So the deer population in the UK as a whole is too high.
Do you as a stalker want to shoot more deer or see more deer?
There seems to be two camps in this fight, now I work as a stalker for a rewilding estate so all I do is cull and in the forestry projects I am involved in its the same, so I have no choice its my job to shoot more deer, but it seems many want their cakes and eat it.
In dealing with the syndicates I come across all types of stalkers,
I get the ones who want to take one or two deer every few months for the pot, they want to enjoy the day out on their own or with a family member shooting maybe a maximum 10 a year, they usually don't have much to say about deer stalking in general its just personal enjoyment for them and maybe family time. .These ones don't make cull targets and rightly don't care either.
I get the ones that are passionate and enthusiastic about their sport, the stalk and the challenge is more important than the cull, their searching for trophies and the hunt over the meat, they are passionate enough to know everything they need and always ask loads of questions, it's quality they want not quantity. Again rightly don't make cull targets.
I get the wannabe contractors that think 40 deer are not enough for the year, the want more and they want more land, its a business for them now not the case of a few for the pot they want to shoot everything they see. I find these guys the hardest to deal with, on one hand they don't want anyone else to shoot loads of deer but on the other they want to shoot loads themselves, they are only happy if they are shooting more than anyone else, it's not about the stalk or the ground they are happy to run a lease down then jump ship next year and then find another place.
Then you have the estates and the individuals who are trying to provide recreational stalking commercially and in doing so they need to have a good stock of well bred deer and limit their shooting to keep that stock. Have minimum cull targets to meet.
I personally fall somewhere in between all of them, a mixture of like seeing my deer on my own ground but other commercial obligations to other grounds that I manage.
At the moment the only people that don't want deer shot is stalkers for whatever reason and I have said this before we are a minority in the general voting pool.
There's this problem these days within the community, we are confused in what we really want. Sustainable deer means a lot of things, one land managers prospective is different from anothers. Forestry and sustainable forestry require a deer density of between 2 to 3 deer per km² , for a better view of this that equates to around 15 deer in total for 1200 acres, for sustainable herd management for good quality trophy deer for recreational stalking that is far too low. This same density regulation is required for all nature recovery requirements such as, Peatland restoration, biodiversity credits, carbon capture credits, sustainable natural woodland etc etc. What mist stalkers require is limited stag culling and limited hind culling often not shooting more than 24 stags and 40 hinds a year per estate. Hence one of the reasons it costs so much to stalk on an estate. Just look at the average cull for a 10 thousand acre sporting estate its not high at all, I have shot more deer in a 350 acre block than some 10 thousand acre estates have in a year.
It's all about different management structures.
The main issue here is how do you want to see future deer stalking to look in the UK in the future?
We keep talking about that we should all stick together but that is utter fantasy. Yes you get the few that do but it's definitely not for the most part, we can be very exclusive as a whole and somewhat selfish individually. Examples of this are easy to see, most DMG's want accept rewilding groups or private forestry into their meetings and if they do on occasion its just to have a go.
We all know there is no appetite for hunting as a sport anymore in the UK with the wider population and the majority voter roll.
I will go back to my original question
Do you want to shoot more deer or see more deer? Because you can only shoot them once.
If you want to be part of the conversation you need to understand and see both sides of it on merit.
Do you as a stalker want to shoot more deer or see more deer?
There seems to be two camps in this fight, now I work as a stalker for a rewilding estate so all I do is cull and in the forestry projects I am involved in its the same, so I have no choice its my job to shoot more deer, but it seems many want their cakes and eat it.
In dealing with the syndicates I come across all types of stalkers,
I get the ones who want to take one or two deer every few months for the pot, they want to enjoy the day out on their own or with a family member shooting maybe a maximum 10 a year, they usually don't have much to say about deer stalking in general its just personal enjoyment for them and maybe family time. .These ones don't make cull targets and rightly don't care either.
I get the ones that are passionate and enthusiastic about their sport, the stalk and the challenge is more important than the cull, their searching for trophies and the hunt over the meat, they are passionate enough to know everything they need and always ask loads of questions, it's quality they want not quantity. Again rightly don't make cull targets.
I get the wannabe contractors that think 40 deer are not enough for the year, the want more and they want more land, its a business for them now not the case of a few for the pot they want to shoot everything they see. I find these guys the hardest to deal with, on one hand they don't want anyone else to shoot loads of deer but on the other they want to shoot loads themselves, they are only happy if they are shooting more than anyone else, it's not about the stalk or the ground they are happy to run a lease down then jump ship next year and then find another place.
Then you have the estates and the individuals who are trying to provide recreational stalking commercially and in doing so they need to have a good stock of well bred deer and limit their shooting to keep that stock. Have minimum cull targets to meet.
I personally fall somewhere in between all of them, a mixture of like seeing my deer on my own ground but other commercial obligations to other grounds that I manage.
At the moment the only people that don't want deer shot is stalkers for whatever reason and I have said this before we are a minority in the general voting pool.
There's this problem these days within the community, we are confused in what we really want. Sustainable deer means a lot of things, one land managers prospective is different from anothers. Forestry and sustainable forestry require a deer density of between 2 to 3 deer per km² , for a better view of this that equates to around 15 deer in total for 1200 acres, for sustainable herd management for good quality trophy deer for recreational stalking that is far too low. This same density regulation is required for all nature recovery requirements such as, Peatland restoration, biodiversity credits, carbon capture credits, sustainable natural woodland etc etc. What mist stalkers require is limited stag culling and limited hind culling often not shooting more than 24 stags and 40 hinds a year per estate. Hence one of the reasons it costs so much to stalk on an estate. Just look at the average cull for a 10 thousand acre sporting estate its not high at all, I have shot more deer in a 350 acre block than some 10 thousand acre estates have in a year.
It's all about different management structures.
The main issue here is how do you want to see future deer stalking to look in the UK in the future?
We keep talking about that we should all stick together but that is utter fantasy. Yes you get the few that do but it's definitely not for the most part, we can be very exclusive as a whole and somewhat selfish individually. Examples of this are easy to see, most DMG's want accept rewilding groups or private forestry into their meetings and if they do on occasion its just to have a go.
We all know there is no appetite for hunting as a sport anymore in the UK with the wider population and the majority voter roll.
I will go back to my original question
Do you want to shoot more deer or see more deer? Because you can only shoot them once.
If you want to be part of the conversation you need to understand and see both sides of it on merit.
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