I was on my way to meet .308 yesterday for a bit of "plinking" with the rifles, when I spotted a (fallow) deer in a feild beside the road.
Just out of curiosity, I rolled the car back and got my binos out of the boot. I spotted a big kid with her, both looking at what I had thought was a plastic bag. It was in fact another doe hanging by the leg in a fence.
I assumed she was dead, but after a few minutes she was thrashing around trying to get free. As I pulled the car off the road I met another syndicate member who came with me and brought his .22 lr. I did"nt want to kill the deer, so we managed to free her. She had put her rear foot between two strands of barbed wire on the top of a sheep fence and they were twisted together as she went over the fence.
Unfortunately, she was unable to draw her leg up underneath her and was trying to limp off dragging the leg behind her. She could"nt even have gotten out of the feild we were in, so we decided to put an end to it all.
Well, there"s no point letting good venison go to waste! On skinning her, I did find a lot of bruising, but the freezer is topped up a bit anyway!
On comparing the terrain around Baldock and other places I"ve been(Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridge) these areas are relatively unfenced as they have so few livestock. I"m wondering now how many deer are killed here in Northern Ireland(and on similar ground in Scotland) by stock fences. I know alot of Roe kids get torn or hung in fences, and many are probably never seen by stalkers.
Does this contribute to the high deer numbers in many English counties?
good shooting

Brass,

Barbed wire, (or any of the non barbe wire tops they put on fences now) cause a lot of deer to get caught up here in Sussex. Up to a couple of years ago it became the norm to put roadside fencing up with two strands of barbed and then two or three close together of non barbed on top. It is the top strands that always catch the fallow. Hence why we have a fair few each season with three legs.

The other menace is that electric tape that is used in horse paddocks. Unfrtunately it is always the bigger bucks that get caught in that, and after a couple of hours of thrashing about there is no useable meat on them.

It would be interesting to hear from others about how different species are affected.

Rgds,
FB

here's the pics of the jammy bugger



Sam did'nt want to shoot it because he was going to take her home and put lipstick on her!

it's typical theres me on the go from 5.00am walked for miles, nearly fell out of the highseat and seen nothing then go around to the range at lunch time and there the "Deer Magnet" has struck again!
And then say's "give us a hand with this would ye"

Fences of all types can be a menace to deer, not just the wire fencing we usaully think of.
The pictures were of an unfortunate fallow caught up in a sheep hurdle - really unlucky for the deer concerned

Condemmed carcass for sure....

That was an unfortunate one! It"s a shame that deer are suffering in this way and a resource is being wasted.
good shooting

Is it just me or is that a particularly nice pelt on that fallow?

FB

Yes, I thought so to. We get mostly melanistic(black) or greys with a few blonde/chestnuts. None a rich as the one pictured.
good shooting