Aging Sika

[wildfowler.250]

Does anyone have any good experience aging sika? Mainly thinking about stags. Certainly down Dorset way they seem more managed for trophy quality?

Appreciate spikers are pretty obvious but when they get to the 6-7 point range, it’s harder to tell if they’re going back or not. Reds get the long brow tines, loose tines higher up, shorter bey tines. Roe get sloping coronets etc. Sika seem more prone to snapping tines vs other species as well.

Apart from overall body condition, is there anything clear cut? Appreciate some folk may think they should be shot on site but I think the horse has well bolted from an elimination point of view.

 

[AM_Lillycombe]

I’d be interested in hearing this also. Mainly from a “is it still good to eat or is it old and tough” perspective.

But management in Dorset??? My limited experience of just starting to shoot deer this year in Dorset with guides (1xroe, 2xsika and a fallow last night) plus the experienced stalkers I’ve spoken to locally, is basically “shoot everything you see that is in season”.

I understand this is what the land owners want/need because there is so many here!!!

Only with the exception of the roe bucks that stay on a particular ground/territory and are left to mature for trophy shooters.

You have had a different experience?

 

[Home Loader]

Look at the weight/thickness of the antlers, it is not unusual in the New Forest to have a 6 point second head or an 8 but this will be quite fine with small coronets on long pedicals. Older animals the coronets are much larger in diameter and appear do drop towards the scalp quite quickly, as for going back the way they fight you generally find dead stags rather than old stags. If you look at the skull around the pedicals they will very often have extra bone/antler growth most likely due to fighting damage.
Body posture is a good clue to age, often it just the weight/bulk of the antlers, also take into consideration this time of year a stag will have a right hand man and a couple of brockets hanging around a good time to look at antler formation and growth, the old boy is generally the last one you will see.

 

[Bugsy]

A “ Brocket “ that’s a new one to me , up here we call it a pricket .. we call it a “dwang “ youz call it a “nogging “ .. joinery talk or as youz would say a carpenter .

 

[NickJ]

A “ Brocket “ that’s a new one to me , up here we call it a pricket .. we call it a “dwang “ youz call it a “nogging “ .. joinery talk or as youz would say a carpenter .

A bit of a New Forest term, I've only heard it used there, mainly with reds - but those with West Country stag hunting knowledge might correct me.

For sika/reds I usually hear male yearlings called spikers in England and Knobbers in Scotland. IME pricket is usually a fallow yearling male

 

[Home Loader]

Brocket is definitely a term which appears to be being lost. The old keepers around the new forest have forever called Sika and Red first head/spikers by the name Brockets. Prickets are fallow with their first antlers. Unfortunately this does appear to be slipping and a lot of people call them prickets, may be it’s because they’ve not had the exposure to red or sika a long side the old guard?
Perhaps I should get on my high horse and and start a bullets or heads style thread .

 

[VSS]

Brocket is definitely a term which appears to be being lost. The old keepers around the new forest have forever called Sika and Red first head/spikers by the name Brockets. Prickets are fallow with their first antlers. Unfortunately this does appear to be slipping and a lot of people call them prickets, may be it’s because they’ve not had the exposure to red or sika a long side the old guard?
Perhaps I should get on my high horse and and start a bullets or heads style thread .

I think that using the correct terminology to describe the species, age and sex of deer is very important, and should be encouraged, but there will inevitably be regional variations.

 

[Mungo]

I think that using the correct terminology to describe the species, age and sex of deer is very important, and should be encouraged, but there will inevitably be regional variations.

I’ve often thought it would be worth finding out what the Japanese nomenclature is for sika. Seems appropriate, and I imagine quite evocative.

 

[Mungo]

So it turns out the Japanese for deer is… shika.

A stag is Oshika. A hind is Mejika.

So when you say ‘sika deer’, you’re really just saying ‘deer deer’.

I do the research so you don’t have to

 

[Norfolk Deer Search]

Aging male deer is quite simple they are either -

Yearling
Young
Middle Aged
Late middle aged
Old.

All you have to do really is look at the neck size and antler the antler will tell you everything. The size of the coronets is the big giveaway and if you’re not that close that you can look at the coronets you need better binoculars or spotting scope, or you need to learn how to stalk

As for female deer, my personal experience you need to look at the length of the snout, male dear usually the older they get the nose shorten and they start looking like an old Bullock, where as hinds/does as the age the snout grows longer all very simple and all stuff really if you’ve watched a lot of deer.

All this aging by Numbers (which is an SD favourite, and one that I laugh about all the time) is absolute bull their wild creatures they don’t know what numbers are, it’s only something to please humans nothing more nothing less