bambislayer
Well-Known Member
Grant
you might be getting in to the realms of trophy shooting here
which is a totally different thread altogether
I thought I'd just start a new thread as the meat damage one is going biblical
On ground where I set prices & terms, I do not charge a trophy fee, you get what you get, someone may get a slightly expensive cull buck but the next day he may shoot an extremely cheap medal, you pay the money and take the chance that is stalking.
I also try wherever possible to let stags by the day, so depending on how the day goes you may shoot more than 1 stag. This comes down to my expenses, I need x ammount a day to run things, these costs are the same no matter how many stags are or aren't shot. When I first started working the estate ,let "sport" by the day and it was up to the keeper and tennant to decide what would happen that day ie grouse, stalking , fishing, all the same cost, the tennants would take the lodge for x ammount of days/weeks . It was a simple and effective system, if you caught a fish in the morning then you'd head out for a stag and then possibly a grouse for your macnab, you pay for a day you get a day.
Back to topic! I never advertise trophies, or even mention them, but I would say 90% of clients will ask what the chances are of getting one within 1 hour of arrival!
Many agents will promise them to clients just to get trade, and when the client is met by the stalker and is told they have never seen one on their estate, you have one ****ed off client.
I like to see happy clients and their is nothing better than seeing someones eyes[or mine] light up when they see a prime animal close up, if we are dealing with stags then , there is no question about it , you don't shoot the best stags, however it seems the bucks are a different ball game, very few will pass them by especially with the price tag or tips involved.
Shooting times have their annual buck and stag review, both come from a completely different angle. the stag one looks at age, weight weather, the buck one - medals, when discussing bucks how often is age asked?????.
You will see on the list the same names appearing again and again, maybe because they have access to ground that produces a lot of bucks?????
Maybe they are trophy hunters????
I've had a few of the latter out, one who is a bit of a celeb has quite a unique roe set up
A custom 7mm rem mag with a night force mega scope, and stated that as long as he could see the medal he could kill the medal, when I approached the subject of meat damage, he flipintly stated he'd pay for it up front!!!!! and it would be worth my while
Luckily my employer at the time didn't need the money and cared more for sport than people , so this guy was never back.
Keeping trophies is quite different from trophy hunting, trophy hunting does nothing for deer management or stalking and only has unscrupulous agents/owners to blame as they are fueling the market by letting it happen.
Rant over