Hind Stalking Prices (Highlands)

[sgurrdamh]

Thank you all for your comments, very helpful. I think we will be looking to go up a bit, but by the sounds of it what I’m thinking will still be a competitive offering and I’d like to think good value for our clients.

Also, and without meaning to poke anyone for a reaction, I am reminded slightly of something my old head stalker used to say… that the only people that “help” to shoot hinds are the ones that being a rope and a sharp knife and leave their rifle at home. There is no argument at all for me that people stalking hinds is about giving people a good day out on the hill and an experience.

Thanks

 

[JTO]

if the stalkers were doing it on their own they would get done a lot quicker, albeit with no income from the guests.

I have always thought this way.

 

[JTO]

A lot of people even pay to watch football!
A fool and his money............ come to mind.

 

[User00040]

Paid hind days are wrong, poor management and cull planning, end of.

 

[Dan Newcombe]

Paid hind days are wrong, poor management and cull planning, end of.

I’m not sure that’s quite right. There is a demand for hind stalking, people want it and many places do a good day for it - doesn’t mean that the planning is no good or that management is lacking, it’s just tailored around people who want to stalk on the hill for cheap.

In reality - it’s not bringing life altering money to the estate, they wouldn’t really miss it that much

 

[sgurrdamh]

Paid hind days are wrong, poor management and cull planning, end of.

And there was me not poking anyone for a reaction.

 

[nun_hunter]

Not saying at all that NullMacs days weren’t a bit crap and and quite expensive / not what was expected but I think that one thing people need to get out of their heads with hind stalking is that somehow they are ‘helping’ or ‘doing the stalkers job for them’ - it’s guided stalking.

Usually it’s better value than stags if you are basing it on number shot but in reality, if the stalkers were doing it on their own they would get done a lot quicker, albeit with no income from the guests.

If you haven’t had a good day that’s entirely understandable but that can happen anywhere - prices have gone up a) because everything has and b) because more people want to do it so the demand has increased.

If the estate is big enough, which I'm sure most are, then send some paying guests off by themselves to shoot some hinds while the employees go off and shoot their own. Worst case scenario the guests shoot nothing and the employed stalkers get their quota for the day anyway.

 

[Bowland blades]

Free or anything up to £400 plus extras. All depends on who you know , what you know and where you go

 

[Foxyboy43]

Aye, more likely you are getting in the stalker’s way but at the price of putting cash into the estate’s coffers. I know three stalkers very well and on their culling days the numbers they shoot, even on the hill, are incredible.
One very memorable day in a very snowy Perthshire I dropped two hinds out of a small herd which then ran round the face out of sigh. The stalker, a good pal then ran after them with me puffing and panting behind him before sense kicked in - 12 inches of snow, slippery face and more years than I care to admit so I stopped and awaited his return. Whereupon he took my rifle and the rest of my box of .308 and muttering something about numbers off he went.
I returned the long way (probably all of 30 yards) back to the slain beasts to start the grallochs and like Titus Oates he was gone a little while but not a shot I heard. When he finally returned he handed me my rifle and a very much lighter box. Long story short - he shot 14 hinds!
That was a busy day which also gave me a real insight into his life!

 

[viking90]

It's abit like calling a pest controller to remove a wasps nest and the pest controller paying the client for the privilege of doing the job lol

 

[VSS]

It's abit like calling a pest controller to remove a wasps nest and the pest controller paying the client for the privilege of doing the job lol

A lot of recreational shooting is like that. There's people paying for ground to shoot foxes believe it or not, when in fact they should be getting paid for shooting foxes.

 

[Stevie/P]

There's people paying for ground to shoot foxes believe it or not,

Supply and demand dear boy after all we do live in a capitalist society do we not

 

[VSS]

Supply and demand dear boy after all we do live in a capitalist society do we not

Indeed, but even so it does seem a little odd that people are prepared to pay to provide a service. It would be like paying your employer for letting you come to work.
But if that's the way people want to play it that's fine

 

[Bo Diddley]

A lot of recreational shooting is like that. There's people paying for ground to shoot foxes believe it or not, when in fact they should be getting paid for shooting foxes.

Worse than that is the chap I met a fortnight ago paying to shoot rats around pig/chicken farms, it seems as if he has watched so many videos on YouTube he just has to have a slice of the action regardless of costs

 

[jcampbellsmith]

If the estate is big enough, which I'm sure most are, then send some paying guests off by themselves to shoot some hinds while the employees go off and shoot their own. Worst case scenario the guests shoot nothing and the employed stalkers get their quota for the day anyanyway

I don't agree. One aspect of stalking not discussed much is disturbance. The estate stalker will know where to go in certain winds and where not to go. Guests don't have that knowledge and may move deer to nobody's benefit. As a friend said yesterday, ideally a deer only sees a stalker once in it's life.
Regards
JCS

 

[Pete6.5]

If the estate is big enough, which I'm sure most are, then send some paying guests off by themselves to shoot some hinds while the employees go off and shoot their own. Worst case scenario the guests shoot nothing and the employed stalkers get their quota for the day anyway.

That's definitely not the worst case scenario I can think of letting unknown experienced stalkers loose

 

[Corvid8x57]

I am extremely happy to pay to stalk hinds & for the privilege of being able to enjoy someone’s private property. After about 12 years of going to the same estate, I am starting to get to know the ground & I hope that the supremely tolerant team are a bit more relaxed having a ‘known quantity’ as a guest.

 

[nun_hunter]

I don't agree. One aspect of stalking not discussed much is disturbance. The estate stalker will know where to go in certain winds and where not to go. Guests don't have that knowledge and may move deer to nobody's benefit. As a friend said yesterday, ideally a deer only sees a stalker once in it's life.
Regards
JCS

I assume even the most slack guide would tell stalker's where to head and what to shoot.

 

[Mungo]

I assume even the most slack guide would tell stalker's where to head and what to shoot.

That assumes they pay any attention at all to what you tell them!

 

[nun_hunter]

That assumes they pay any attention at all to what you tell them!

It does but there are quite a few places where you can stalk unguided and there doesn't seem to be the endless stream of every paying guest going off piste and doing something stupid. It's just a case of "we've always done it this way and don't want to change because of all the bad things that could happen regardless of if they did and regardless of the benefits".

Abolishing the male closed season and then having the majority of stalker's up in arms about it is a prime example of this. Convinced that all of a sudden the Highlands will be filled with blood thirsty killers shooting anything that moves and obliterating generations of hard work by deer managers