Shooting deer at night

[CWMMAN3738]

Whilst I accept that nighttime culling may be nessasary in some circumstances & environments I think that it should be done with some respect & conscience as well as a high degree of professionalism & skill! Also I see no reason why hinds/does cannot be culled if nessasary, within season I understand the complexity of this but if a job is worth doing, as the old saying goes. There seems to be no regard for the animals by contractors to them they are just £'s not even meat as one once told me a fawn gets him the same money & is much easier, so why not?
As said it could be improved both ethically, & economically if the FC were willing to move.

 

[CWMMAN3738]

Very true but not allways possible I'll admit however this would be ideal.

If you have a good stalker on your land who makes the effort to get out often enough there is no need to shoot deer at night! Night shooting in England is more of an excuse for not having an efficent stalker who is dedicated to deer managment on your land.

 

[sussex stalker]

It is possible if you have the right people doing the job. If you have'nt get rid of them!

Very true but not allways possible I'll admit however this would be ideal.

 

[Si]

If you have a good stalker on your land who makes the effort to get out often enough there is no need to shoot deer at night! Night shooting in England is more of an excuse for not having an efficent stalker who is dedicated to deer managment on your land.

On a 100 acre smallholding in Sussex maybe, but one stalker on a 30,000 acre estate will make zero impact on deer numbers.

 

[JAYB]

It is possible if you have the right people doing the job. If you have'nt get rid of them!

That's a pretty bold statement, ever tried to protect a newly planted forest area, tried protecting a few thousand acres of woodland. I take it you are talking about crop protection in England, I would suggest that the terrain and deer in Scottish forestry plantations present a different set of difficulties that require different methods.

John

 

[The deer man]

On a 100 acre smallholding in Sussex maybe, but one stalker on a 30,000 acre estate will make zero impact on deer numbers.

In that case do you have too much ground to handle? How many of you cover 30,000 acres?

I cover 6,000 acres and have a voluntary team of four, which seems to work pretty well and we get the ground covered during legal stalking hours. Thus not having to lamp the deer illegally and turn them completely nocturnal, split them up all over the place and in short create a highly nervous and poorly conditioned herd.

Unfortunately the majority of lamping keepers and fox shooters around us haven't cottoned on to this and they have the worst deer problem of all! And serve them bloody right just because they can't get out of bed in the morning! They just look at it as 50 quid in the pocket, don't tell the boss. My personal belief is this attitude needs to be addressed as I don't believe it helps anybody including the welfare of the deer.

It took me the first five years to "shoot out" the nocturnal behavior of our resident deer as the idiot before lamped them and created an immense problem for the farm with unacceptable levels of crop damage. Apart from having spikes of damage caused by incursions of deer from other areas where they are still lamped we now have negligible damage and numbers under control.

I speak for my very small corner of England and appreciate deer management in Scotland is very different but my first two questions still stand.
​

 

[6pointer]

I was going to comment but thought i had better not .

 

[Si]

In that case do you have too much ground to handle?

Not personally, last year I was 1 of 12

How many of you cover 30,000 acres?​

 

[foxtrot]

hello, im new to the forum just wanted to ask is it legal to shoot chinese water deer at night? the reason being im asking is cos i saw some pics on a forum recently of someone shooting them at night but i always thought this was illegal? are there some special circumstances where you are allowed to shoot them under darkness?

 

[palmer_mike]

hello, im new to the forum just wanted to ask is it legal to shoot chinese water deer at night? the reason being im asking is cos i saw some pics on a forum recently of someone shooting them at night but i always thought this was illegal? are there some special circumstances where you are allowed to shoot them under darkness?

Illegal between one hour after official sunset until one hour before official sunrise.
it is theoretically possible to get a night shooting license, but in practice not sure it ever really is granted in England

 

[Stingercargill]

hello, im new to the forum just wanted to ask is it legal to shoot chinese water deer at night? the reason being im asking is cos i saw some pics on a forum recently of someone shooting them at night but i always thought this was illegal? are there some special circumstances where you are allowed to shoot them under darkness?

Good first post

 

[foxtrot]

thanks hope it is in the right section? there was another topic with the same name in the legal section but this one seemed to have more replies so i thought id get an answer on here

 

[bogtrotter]

I was going to comment but thought i had better not .

Likewise Davie but I'll just hud ma wheesht.

 

[foxtrot]

Illegal between one hour after official sunset until one hour before official sunrise.
it is theoretically possible to get a night shooting license, but in practice not sure it ever really is granted in England

sorry just saw this reply, thanks for that.

 

[JH83]

Whilst I accept that nighttime culling may be nessasary in some circumstances & environments I think that it should be done with some respect & conscience as well as a high degree of professionalism & skill! Also I see no reason why hinds/does cannot be culled if nessasary, within season I understand the complexity of this but if a job is worth doing, as the old saying goes. There seems to be no regard for the animals by contractors to them they are just £'s not even meat as one once told me a fawn gets him the same money & is much easier, so why not?
As said it could be improved both ethically, & economically if the FC were willing to move.

Agree 100%. In parts of Scotland deer are being run to the edge of existence by greedy contractors with lamps. You would not believe how much these guys can earn. It's very sad stuff IMO, deer being treated like rabbits.

 

[Taff]

What is the difference between deer and rabbits, if they are causing crop damage.

 

[JH83]

Really? Well for a start rabbits have several broods a year of many kits, whereas deer usually have one, maybe 2, once a year. Also there is very little profit in rabbiting unlike deer, so I think the heavy culling by lamp needs scrutinising, because there is a huge financial incentive to do so at any cost and any tenuous justification. I know of areas in the highlands that are made up of solely mature trees that have been lamped to death, where little damage was occurring just because they could! In the right circumstances that's fine, but how often is it really necessary.

 

[Taff]

So the difference is that they have less young, yet when I go rabbit shooting I might shoot 30 rabbits, yet when I go after deer I may shoot two per outing, so you begrudge a landowner making money off what is on his land, and what is his property, because it's a deer.
What actually is the benefit of deer, apart from providing a extra income to the landowner, you have to answer these questions before you can condemn people who lamp deer.

 

[JH83]

No I didn't say I begrudge lamping deer, what I am saying is that I totally begrudge people going out and lamping where there is no good reason, because they are greedy and lazy, and shooting far too many to line their own pockets at the expense of deer that have been properly managed for decades previously. In some cases it is necessary I grant you, but not many. A decent group of dedicated deer managers should be able to make the necessary impact into deer numbers without resorting to the lamp. If this is allowed on a large scale and ignored it will devastate the population and the rural economy of the highlands where stalking plays a huge role.

 

[JH83]

If you only see a pound sign when you look at a deer then I am afraid we will not find any common ground.