Are Mature Fallow Bucks Rare In The Wild?

[David Brown]

Earlier I posted on Swap a Stalk a go at Sika and Reds here for Fallow,CWD or Munties. I received lots of good offers from a host of tremendous lads as well as some rather bizarre ones! I have some very good mature Sika Stags and was hoping for a chance at a mature Fallow Buck. However most folk I speak to say palmated bucks are now very very rare in the wild. Is this really the case? if so it's quite sad and maybe a lesson for us in Scotland as I guess it is because they are being knocked off as they cross ground in different ownership at a young age. Big Red stags are not as common here as they once were due to shooting pressure and as it takes 10 years to grow a good stag then Reds could be more susceptible to this problem. We do have the advantage of bigger ,wilder areas though which will help. I wrote this then saw the pictures of Malcolm 's buck!!!!!!! David

 

[Amhuinnsuidhe]

Are you sorted for your swap?

 

[Robin]

Good bucks are very rare in the wild and the few I get I try and look after, but as everyone knows deer roam, and the majority of stalkers in my area shoot first and ask questions later.
As has been said previously,most people shoot prickets and sorrels on site , the problem is a few of these are the good bucks of the future and if you don't select the right ones your good bucks are shot too early,ergo ,no mature bucks.
Good Fallow also take 7-10 years to make really good heads, and their ground down here is much smaller than yours in Scotland.

 

[stalkerboydy]

Good bucks are very rare in the wild and the few I get I try and look after, but as everyone knows deer roam, and the majority of stalkers in my area shoot first and ask questions later.
As has been said previously,most people shoot prickets and sorrels on site , the problem is a few of these are the good bucks of the future and if you don't select the right ones your good bucks are shot too early,ergo ,no mature bucks.
Good Fallow also take 7-10 years to make really good heads, and their ground down here is much smaller than yours in Scotland.

CORRECT in my opinion I ALWAYS take a rubbish Buck over a Pricket eg above the ears and even ( pricket ) it's safe from me Also I think in general Fallow are the MOST miss managed Species we have ANYTHING with Antlers get Wacked

 

[223]

i only have fallow on my ground and mature bucks are very rare but fallow are buggers for wandering so once they are over the boundary its out of my hands

 

[Msw]

We have a good number of decent mature Fallow Bucks here round Dunkeld. We have had a number of medal heads and shoot about 20 trophy heads a season with big palmated antlers. Cant find any photos of them but here a a couple of the average bucks we shoot.

 

[sikastag270]

rare as hens teeth in east lothian

 

[jungle_re]

We're a lot of nice heads in berskshire - tyford maidenhead way. Although I've not shot down that way for a while they were starting to get put under quite a bit pressure by pikeys hunting with dogs. I found several monster carcasses with bite marks all up the hocks the body's completely untouched not gutted but perfectly caped and that was all. I'd hesitate to think the spread they would have had as the size was huge. Out of the 2 separate groups I once stalked both had many medal heads and lots of small palm. Sadly as a young junior the buck were out of my allowance as my rights only cover fallow does, roe and muntys. Was some great deer in them part if you can get and keep an IN.

 

[teyhan1]

So it begs the question.
To those people that have Fallow.
If they are rare, but one walks out in front of you, at an appropriate time of year, would you shoot it?
I suspect that for many, the answer is bloody hell yes!!

 

[perdix]

And if the answer was yes,is that good management or just trophy hunting

 

[Taff]

new forest is full of the bxxxxy things, most of the stalkers I know are not trophy hunters, as to good management, most folk on here don,t have enough ground to truly manage a herd of wild red or fallow.

 

[liongeorge]

new forest is full of the bxxxxy things, most of the stalkers I know are not trophy hunters, as to good management, most folk on here don,t have enough ground to truly manage a herd of wild red or fallow.

There are a lot of deer on the New Forest but Gold and Silver medal are still like hens teeth. Just find out how many CIC and BASC mark. From memory BASC marked none last year. A lot of people see a palmated buck and think wow that's a medal head but the marking is V tough for fallow and the big ones are very few and far between. It will be interesting to see if Sikamalcs makes a medal.
As far as management is concerned , unless you manage the whole area that the deer cover which is virtually impossible then management is very difficult. This is exaserpated by the fact that the bucks are in season for so much longer than the does much of this during longer days with better weather therefore inevitably many more of them will be shot.
Mostly around here they are regarded as pests and as many are shot as possible. They do have the ability of getting out of hand quite quickly. Farmer Palmer doesn't like seeing 30+ in his field of wheat.

 

[243varmint]

So it begs the question.
To those people that have Fallow.
If they are rare, but one walks out in front of you, at an appropriate time of year, would you shoot it?
I suspect that for many, the answer is bloody hell yes!!

I had a 4 nice bucks in front of me last Sunday.
2 really big mature black bucks and 2 lesser common.
I left the 2 black bucks and took the 2 common.

BUT as a lot of people have said around with us the big boys tend to get smacked. So hopefully they will stay with us for a bit.

Hopefully they will be around to see them rutting.

Jonathon

 

[lwcdart]

new forest is full of the bxxxxy things, most of the stalkers I know are not trophy hunters, as to good management, most folk on here don,t have enough ground to truly manage a herd of wild red or fallow.

Taff

Yes buddy we too have plenty on out ground as you know , but we are sticking to prickets & sorrels as i just cant move the biguns anymore!

I collected one last week that was 79kg from one larder not too far away. I would sooner they shoot smaller as im getting too old to move those now.

Regs lee

 

[Msw]

This is one of our Bronze medal heads, with a CIC score of 161.34. It was shot in the forestry near Dunkeld.

 

[perdix]

Mostly around here they are regarded as pests and as many are shot as possible. They do have the ability of getting out of hand quite quickly. Farmer Palmer doesn't like seeing 30+ in his field of wheat.

Exactly the same as where I was liongeorge.
What I was clumsily trying to say was,how many stalkers (pleasure or otherwise) would leave a decent buck and shoot a doe so missing out on a trophy head?

 

[Msw]

Exactly the same as where I was liongeorge.
What I was clumsily trying to say was,how many stalkers (pleasure or otherwise) would leave a decent buck and shoot a doe so missing out on a trophy head?

That is impossible to answer as it completely depends on your management objectives, the Fallow numbers in the area, the condition of the buck in question, time of year etc etc

 

[mereside]

thats a cracking head forestranger ,one day i will have a fallow i saw one in NZ still in velvet and it looked stunning, atb wayne

 

[jimbo1984]

On mine and my friends permission we see fallow very infrequently they seem to stay a week or two then move on so don't take many my mate got a little buck last year sbd this year I saw a monster buck with 3 little prickets but let them be , however when they've gone off our boundary who knows what will happen :/

 

[Monkey Spanker]

There are probably a lot more than you realise! However, they didn't get to maturity by being stupid! They tend to be the more elusive or nocturnal ones that reach older ages. Sadly though, they can still be taken with a lamp as recent footage on here showed!
MS