Have lots of pictures, just seeing if I can join the elite that do it succesfully??

Richard,

You succeeded in posting the photo - for sure well above my level of competency.....I guess you're now an elitist?

Query about the subject matter? Your pals after a Pub Crawl or some Deer just Hanging around?

Oh my god it works!!

That is deffinately white man magic!!

The subject matter is indeed deer hanging around - when I worked with the deer - now just grouse (miss them a bit!)

Skinning all my own handy work, the whole process from in the door to on the hook took me 13 minutes on a good day - time always dropped if I had upto 12 - 16 to do.

I was always particular about poor quality skinning/ripping meat/fat layers - somedays the help I had was unwanted!!

The finished article - mouth watering!!



Not all of the 300 fallow I took out a year were skinned....

Those are great professionally prepared cuts.

I too hate to see knife work all over a carcass!

Did you sell most of the deer jacket on?

Bog,

About 50%, thankfully not all had to be cut into joints.

Nightwalker,

Can you share some of the tips for taking such large numbers of deer? I assume you were always aiming to take several animals from each herd you saw?

Did you always go for the lead doe, neck shots only? Or did you work as part of a pair of shooters?

Cheers

Gabriel

Gabriel,

This is of course in a deer park situation (but a wooded/natural vegetation one - plenty of areas for deer to act like wild deer!!)

I personaly preferred headshots to neck shots - but you must have a good rifle and scope set up (with good bullets) and know your own limitations! (reasoning for headshots was if the correct position was chossen then instant death, smaller aiming area (this made me more precise with aim), no paralised animals (don't favour neck shooting in wild either), easier/cleaner animal to deal with in the larder. Downside to head shots are smashed jaws - reason for aiming for the right part of the head (the brain - sits very high in a deer), swinging jaws are not pleasant (again know your own limitations!).



In the ideal world Its nice to take several animals out of a herd, but it always starts with one animal (back to precision aiming and selecting the right animal), quite often, especially after a few weeks, or months, of culling the deer definately knew what the score was and they got into very tight groups -



Another reason to favour head shots over neck shots....with a safe back stop of course.

In scenarios of deer getting into groups its imperative to make sure there are no animals behing the intended target.

One year I had 3 prickets that all portraid downturned ears - on dissection the base of the ears had what looked like a gross amount of cartilage - unfortunately they were never sent off for vetenary examination/explanation, see picture below...



In the next picture, what looks like a safe shot, until on close examination of another pricket stood behind the intended cull animal - hope this is visible on the picture - a chance for a two with one or maybe a one and an injured one from bullet fragmentation...



Someone did once suggest getting rifles into various high seats/vantage points within the park to try for a large cull, the deer soon worked out where they were and avoided the "killing" areas - I was of the opinion that they were more stressed than just myself in a vehicle or on foot.

Some interesting abnormalities always showed up - this mature buck had swept back antlers and dissapeared/lay down in thick undergrowth whenever I was culling (I eventually shot him by climbing a fallen tree as he slept in thick undergrowth!). His head was a mass of puss, presumably this occured whilst his antlers were still in velvet....







Incidently I used a semi custom .243 firing Berger bullets, and a 6-24x50 Habicht scope (essential in precision shooting).

Hope this fills a few blanks in, oh yes I am also a firm believer in a type of sixth sense in deer - it was almost as if they knew how many animals I needed for a given day - once that number was reached they seemed far more approachable and less wary. I also stopped short of a required number if I felt the deer were getting stressed, this might have been due to climate conditions (wind mainly) or just getting off to a bad start (deer wild). I also found it better not starting a break of day, but giving the deer an hour or so of light to get settled before culling (which lasted about an hour or two).

NW

Great!

Those fallow have a good fat layer - wow!

Thanks for taking the time to share your experience NW!

Yes, the old bucks have a mass of fat on them (due to a massive sweet chestnut crop!), makes them a bu**er to skin cleanly!!

Give me a pricket any day!

I would rather skin a red deer than a Muntjac also!!! If you have tried skinning them you will know what I mean!!

NW,

preparing a pricket in the larder i suppose made it easier to pop the testicles into someone's pocket without them realising!?

your muntjac were tough little buggers, ive still got the scar to prove it.

Yep you got it Alex! Never fails to make me chuckle!!

Mind you, you were lucky, a "helper" once slipped a deer testicle into a trainees sandwich - thankfully he realised that the large lump in his cheese sandwich wasn't made by a pickled onion, so he took it out! Funny thing is he came and accused me of doing it, of course I said did what? He said put the KIDNEY into his sandwich!!!!

Happy days....?