I'm sorta new here, but I think that I have finally found where I belong! I have been living on the northernmost island of Japan and have been lucky enough to be able to do some hunting. The rut is in full swing here and the animals are aplenty. This is the biggest bull/buck? I have taken to date, yesterday, in fact. I had to cross a scrotum high creek for the recovery, which at about 5C was tons of fun as you can imagine! I tippy-toed my best, but in the end I lost my breath.
I have plenty more pictures that I'll post later, but first I just want to make sure that I am in the right place. Is there anyone else out there who hunts these sika deer? Are they native to Europe as well?

Please post more pics . I see only red x!

Hokkaido,

Very encouraged to read your message.

Please look for a PM from me RE: hunting in Japan. Hoping you have some leads/answers for me. I'll be in Japan every year, and have been banging my head trying to figure out how to get the ball rolling as yet. Can I assume you're with the US military?

Thanks, and look forward to talking to you, hopefully.

Kamo Gari

We have them here in New Zealand too and there many of Sika in England/Ireland but they are not native.

Hi Hokkaido

Welcome aboard! Here in the SW UK I am lucky enough to have a good population of Sika close by - and try and hunt them at every opportunity.

Excellent stalking, as they seem to be very wary and possess excellent eyesight. Enjoy your hunting!

Rgds Ian

Hokkaido, Weidmannsheil on your Sika, secretive little buggers! There are also populations in Central Europe and as far north as Scandinavia (at least in Denmark). Further east, most prominently in the Ukraine and Russia proper, there are populations of the Manchurian (Dybowski) Sika, which presumably is larger than the Japanese variety.

The picture you tried to link into your post needs to be located (and referenced to) somewhere where a web server can access (serve) it. I belive the location you originally posted it from (file:///Users/Eric/Desktop/1101.jpg) is local to your own computer and not accessible via the Internet.

- mike

Hey guys, sorry, I'm having a heck of a time with the pic. I am pretty sure I got it up now.
Mike, you hit the nail on the head! Thanks!

I have been having tons of fun chasing these buggers! They are usually quite skiddish, but now in the rut it's almost too easy. They respond to plain ol elk calls from back home. I went out today into the bush hunkered up and waited about 10 min and then honked my little cheapy elk call and four bulls answered instantly! One was just a couple hundred yards ahead of me. In this thick jungle like stuff it isn't hard to hear them coming. He was a raghorn and I passed, but it was a blast! He was 10 feet at max when he passed by, then I heard him fighting with another bull. I went to investigate and found that the other bull was about the same size. I took some video on my camera, but it isn't very good.
Since I'm on a roll with the pics, I'll try to throw on another one from last winter.

These two are monsters! No one around here has ever even seen a non-typical, much less taken one. I can only hope...

That's a nice stag you have there, we are just back in from stalking for Sika hinds this morning. All we saw was one very nice stag, but, I am afraid the season for them has been closed for them here for a couple of weeks now. Very frustrating for the man who had travelled all the way from Luxembourg to shoot. Here in the North of Scotland we are blessed, or cursed it depends on your point of view, with a goodly number of them. Great stalking and great eating. Very nice picture, makes a change to see them on their home ground.

John

Wow!
That is one hell of a trophy. I wish they grew to that size in the UK/Ireland....

I always thought the Formosan sika was bigger, but those Japanese sika are magnificent.

How is the hunting pressure? Are these herds managed or just culled for numbers?
Any information about sika in Japan would be very kindly received over here, they are a fascinating species.

Hunting pressure here is quite low. Most hunters are 50 or over and don't wander far from the roads. Once snow falls they hardly ever get out of their rigs. There is a huge population of deer where I am. There is no real management objectives, they are simply culled. The bag limits are as follows: one stag a day per hunter, limitless number of does, 3 1/2 month season. It's a lot of fun! Sometimes they have drives where guys set off firecrackers on one side of a area and lots of guns wait on the other. Not unusual to see 20 head taken on such an event. The older bigger stags are much harder to harvest. The species here is indigenous to the island and differ slightly from the manchurian breed. A mature stag will wear 4 points on each antler, but occasionally have 5. Is that the same as over there?

Hokkaido,

I am not sure Northern Japan qualifies as "European" but we are a pretty easy going bunch on here, so please feel free to make yourself at home!!

Thats a very nice stag indeed! We have plenty of Sika here in the UK; in many places they are interbreeding with the Reds and causing major problems...

Sika are not native to the UK, but were introduced to various deer parks in the mid 1800's from where they eventually escaped and spread. We also have "feral" (is that the right term?) Chinese Water Deer and Muntjac, two other species of Asian deer which arrived in a similar manner.

Regards,

Pete

a really interesting hunt and a great trophy. I'm very interested in plan a hunt there. Ther'are some contacts or some outfitters?

What are the firearms ownership laws like?, iI was under the impression that they were all but impossible to obtain? How do you get liscenced to hunt?

Aleko

I'm pretty certain Hokkaido won't be answering any specific questions about hunting in Japan. Why? Because he's a disingenuous troll, that's why.

From another site:

http://enjoyingjapan.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=343


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I have been lucky enough to go hunting with a Japanese fellow here in Hokkaido. I read that a few of you got your firearms license. I am wondering what language the test is in, or if a translator is allowed. My listening and speaking is quite advanced, but I am still in the process of learning kanji. Any help would be reeeeeaaally appreciated!

Oh yeah.. This pic is from a week ago. I didn't shoot him."

_____________________________________________

Funny I thought, how he ignored my questions in a PM and chose not to answer when asked about specifics here. Makes sense now. Sad it is, a fellow that posts a picture of a nice animal, but skirts the truth and leaves out little details, like the fact that he was taking credit for a critter he didn't kill. The guy's not even licensed to hunt there!

Hokkaido, you're a punk, a phony and worse, a fucking liar.

Fuzaken ja nai yo, konayaro! You can ask the guy who actually killed that deer to translate that for you...

KG

Kamo.. You are mentally disturbed. I didn't bother with your PM because, honestly, I didn't feel like it. I am not a guide or an outfitter. You want to hunt here, you figure it out.

But I am quite surprised that you would post MY pic on another site just to badger a response out of me. You are a very strange duck indeed! I have traded PM's with others, I just don't feel like bothering with you because it is obvious to me that you a are a flake, and you have throughly proven that with what you have done in the above post. å²ã‚“ã§ãã‚Œï¼é¦¬é¹¿ã‚„ã‚ï¼

Interesting - obviously one person is full of it! Pity it comes to a bitchfight on this forum.

rgds Mod

quote:

Originally posted by Hokkaido:
Kamo.. You are mentally disturbed. I didn't bother with your PM because, honestly, I didn't feel like it. I am not a guide or an outfitter. You want to hunt here, you figure it out.

But I am quite surprised that you would post MY pic on another site just to badger a response out of me.

I never posted pictures of you anywhere, you dolt. I simply called you out for what you are: a liar and a phony. You said above that it was your first deer killed, and I found you telling another story entirely on the EJ site. Funny that you never once addressed that little issue in your recent post.

I exposed you for what you are, you sniveling, beady-eyed, lying little worm. You made your bed; now you get to lie in it.

And BTW, how dare you use the word 'honestly' above? Disgraceful!

KG

Gents,

The European Forum is usually free from such name calling and accusations, and I would prefer to keep it that way.

As neither of you are European, and the topic in question is not strictly about European hunting, if this thread declines further, it will be removed..

Regards,

Pete

I hadn't realized that one had to be European to be here, or that it was inappropriate to call out a liar. But then you're moderator, I guess...

Why not move the thread to where it belongs then, in 'Rest of the World'. Surely you didn't think it was an accident that a 'report' from Japan was placed here, did you?

KG

Gary,

I don't think you will find a mod with a more hands off approach than I on AR. Having said that, I don't need to do anything as most of the regulars here behave as gentlemen.

Rather than just pointing out the post on the other site and the apparent inconsistances between the two accounts, you immediately launched into a personal attack on Hokkaido. Quite frankly that is not in the keeping of this forum!

I have no idea who posted the account on the other site and as far as i am aware there is no way to prove which account is genuine. I have no problem with you, or anyone bringing attention to such inconsistancies, but lets please draw the line there and not resort to personal attacks...

One thing I have learned on AR is that it does'nt take long for a troll to shoot himself in the foot and so loose all credibility with the regulars, and as such the forums largely police themselves.

If you can allow that to happen with out resorting to personal attacks ect, I, and others, here would be most gratefull.

If I need to intervene, I will, but I would much prefer this was sorted out in a gentlemanly manner...

Regards,

Pete

Point taken, and fair enough, Pete. I meant not to soil the forum here, but I do admit getting a bit heated when lies are flying about.

Cheers,

KG

P.S. Name's not Gary. Kamo Gari simply means 'duck hunter' in Japanese.

KG,

Sorry for that, my Japanese is a little weak!

I know that this particular thread must be particularly frustrating for you asI recall you've been looking for info on hunting in Japan for quite a while...

Regards,

Pete