Jungle warfare

[mike308]

Finding deer in replanted clearfell in Scotland can be extremely difficult. You can take the range, which helps, but most times you cannot walk directly to the deer because of brambles and deep holes full of water. You often have to go back to a track, walk round until you can find a way to walk in. Then work your way towards the deer looking for the tree stump that the deer was next to but you find there are a hundred stumps that look the same. The answer is a dog.

 

[gixer1]

Any dog will find deer, any dog has a nose good that it will home in and stop at it - just walk through until the dog stops at something!

I have an area with very dense rhododendron for a rather large area - very easy to lose a beast in there and extremely difficult to navigate through - I once found a roe buck that I had shot suspended about 3 ft off the ground - I can only guess as it ran on adrenaline it kept at the last minute, got hung up and that’s where it died.

Regards,
Gixer

 

[Puds]

I had one place for a while which grew miscanthus. Lost a couple in that, even with the dog

One farm I stalk has a couple of 8-10 acre blocks of miscanthus. Tracking blood through that is truly miserable, including one memorably dire follow-up with snow dropping into my collar.

 

[Longstrider]

Mustard can be a nightmare too. It hides the deer and they ruddy love being in amongst the stuff. It holds the wet right up to the point your leg touches it.
CWD's on one of my permissions would often be found nowhere else on the entire farm, but plenty of them ready to 'bomb burst' out of the mustard as soon as you fired at one. Then you have a hell of a job finding the one you hit.

 

[Heym SR20]

A dog is the answer. They let you know if deer are close upwind, if they are really good they point to exactly where the deer is. It takes them about 2 mins to find most deer after the shot - even in crops, bullrushes, bracken or when sub merged in a river.

And on the drive home they rest their head on your shoulder showing how much they love you.

 

[Longstrider]

A dog is the answer. They let you know if deer are close upwind, if they are really good they point to exactly where the deer is. It takes them about 2 mins to find most deer after the shot - even in crops, bullrushes, bracken or when sub merged in a river.

And on the drive home they rest their head on your shoulder showing how much they love you.

I know what you're likely to say, but .... If I were to take my 4-legged terrorist with me I doubt there would be a deer left on the farm 5 minutes after I let him out of the vehicle. Then, IF I were to get a shot off he'd be gone like the wind only to be found sitting by the tailgate shivering in fear when I got back there

Some dogs love it. Some simply do not.

 

[TringSaint]

I sometimes take my korthals out with me a she will find what I have shot, but then just comes back to me and runs off in another direction, leaving me to find the animal!
My GWP is even worse - if he can’t ‘see’ it then he is not interested, and he gets way too excited when a deer comes into view, as he wants to go an ‘play’ with it!!

 

[Brittany boy]

I sometimes take my korthals out with me a she will find what I have shot, but then just comes back to me and runs off in another direction, leaving me to find the animal!
My GWP is even worse - if he can’t ‘see’ it then he is not interested, and he gets way too excited when a deer comes into view, as he wants to go an ‘play’ with it!!

Are they still young, try training them with a skin and leave treats under it for them to eat on recovery, they will soon learn to stay with the beast.

 

[TringSaint]

Are they still young, try training them with a skin and leave treats under it for them to eat on recovery, they will soon learn to stay with the beast.

Old and stuck in their ways I’m afraid.

 

[Brittany boy]

My Brittany spaniel did the same with birds, would hunt , point then when bird was shot would run in point at it until she knew you had seen it then she was off again for the next bird. It wasn’t until the older vizla was gone that her retrieving deficiency became a problem. She did come from a falconer which was what he wanted and maybe your lines are used to working with birds.

 

[enfieldspares]

On two of my permissions they are mixed arable and sheep, and to keep the little woolly blighters fed over winter the farmers have planted kale and stubble turnips.
Normally the plants are maybe a foot high at this point, but given the very mild autumn and winter so far, the plants this year ate more like 18” high.
So add in a load of cwd and muntjac and all you see is the tips of ears or the top if the head or back.

Even if one does present for a shot then the next challenge is to find the animal. Difficult in the day, almost impossible in low light!

So far I have spent over an hour just trying to locate 3 carcasses which all dropped within 100m of me (even thermal was no use!) Can’t wait for the sheep to be let loose on it else the cull will be a tough one!!

Try it with evening duck flighting over a lake without a dog and you'll quickly learn to only take shots that drop them in the water. Whence you can easily see them and then take the boat out to pick them.