Meat stag

[Jager]

Not real sure where to put this thread, Red deer being close cousins to Elk, I thought here, if it needs to be moved, all good.

I have been laid up recuperating from a couple of surgeries and going through some old images, found a few I thought I would share.

Generally we do not shoot too many deer around home, prefer to see them on the hoof, anyway, with a decent crop of oats coming along in this paddock, a couple of bachelor groups decided to visit nightly, while it can be tolerated a little bit, when about 20 stags were seen on there, it was time to change their minds.

An early start one Saturday morning seen my eldest lad and myself head down the road, then sneak up a deep creek line, then peering over the top of the bank, here were these young fellas.

A meat animal was chosen, I dropped the pin on the Mohawk and then the hard work began, made a bit easier in this instance with a tractor, you take the easy ones with the hard ones hey. lol

Enjoy.

 

[Rizzy]

Wow that's really cool, I've never seen one of those before. They do look very similar to elk. I bet that was some good tasting meat. You have any other pics of more stag?

 

[Becca]

Awesome Jäger, super fun to see what animals look like at your end of the world! What do the stags taste like?

 

[Jager]

Rizzy, here are a few other pics.

Becca, I would imagine it is very close to Elk meat. It is very good to eat, there is a gamey taste to it, which some do not like.

Do Elk have a gamey flavour to them?

The stag in the front needed culling, know bey tines, G2's I think they are referred to in the US, are a very real genetic issue in the area these two were snapped.



Mum and fawn.


A bachelor herd in the early morning sun. I buggared up the set up of the TC, facing it into the morning sun, but there was nothing else about to mount the cam to. I did have a star picket hammered in at the end of the dam, however, cattle seem to take a real liking to scrathing themselves on TC's. lol

 

[Ryan Avery]

Jäger, elk really don't have a gamey taste. The whitetail and mule deer do.

 

[orionsbrother]

Red stag is definitely on my bucket list. Deer that roar, how cool is that. There's a great guy that I've traded PM's with who is going to have a featured article about his red stag hunt in the Sept/Oct issue of Bowhunter. Just a head's up if anyone is interested.

Jager - Anytime you feel like posting some picks or sharing a story, I'll be a willing member of the audience.

 

[Jager]

Cheers orionsbrother, I am glad a few members enjoyed the pics.

It is amazing that my use of the word gamey has prompted 2 separate threads and several pages of robust discussion, yet an actual hunting thread elicits very little interest on the forum, something I have noticed in many hunting threads, this is a hunting forum, yes?

Lukem thanks for not hijacking the thread with the gamey thing too mate, looks like that is going to go pear shaped.


Here's a few more pics for you.

A short hunt, and a tough animal to secure.




This was one of the most exciting stag hunts I have had, lots of running and some pretty tricky, or should I say lucky shooting.

 

[orionsbrother]

Jager - So you say it was one of the most exciting stag hunts you've had...And then no details. When you have the time, have a beer and wax poetic. Lay out the scene, hit me with details. Start of the day, hunt, running, spectacular shot (We'll interject lucky, just like your hunting buddies), difficult recovery, skilled butchering, tenderloin on the grill, cold celebratory beer.

Lay it on me brother!

 

[Jager]

Lol So eloquent orionsbrother, I have the full story on file somewhere, give me a chance and i'll pm it.

A double six really is the ultimate with Red stags, yes, you can get them with any number of extra points (tines) but the 6x6, known as a royal head, is something every Red deer hunter strives to have in his collection, even if he has heads with more points. Unfortunately we see monstrous steroided heads coming out of places like NZ, and hunters want one, these animals are not your typical bush heads however, most are behind wire, and the very few that aren't, certainly were not born in the wild, but people claim them as trophies nonetheless.

 

[Hardstalk]

Ill take a pm on the story as well if you dont want to go public with it. Neat seeing/learning how others in different countries geterdun!

 

[Mckinnon]

Story indeed! I love the dark horns tipped with ivory, looks like a beautiful animal. Not mention the rifle, how about some details my friend!?

 

[Hardstalk]

Im revisiting this thread with a few questions yager. I noticed you mentioned the nasty taste of stag in the rut over on the "gamey" thread. Yet the most desired time to hunt them is during the rut. Does this end up in alot of harvests strictly for mounts? Also you mentioned that you can hunt stag year around? What is the limit of stags you can take yearly? Is this considered a "backcountry" hunt or more of a pal around with mates and look over a few ridges hoping to see something kind of hunt?

Ive seen shows that people are paying trophy fees to outfitters out the wazoo for solid stags. Its an animal that really intrigues me and I think its time to start saving and researching on how I can make it out there to hunt me one .

 

[Jager]

Yes Hardstalk, most harvests during the peak rut are strictly for mounts. You will read many stories in magazines how the hunter butchers and takes the meat, there talking through their you know whats. They just won't admit that they only took the trophy. There is no requirement here though with Red deer to take the meat.
Hunters though, through their own ethics as I am sure you know, dislike being seen to do the unethical thing amongst their peers.

You can hunt stags year round with no limit as to numbers, you can harvest as many as you can catch up with, remember though Red stags in the southern hemisphere are in direct opposite to Red stags and bull Elk in the Northern hemisphere as to rutting and casting antlers. Our stags rut late march through to end of April, and then will usually have a mini rut approx. a month later, joining with hinds that weren't bred during the March-April period. They also cast around the end of September period through October, so something to take into consideration when planning a hunt down here o NZ.

Where these stags were taken is private land, made up of temperate rainforest mountains, so yeah, it is as backcountry as you want to make it, depending how far you want or need to push out. It is not really the type of country where you can just have a casual look over a few ridges.

As I said earlier, there are people out there that pay huge trophy fees to smoke a poor old monster stag in a pen, and to me, I don't care if the paddock is 10 000 acres, it is still a penned animal.

NZ is your best bet to take a big true free range animal, up to you if you hire a guide, but it is quiet simple to do DIY, more than happy to help you out with the info or recommend a decent guide. You could visit Australia, but your limiting yourself to opportunities then, as there isn't that much public land hunting for Reds and private land can be hit and miss.

Hope I answered your questions, feel free to ask anymore you may have.

 

[orionsbrother]

Jager - I hope to be in a position to need to pester you with questions in a few years.

 

[Jager]

Not a problem mate, just drop me a line and I will do my best to help.

 

[Jager]

This was another great hunt, aren't they all though. We had worked some new rainforest country along a creek, and I just got 'that' idea, that we were about to bunp a stag. A mate and myself had just turned towards the creek and I said we should start moving real slow, 'patrolling your arcs' if you like. My mate was to take the first shot opportunity, however, as I was navigating, I had moved to the front to choose our new direction, next thing this big old boy simply wandered up out of the creekline, moving left to right at about 30 yards. We never hunt with a closed bolt, generally have a round feed in though, with the bolt slightly back in the action and simply close it as we're shouldering the rifle. I squeezed the trigger and click, I didn't have a round fed in, no sooner had the pin clicked on an empty chamber of the .308, my mates .300WM barrel snaked past my cheek and let rip, connecting solidly. The stag turned and started to run back in the direction he had come from, only going about 20-30 yards before going down. The big benefit of how we work together was shown here, mind you he still gave it to me afterwards, I got my own back though with the last stag I posted.

 

[OBP]

Awesome stories and pics jager. How much do stags weigh? Do they get much bow hunting pressure?

 

[Jager]

Cheers OPB.

A mature stag can tip the scales anywhere up to around the 420 pound mark, give or take.

Yeah plenty are taken with bows each year. I hunted this roar with my bow, nothing of great quality was found though.

 

[Justin Crossley]

Sweet pics and story man! Those are really cool. I hope I get a chance to hunt them one day!

 

[Jager]

Thankyou Justin.

When I get a bit of spare time, I will post up the process for a hunter wanting to hunt Red stags DIY public land in NZ. Aust. is a bit more difficult for big stags.

If you are a keen trophy hunter, hunting the Red roar is a must, once someone has experienced it, they are hooked. I love seeing hunters successful, and more so if I have helped out in some way, especially if along for the hunt. Rule no1 though, YOU shoot it, YOU carry it. lol