I keep reading that the best fallow deer in Britain are in deer parks. Just what is a deer park? Are they public lands, private, or both?
Are the deer there "wild" or domesticated? Are there trophy deer hunts in deer parks, or cull hunts only?

Outside of deer parks, what hunting opportunities are available for free range fallow deer? I read that in some agricultural areas, they are becoming quite a nuisance.

GAHUNTER,
that depends on what you call the best fallow deer! Certainly most of the good heads come from what you describe as parks.
Our interpretation of a park is usually a large tract of land privately owned and managed for sporting purposes. Although there is access by the public on most occasions these deer still remain wild..
The best fallow stalking is open to debate, is it woodland or open farmland,arable land in the Cotswold's where deer are in certain areas in plague proportion,is it the stalk, the trophy, meat on the table! "best" is subject to your own in interpretation.
If you are looking for some stalking oppotunities on fallow I am sure that there are members here that will steer you in the right direction..

regards
griff

My definition of a deer park is where the deer are surrounded by a fence and are effectively captive. Some of the best heads come from these parks due to a combination of extra feeding and genetic background. The finest heads are probably from Petworth Park in Sussex although the wild animals in the area also carry good heads.

Most deer parks are or were attached to stately homes where the animals were ornamental and kept for their attractive appearance as much as anything else. Consequently park deer herds have a higher proportion of menil and white fallow than most wild herds.

Park deer are normally culled with a rifle in the same way as wild deer and sometimes this is opened up to paying stalkers. One key difference between park deer and wild deer is that the managers of park herds have much more accurate counts and are better placed to execute a shooting plan given that the deer are
enclosed and can't really go anywhere. Also, parks are much less prone to poaching.

Deer parks would incude the large Richmond Park in London where the public can wander about watching rutting fallow and red deer right now.

I personally would not pay to shoot any deer inside an enclosure as to me its not fair chase, give me a wild animal every time.

All of the above also applies to red deer kept in parks as well as fallow.

So a deer park is what we here in the southern U.S. would call a "hunting preserve" or in Texas, a "high fence ranch."

I was confused because the word "park" has an entirely different meaning on this side of the pond. A park is almost always a piece of government-owned land set aside for public use and recreation.

But let's not get into the different meaning of words here and there. An English friend once rang me up to chat and when I asked what he was doing, he said he was just laying around, sucking a fag. Man oh man, the pictures I drew in my head!

Many of the great English estates, modelled by or on the style of Capability Brown would have been in later times "deer parks". Mostly with fallow deer as they look pretty!

Such a park might have, around the big house a "ha-ha". This is a deep trench, in the shape of an inverted scalene triang;e or more correctly a step. A sheer drop down on the side nearest to the house and the slope down on the side nearest to the deer.

Revesby Abbey in Lincolnshire being an example.

Thus they were enclosed but with no unsightly wall or fencing.

Many of these deer would have been shot with the Westley Richard .300 Sherwood Martini rifle (now illegal for deer thanks to the idiots in the British Deer Society) that was sold as a niche rifle for "park deer" and, as noted at the time, "without the danger of the highland stalker's weapon".

The .300 Sherwood fired a 140 grain bullet at about 1400 fps. Essentially a .30 calibre version of a .357 Magnum. I used to have one.

Deer parks are usually enclosed by miles of brick or stone wall; the deer herd are managed and culled by staff. I never regard them as anything to do with hunting. The deer are not wild as most parks have considerable public access and the deer are farmed.
The good places to hunt are the areas in a 5 mile radius of the outside wall where the escapees live and breed wild!!

quote:

Originally posted by trans-pond:
Deer parks are usually enclosed by miles of brick or stone wall; the deer herd are managed and culled by staff. I never regard them as anything to do with hunting. The deer are not wild as most parks have considerable public access and the deer are farmed.
The good places to hunt are the areas in a 5 mile radius of the outside wall where the escapees live and breed wild!!

My dear fellow, as the Brits have it, hunting takes place, mainly; but not exclusively, atop a hores the quarry being the fox. When one goes out with a rifle, hoping to bring a deer to grass, it's called stalking.