Heym SR20
Well-Known Member
There is very little place in my view for digital and novice stalkers.
A novice stalker needs to learn how to find deer, accurately observe deer and shoot them quickly and humanely.
The best tool for the job is the mark one eyeball supported by decent binoculars and a simple rifle scope with minimum of bells and whistles.
Digital optics provide a much worse image compared to a decent optical scope. If you need night time vision, then a sub £100 led torch will give you all the light you need.
Digital optics are a tool for expert and professional stalkers who really know their land well and have specific deer management problems to deal with.
For large culls needed in peri urban areas by far the best method is an organised driven style hunt with many rifles out on one day all on platforms / highseats with clearly defined arcs of fire into safe zones.
Given such culls will achieve a large proportion of the deer management required they only need two or three times a year at most and the area can be shut off ti the general public during those times.
As for general publics view on this - well that is a matter of education on why deer need to be managed.
All this sneaking around at night time picking off a few deer at a time achieves is driving the deer into safe areas such as gardens etc where they cause further problems and bloody hard work and trips to A&E with broken ankles and cuts from trying to recover deer in the middle of the night when knackered.
A novice stalker needs to learn how to find deer, accurately observe deer and shoot them quickly and humanely.
The best tool for the job is the mark one eyeball supported by decent binoculars and a simple rifle scope with minimum of bells and whistles.
Digital optics provide a much worse image compared to a decent optical scope. If you need night time vision, then a sub £100 led torch will give you all the light you need.
Digital optics are a tool for expert and professional stalkers who really know their land well and have specific deer management problems to deal with.
For large culls needed in peri urban areas by far the best method is an organised driven style hunt with many rifles out on one day all on platforms / highseats with clearly defined arcs of fire into safe zones.
Given such culls will achieve a large proportion of the deer management required they only need two or three times a year at most and the area can be shut off ti the general public during those times.
As for general publics view on this - well that is a matter of education on why deer need to be managed.
All this sneaking around at night time picking off a few deer at a time achieves is driving the deer into safe areas such as gardens etc where they cause further problems and bloody hard work and trips to A&E with broken ankles and cuts from trying to recover deer in the middle of the night when knackered.
