Open season question

[Dawsie]

Why is it that all of the main four species of deer in Wales & England have the same open season dates (male - Aug 1 - Apr 30 / Female - Nov 1 - Mar 31) except for the Roe buck? (Apr 1 - Oct 31).

 

[slider]

well as far as females are concerned they are all potentially in heavily pregnant of feeing young. s far as males go I have never understood the logic for any close season,

 

[nun_hunter]

For bucks/stags it's all about trophies and so not shooting them while they're in velvet (or without any antlers) and so potentially "wasting" a good trophy. I assume it stems from a time where deer management was about trophies and nothing else.

 

[smullery]

Why is it that all of the main four species of deer in Wales & England have the same open season dates (male - Aug 1 - Apr 30 / Female - Nov 1 - Mar 31) except for the Roe buck? (Apr 1 - Oct 31).

We could start with the Roe deer being “different” in that the female’s fertilised egg implantation in the uterus is delayed until the daylight changes after the winter Soltice. I do hope that you can tell the difference on a gloomy winter morning. February is bad enough gralloching two fetus, but March still is a no for me.

We could stick with the “Big rack Rules” for the antlers on the males, so you can see them and know what to shoot.

We could just say that what has gone before, or choose to go out in the middle of a harvest and shoot when even the shot gunners don’t shoot.

We could just fit in with what the woman “aka the Boss” expects of us on the calendar........

Stan

P.S. Feel free to offer a reason for change.

 

[NigelM]

As far as the English are concerned it's all about antlers on the males. Whilst a stag or buck is in hard antler rather than velvet it's fair game. Roe are different to the others as they cast in November/December rather than May. Females are all pregnant from October (Roe delayed impregnation) and heavily pregnant by end March - some would say end Feb. We run a tightrope on females on shooting them whist they have dependant young at foot and before the foetus gets so well developed we find it distasteful to deal with the gralloch.

I think the Scots have it right on the seasons. It's more about animal welfare than the state of the antlers. They shoot the stags a month earlier than us and don't worry about the trophy being in velvet and they stop at the end of the rut when the beast has lost 25% of it's body weight and desperately needs to recover. They stop shooting the females well before the foetus is developed.

And that's from an Englishman.