Would you leave him ?

[Midlandstalker2024]

I would leave him. Good body. Antlers fill a rectangle shape rather than a triangle.

Real question is how does he compare to others on the ground. IMHO he is the sort of beast to leave.

I took a stag a couple of weeks ago. 10 points and a decent rack but body was quite thin and absolutely no fat on him at all so took him out as there are plenty of better ones around.

Too late, he’s hanging on a wall in the farmers house. I was on the fence about taking him if I got the chance but the morning I went out he was with a much bigger stag and I had also seen a number of other better quality stags on the ground over the past few weeks.

 

[Heym SR20]

Too late, he’s hanging on a wall in the farmers house. I was on the fence about taking him if I got the chance but the morning I went out he was with a much bigger stag and I had also seen a number of other better quality stags on the ground over the past few weeks.

In that case fair enough. It’s always a judgement call based on what else is about.

Or put it another way a monster Scottish Hill Stag is tiny little thing when compared a big Red Stag from Thetford Forest and even are small compared to some of the very large Red Stags in places like Austria and Hungary.

It also changes with time. I know a part of Skye where a 14 stone stag was large. But after a large cull that brought the deer population to well below carrying capacity beasts of 20 stone plus became the norm. All the deer were on a good level of nutrition, which in turn ensures that hinds give birth to big healthy calves, which then get a lot of milk so grow quickly and can put on lots of weight before the first winter and then can just keep going. As any livestock farmer will tell you, a big youngster will just put on weight much better than the little scrappy things.