that poor bucks not got a leg to stand onWhat use did you possibly have for the one leg?
boom boom ! 
Roe size in the UK?
- Thread starter randello88
- Start date
boom boom ! Argyll and Bute carcass weight is usually about 10-14kg for an adult. Kids over the winter 7-9kg. The Highland Game cut off for underweight is 10.9kg I think, and £1 a kg if under. I shot a buck last summer that would have been borderline making a medal, and I got £10.90 for the carcass.
Some of my 2024-2025 season carcass weights in NE Scotland in an area with good agricultural land.
Forestry
Arable Farmland
Forestry
Arable Farmland
Heym SR20
Well-Known Member
A lot also depends on age. A decent mature buck of 5 or 6 years old will be substantially heavier than a 3 year old. Sadly in many parts of the UK now few deer get much of chance ti become properly grown and fully mature since the tendency now is too shoot everything on sight.
IMO, it's all too easy to find a reason why a particular animal "is a good one to take", especially when you've invested a good deal in getting within range.
Perhaps we should ask the cooler heads among the SD community to sketch out some readily recallable guidelines about "what not to take"...
Of course the most creative moment to decide these is when seeking a measure of consolation after an animal eludes our efforts.
Heym SR20
Well-Known Member
What not to take - simple:
Healthy young deer - let them grow into healthy bigger deer
Does / Hinds with good sized young / followers. Clearly better able to produce good healthy youngsters.
Bucks / stags with good strong upright posture, well muscled, glossy coats etc.
Dominant bucks / stags / does and hinds. These control the herd and provide knowledge to the youngsters of where to go, wheres safe, where is dangerous. They also keep other younger deer coming into their territory.
To maintain a healthy sustainable herd you take the old past breeding and poor quality, skinny stuff. Once you have a balance then overall quality rises dramatically.
On Skye on area I know a Stag of 14 stone was large. They reduced the deer population by 60%. Stags started coming off regularly over 20 stone. No other changes other than deer density. Deer didn’t have to compete with each other.
If most of the deer you see are skinny, little body fat etc etc then you are probably at too high a stocking density for that locality.
thats all well and good but of course it depends on the landowners / foresters wished re deer on their land
Heym SR20
Well-Known Member
Fortunately I have land owners that haven’t bought into the “every deer must be shot” narrative. And we have plenty of young trees and plantations that are doing very well and growing nicely even without deer fencing.
bully for you but not really answering my question is it ?at the end of the day its the landowner who makes the decisions on deer management and how they want to proceed , you can advise but its down to them
Heym SR20
Well-Known Member
A lot of landowners are new to countryside land management and are very poorly advised. I have just walked over one piece of ground where they have replanted three times. Trees are not growing.
1) the land is very poor
2) they are planting on mounds - effectively putting young trees well above access to water. They paid good money for a contractor to go and put we divots all over the place. The land is free draining so absolutely no need.
3) the deer fencing is a waste of money. Roe deer can straight under the gates. And the fencing is easy enough for foxes and badgers to push underneath making runs so that roe can go under.
And yet those who have been advising and taking all the money are stating that its the deer that are the problem.
Yes I do know what I am talking about. I am married to a professional forester and trained in agriculture and wildlife management, albeit have gone in a different direction professionally.
You and I don’t agree on most things. Lets leave it at that.
funnily enough similar experience on an estate i manage , wheelings under the deerfencing a fallow couldve fitted through ( theres only roe on my ground but you see the point ) and trees planed in very boggy ground so basically rotting .
my mrs is a nurse doenst mean i know how to give someone end of life care , lets leave it at that
I think the posts above sum the issues up really well...no easy answer and lots of conflicting views.
Not enough land to do everything and to many people all with different views and many who dont want to change their behaviour or see others perspectives (regardless of whether they agree).
Its not unreasonable for a farmer to want to make a profit and if they can earn more through solar farms, AD plants or the crops to feed them, wild bird feed, set aside etc ....but we also need to appreciate that cheap meat = lower welfare standards and imports (generally both).
I try and do my bit by growing veg, rearing pigs, eating venison etc but again that isnt practical for everyone.
No easy answers.
Not enough land to do everything and to many people all with different views and many who dont want to change their behaviour or see others perspectives (regardless of whether they agree).
Its not unreasonable for a farmer to want to make a profit and if they can earn more through solar farms, AD plants or the crops to feed them, wild bird feed, set aside etc ....but we also need to appreciate that cheap meat = lower welfare standards and imports (generally both).
I try and do my bit by growing veg, rearing pigs, eating venison etc but again that isnt practical for everyone.
No easy answers.
randello88
Well-Known Member
Ahahahah i don’t know man, i read some weird stuff on forums pretty oftenWhat use did you possibly have for the one leg?
btw i have at least a couple uses for one leg. i even killed a there legged roe with a game camera once. He was jumping around pretty happily and that seemed to be an old injury. He ended up in the stomach of wolves most likely
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Terrydeer
Well-Known Member
I take it these are larder weights, in skin or not in skin, thank you
randello88
Well-Known Member
Here in Italy we hunt them mostly in public land and we have governement organizations that provide a killing plan based on the observation and the counting we hunters do each year. We kill males regardless of age, females and small ones depending on how many they are in excess. We have a lot of roes so of someone look for tags you can hunt a lot of them each year. After the huge increase of wolves population, roes population decreased a bit but there is still plenty. One time i was literally going to shoot a female roe one morning, she suddenly looked back to the threeline and started running full speed. Two seconds later a big apparently lonely wolf started chasing her from that same threeline, maybe 20 meters from me. The bastard was hunting her as well in that same moment
Sometimes i find bloodbath in the fields with literally pieces of roes scattered around. I have a video of it, looked like an horror movie. Sometimes I even find places were wolves bring their prey and finish eating them. It’s impressive to see how many bones there are and also the marks of the theeth in those bones
Predator competition i guess
So our government basically eliminates roes as if we are cutting a three, keeping the piramidal structure of the population as much as possible. This means many young and small roes are killed. This is the consensus of naturalists
Sometimes i find bloodbath in the fields with literally pieces of roes scattered around. I have a video of it, looked like an horror movie. Sometimes I even find places were wolves bring their prey and finish eating them. It’s impressive to see how many bones there are and also the marks of the theeth in those bones
Predator competition i guess
So our government basically eliminates roes as if we are cutting a three, keeping the piramidal structure of the population as much as possible. This means many young and small roes are killed. This is the consensus of naturalists
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randello88
Well-Known Member
*watched not killed of courseAhahahah i don’t know man, i read some weird stuff on forums pretty often
I wouldn’t say fencing is a waste of money.
It isn’t completely deer proof, but it does reduce the pressure.
I’ve got ground that was completely unmanageable before the fences went in - they just poured in out of adjacent woodland. Now there are still deer, but rather than shooting 8 every trip, I shoot 1 every other trip.
The body size has gone way up for the ones inside the fence - 18-20% weight increase and some thumping great heads. But the density is now 3 per km rather than 25+.
And I’ve not been even slightly selective. I’ve shot everything legal that I’ve seen.
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An interesting thread.
In general terms, a big roe deer is around the same weight as an adult (and not overweight) Labrador retriever I've heard it said. Although it appears perhaps in many areas, maybe more akin to perhaps a Springer Spaniel.
Comparing to humans, I'm shocked to estimate I'm probably five times the weight of some roe deer. I think in future, I'll compare my weight to Red deer.
In general terms, a big roe deer is around the same weight as an adult (and not overweight) Labrador retriever I've heard it said. Although it appears perhaps in many areas, maybe more akin to perhaps a Springer Spaniel.
Comparing to humans, I'm shocked to estimate I'm probably five times the weight of some roe deer. I think in future, I'll compare my weight to Red deer.
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