Red stags

Fester

Well-Known Member
Hi All
Just a quick one to who might be interested.
Was checking on our red heard we keep at the week end & one thing struck me as odd about one of the stags :eek: I noticed it in his 1st year of growing but took no real interest in it
We have about 120 or so reds, among them about 10 stags (not counting this years calves) 1 of the stags now 2 years old & a very inquisitive nature about him ( He would give me a butt up the arse if i gave him half a chance) Hes usually the 1st in the potato trailer the 1st to the gate in fact the 1st to check anything new out thats put into the paddock. (i have taken quite a liking to this particular stag because of his character so he will stay in the heard as long as i can possibly keep him along with the other "not to be shot" deer) This particular stag has a very light face, almost white to look at.
Has anyone come across this in stags they have shot in the past :confused: Ive shot quite a few red stags in norfolk, somerset & devon & can honestly say ive not noticed this in any ive seen in the wild.
 
Red deer are not a species l know the ins and outs of as l do not stalk them that often but l have an inkling that what you have there is a "bald faced deer", l have read references to them in various books/magazines, mainly regarding highland deer.
 
Hi monynut
Thanks for the reply, Most of my stalking is roe & muntjac, We keep reds as a supply for meat & general pleasure, also for general interests for local schools,colleges etc getting children involved in the countryside & giving talks on the types of deer & there habitat to be found in our country.
Some of the deer are very friendly especially some of the old hinds who will quite happily root through my pockets for digestive biscuits, others are very wild & wont come anywhere near me when im in the paddock with them. You just have to remember there wild animals at the end of the day & as long as you treat them as that then your fine. Turn your back on the wrong one & youll soon have an antler up your back end if your unlucky :D
 
steyr 243

Same here most stalking for me is roe and munties with the odd red and fallow passing through which to be honest l tend not to shoot anyway, its good to hear that the local children get the chance to get involved and learn about the countryside, l used to be a part time keeper on a NT property locally and tried to get local kids involved, we do have a large deer farm locally as far as l know they do not involve the local children at all, it is situated on the edge of a small village and come the rut the locals complain about the roaring so the deer are moved to the farthest paddocks away from the village, its a pity that some people who live in the country don't appreciate what goes on and take it for what it is. ( stand back, duck and wait for the incoming :D )
 
Hi monynut
Yes its good to get the kids involved where you can. Obviously they dont need to know about the shooting of the deer as this will take the edge off there visit if you know what i mean ;) The local schools really seem to get involved nowadays regarding the environment & the countryside so thats gotta be a good thing.
We dont have any trouble with locals complaining about the noise during the rut & quite a few tend to walk along the footpath & watch it anyway. think its a bit of a novalty for them. When the biggest stag starts rouring he really goes for it & it can be heard quite a way off. Hes a big lad with a nice set of 12 point antlers on him & soon sees the younger ones off. Although we have a couple of really nice younger stags that gave him a bit of work to do this year.
Its strange really because although i have stalked wild deer for years i do feel different when i shoot one of ours or anything happens to them. i lost my favourite old hind a month or so ago & it did leave me feeling quite sad. She would always come up to me & look for biscuits in my pocket. Unfortunately she died of old age & virtually all her teeth were ground down to nothing. She was on the list of "never to be shot" :D
 
steyr 243

l shoot muntjac on a piece of ground that goes along one edge of the deer park and l often go and have a look at the animals behind the fences, there is always one particular hind (ear tag no 1) that always comes up for a fuss, l took my daughter when she was about 7 and she thought it was the bees knees to touch such a lovely animal.

They remove the antlers of the deer which is a shame but l suppose there is a safety consideration to think of to each other and to the keepers they split up the breeding hinds and place one stag with each group and that cuts down any aggressive rutting activity but they do have to watch the wild stags that get drawn in at the rut they get so frustrated and cause a lot of damage to the perimeter wire.
 
Hi monynut
I refuse to de antler ours but i know of some places that do it. Its mainly the big deer farms that de antler. I know of 3 that do it. Tried the splitting up of the stags during the rut but it only gets them frustrated & they end up doing more damage to themselves trying to get through the fence at each other so now we just let them get on with it. They have plenty of room to get out of each others way if they need to as there are 4 seperate fields fenced off with access between them all via open gateways. We only close the gates off if we want to stop them grazing in any particular field or if we put the bison in one of the fields. "Yes i did say Bison" There bloody huge & you really have to watch your back when your in the same field as them, especially now they have calves.
Weve done well this last couple of years in regards to deer calves & only lost 1 calf this year & that was down to a twisted gut, We lost a few last year mainly because the bison got into the same field as the deer & tried to hoof the deer calves up off the ground to get them moving.
I will take some pics of the white faced stag & try post them on here so you can see. :D
By the way hope you have a happy new year my friend :D
 
steyr 243

Interesting to here you keep bison, l saw a clip on tv just last nite were a bison who was being photographed by some guy who got to close and was tossed into a tree, that's a lot of animal to be annoying.

Hope you to have a good new year and happy, safe and successful hunting in 2008.
 
Monynut
Yeh there quite a beast ill tell ya. There the land owners pets you mite say. He walks around them like he does cattle & dont even flinch, You wont catch me doing that but then he is very nervous about walking around the stags. We have this agrrement now that i sort out the deer & he does the bison. Just to give you an idea of the sort of strength they have we half buried some tractor tyres so that just the top half was out of the ground so they could use them to play with. The lower half was set in concrete. It took the bull all of ten mins to tear one out of the ground & send it hurtling down the field. Also set a telegraph pole 6ft into the ground. It took him a couple of hours to push it over 45deg.
I didnt see it on tv so will have to keep an eye out for a repeat.
 
if you swap the buscuits that may change his hair colour,try ginger nuts and let me know how he gets on :lol: :lol: .happy new year mate
 
just noticed i have started with the spelling problem now.think i will log off and go and have a practice on my 4 year old daughters leap frog game at least she can spell biscuit. :oops:
 
tika.308

Don't be embarrassed l use my 4 y/o sons leap frog all the time :D l had a spellcheck on my tool bar until the computer crashed the other day now even that's gone :confused: , what next rheumatism (if that's how you smell it) in my typing finger hope not it just happens to be my trigger finger also, who says l cant earn a living being a secretary :D.

steyr 243

It would be good to get a look at the deer maybe you could also stick some pic's of the bison on also, what sort of weight do the calves go when they are dropped?

Happy new year to everyone.
 
I'm really enjoying this thread, its about deer but not in a way you would usually expect. I drive for a living and I often drive past a deer farm on the M6 just north of Rugby. Makes my day seeing the Reds, plenty of room and very healthy looking they are too. There seems to be hundreds of deer but the stags all have their antlers and look very contented.
I'm going to drive up to the farm one of these days and be cheeky, 'Any chance of a look round squire?' :eek:
 
Mr B

Good to see you dropped in, you know you have to take some chances in life so go and knock you never know were it may lead, l used to pass a farm down the m6 on my way to Brum l think its got ground both sides of the m-way.

By the way l am hopefully making progress, l will be in contact in the near future.

Happy new year and how are the yelds eating
 
Hi Monynut,
That's the farm! There is a bridge spaning the motorway, imagine my surprise one morning when I saw a herd of Red stags crossing it!

I'm glad to see that you are making progress, I to have decided to get more into the muntjac stalking in the New Year. They are plentiful on my 50 acre plot but difficult to get at.

As for the Yield hinds, they were great! I'm putting together an article about the recipes we used. I gave a rear leg to the farmer that lets me stalk his land. I asked him if he had enjoyed the venison. He told me that they hadn't eaten it yet. They were marinading it for five days in red wine because a friend had told them it would be tough!
I'd love to have met the 'know it all who told him that'! I informed him that the deer was most likely less than two years old and a yield. What more would anyone want to know. The meat screamed quality! Never mind I'm sure it will be okay. I bet he will use juniper berries in the recipe though....'yuck'!

A 'Happy New Year' Monynut to you, your good lady and family. And to all site members. :D
 
Hi tikka308
Happy new year to you my friend. You can try give them ginger nuts next time you come over mate. I dont fancy your chances of getting out in 1 piece tho :D Youve got half a chance with rich tea but the digestives work every time mate :D
Moneynut
The bison calves weigh in at about 40 kilo when there dropped. Wouldnt like that dropping on my foot :D The red calves are about 10kilo i would say & pile weight on really fast :D The bison are housed now for the winter as its easier to feed them & keep an eye on the calves. This also allows the deer another paddock to graze in :D Were expecting another 13 bison to arrive anytime now.
Beowulf
Im not the farm you see on the M6 but i do know of that 1. Dont fancy your chances of getting of getting a look around there tho but you could always try. Your more than welcome to have a look at our reds if your passing. Im in south derbyshire/leicestershire border. Ill just need a few days notice as i work shifts. Maybe a few of us could meet up there as its nice to put a face to the people we talk to on here :confused:
Happy new year to all of you :D
 
Looks like my sepeling (spelling) is suffering as well as im struggling to string a sentence together now :!: ucking fidiot :!:
 
Thanks Steyr,
Your not that far away from me. Yes we should get a few of us together, I'm always very keen to meet the people I spend half my life with but never see! :lol:
 
sounds good to me it would be great to meet up.i will bring the ginger nuts and we can have them with a nice brew steyr.dont worry i will bring the reds the digestives along to if they will have me in the same field has them after last time they saw me.
 
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