 'primitive' as suggested? If you make it more difficult, then the more likely it will go wrong and you will end up with a deer welfare issue. If you want to test your shooting skills to the limit, then do it on the range at paper targets. Some times stalking is easy and wild deer seem very stupid such as during the rut, but conversely, sometimes captive deer can be extremely difficult to stalk into and cull safely. Either way, if they are on the cull plan then does it really matter?
MS

 

[reloader54]

"I'm interested in the term primitive approach"
what exactly does that entail? should I strip down to me underwear,roger the women in the village and drink wine from the skulls of my enemies?

 

[Monkey Spanker]

"I'm interested in the term primitive approach"
what exactly does that entail? should I strip down to me underwear,roger the women in the village and drink wine from the skulls of my enemies?

Isn't that 'NFN'?
(Normal For Norfolk!)
MS

 

[reloader54]

Isn't that 'NFN'?
(Normal For Norfolk!)
MS

guy in Suffolk phones his boss, says "I cant come to work today I'm sick"

"how sick are you?" questions the boss.

"pretty sick,,,, I'm in bed with my sister"

 

[teyhan1]

'Wild' I am sure they are livid they are being shot at (Plageriarised and adjusted from Gerald the Gorilla)

 

[1894]

More people, deer more used to humans and some species in some situations will look stupid and easy. This is balanced out by those that are bloody hard.

I cull in the south east. The difficulty is not necessarily getting a shot, it's getting a safe shot at a perfectly stationary deer and putting the bullet into a CD up to 250m and producing a top quality carcass. Harder than it sounds even on a 'stupid' deer. It's not hunting you would recognise as I'm rarely further than 500m from the car. Satisfaction is gained by the whole shot placement, carcass preparation process. Add in a herd milling about and it gets proportionately harder. Move into the woods and it can be bloody hard. I reckon I get a shot out of every 3rd or 4th woodland encounter.

Conversely head down to the south west and it's taken me 12 years to shoot just 30 red deer. Virtually nocturnal, travel huge distances, difficult ground, very wild etc. This is 'hunting' you would recognise.

Also don't forget that the film you will see would tend to be the easy stuff. Who's going to film the single stag they see through a gap in the trees after a week stalking in the woods?

And for balance - I had a misfire on a bull moose at 80m, it stood broadside looking at me as I cycled the bolt for another cartridge

 

[Border]

There is a difference here in Norway. Although many red deer and some elk and roe are shot when feeding on fields, the "real" hunt to most Norwegians involve more effort than just waiting at the field edges. Highseats are not a significant part of deerstalking here. There is almost a feeling of elitism, that a woodland roebuck is worth more than a buck from the field below the farm. Likewise with the reds, driven or pushed up in the mountains counts more. Alot of the big game hunting over here is usually a team effort, that may have something to do with it. For me it is the same.

 

[takbok]

I get a deer about every third stalk on average. Is that wild enough? If the deer see me first then they disappear promptly. Just because I stalk in 40 - 100 acre bits of woodland that doesn't make it any easier than stalking big areas aside from the fact that I don't have to carry the carcasses far.