We are starting to look at feeding the reds so that we can localise them at the start of the rut, We use rumevite blocks and salt licks that are apple flavour. What do you use?

regards
griff

griff,

Not a feed block as such, but apparently another idea is to use concentrated apple or orange juice from a catering supplier.

What you do is strap a large container of the stuff to a tree and make a tiny hole near the base so the concentrate can weep out...Evidently its the smell of the concentrate that attracts the deer as much as what they can get from licking the bark.

I know people who've had success with this on Fallow and Roe but I have no idea if it would work for Reds or Sika.

Regards,

Pete

Hmmmnnnn!, Sounds like I can drop the packed lunch for staying out!

quote:

the other food that I have seen work well is field beans.

They sure do and what is also great about them is you can spin feed them off the quad.

If using feed blocks just make sure you don't get the ones containing any copper.

DJM,
haven't tried the field beans, but I think they will be quite difficult to source here in SW Scotland, they certainly work on fallow and munties, we witnessed that first hand on the Baldock bash.

Jacobs,
thanks for the reply but the only spinning we would be able to do would be from a helicopter, ground is a wee bit rough.

regards
griff

Griff,

This is what you and jon need,

Fill her up with concentrated apple juice and then deposit in a suitable site.

Cheap and efficient is regular cattle salt which comes in 10 kg blocks:



The quick&dirty approach is to cut a little tree of about 10 cm diameter, at breast height so that the foxes cannot crap on it, hammer a long nail into the top to hold the salt, done.

They sell here for about 6 to 7 € and usually last 1.5 to 2 years.

Animals like it and sometimes come just to smell and check who'd been there.

Have used the same method as DUK, but with the Red Rockies feed blocks, wouldn't really like to say whether it put more deer in the bag though?

nightwalker,

Do the deer use them though?

I'm not sure how people are using these blocks, but I gather its best not to shoot deer actually over the blocks, but rather on the racks they use to approach them..

Regards,

Pete

Good question Pete, we have them scattered across my letting and I must be the only think to have tasted them.

quote:

Jacobs,
thanks for the reply but the only spinning we would be able to do would be from a helicopter, ground is a wee bit rough.

If its that rough how do you get the beast out?

I can't see the point in feed attracting deer to a location that makes extraction an mammoth task. Surely it should be the other way around. Get them to where you can get easier extraction.

So you have no rides, tracks, roads, etc ?

quote:

I gather its best not to shoot deer actually over the blocks, but rather on the racks they use to approach them.

Correct. Blood spore and gralloch makes the location less inviting as does the residual memory of those deer not added to the bag.

quote:

Originally posted by Jacobs:
If its that rough how do you get the beast out?

I can't see the point in feed attracting deer to a location that makes extraction an mammoth task. Surely it should be the other way around. Get them to where you can get easier extraction.

So you have no rides, tracks, roads, etc ?

Jacobs,

What part of the country/type of habitat do you stalk??

I've not been on griffs ground, but I've stalked the general area a lot in the past..On any given ground I agree there are going to be some more accessible areas than others, but on many areas its a case of degrees of inaccessibility!

On many deer forests up there, the terrain and habitat can and does make getting a Red out a nightmare..

You can have rides, clearings and clearfells where you can see a long way, but you still don't stand a chance in hell of getting anything wheeled over it, not even an argo or a quad at times..

On one bit of ground we had near Aberdeen I managed to get a quad stuck for a day and half while trying to get a carcass out!!

On another part of the same lease, the main forestry track was so washed out and rutted, when the forestry company sent a JCB in to regrade it, the driver managed to tip it on its side in one of the larger washed out ruts and had to get it "rescued" by a farm tractor!

I've see the kit griff uses for carcass extraction up on Arran and its a couple of levels higher than a typical hobby stalker like myself would carry...

Even so, getting some of the carcasses out was still a ball breaker of a job involving a couple of quad's, various winches, hundreds of meters of rope along with snatch blocks and straps and as many he could press gang, usually being between two to four..Even with all the resource I gather some extractions were still a nightmare...

Regards,

Pete

In answer to your question Pete, Yes the deer deffinately did lick the posts that the blocks were on top of, you will see slot marks all around the posts.

I have heard the suggestion over and over again about whether to shoot a deer on a feed station, my thoughts are if it needs culling (for whatever reasons - cull animal or client trophy, then take your chance when it arises) I have shot deer at feed stations and then shot others the following week there too (obviously grallochs were removed to less favoured areas).

The main reason I have used feed blocks/mineral blocks is in an attempt to improve antler growth (difficult one to assess accurately that - other than more bucks/stags shot with better heads).

I do know that the attractive gamecrop mixtures we used to plant for wild gamebird production/protection from aerial predators probably "harvested" more deer (by virtue of pulling the deer into the open). Which I guess is along the same method of crofters planting oats on moorland edge to entice the stags off the hill for shooting.

Feed beans did work well at Baldock!!

My stalking for the last 8 years has all been low ground stuff. You'll not hear me complaining
How ever I cut my teeth on high ground and ball breaking forestry block stuff and did it for years. I've lost count of the number of carcasses that needed to be split in order to get them out of some locations. Thankfully I don't have that aggravation any more. I'm not an advocate of the NZ practice of deer culling in difficult terrain, namely shoot and let it rot, either. I prefer the heavy feeding of accessible areas in order to attract as many of those deer out of their nightmare ground sanctuaries as possible. Time spent on nightmare extractions is time wasted IMO

I have read some of the reports of the prevailing conditions faced on Griff stalking on Arran. Desperate acts by desperate stalkers in the most part. Its not for me to tell Griff how he should run his operations, it never was and never will be.

quote:

I do know that the attractive gamecrop mixtures we used to plant for wild gamebird production/protection from aerial predators probably "harvested" more deer (by virtue of pulling the deer into the open). Which I guess is along the same method of crofters planting oats on moorland edge to entice the stags off the hill for shooting.

I'm noticing the draw that our Maize cover crops have for the deer already this year and they are only waist height with no cobs yet. I'm hhalf looking forward and half dreading the deer getting on them this year once the cobs are on. Problem is it is an expensive way to do things if you are only shooting deer rather than using the feed crops for game birds.

Either way I think the cull this year will have to virtually double if I'm to be able to keep any game cover.

I bought some apple salt licks that are still sat in my garage 2 years later but I will get round to putting them out at some point.

Incidentally I would like to get some feed beans in (or any other stock feed) to ffed the duck ponds and hopefully pull the deer away from the cover crops. I can't find any though. Any ideas where I could look?


Rgds,
FB

Jacobs,
"Desrerate actions by desperate stalkers"
Not exactly the best way to introduce yourself.
The fact you admitted to having to cut up carcasses to get them out, was that not the act of a desperate stalker.. Great that you have the option to slice and dice, we DON'T!!

regards
griff

Could I jump in with a bit of a question?

In Sweden there is little tradition of baiting roe or other deer, we tend to stalk and shoot them or just use dogs or othervise driven hunts for the larger deers.

Ok and here comes the question, do you think I could get a better chans at a woodland roe buck by using apple concentrate to lure him in?


The area I hunt is 65% pine and spruce wood in mixed age, I can get some spots where I can see for some 90-115 meters down a power line strait/clearing.

Any luck you think?

To get that 5 point roe that lives in the garden is not so much of interest for me, until the land owner tells me to top him.

Best regards Chris

Griff, tried to pm you, only have your "work" number, have sent you an envelope to the "Laundry". Steve DESPERATE to be back on Arran.

quote:

Originally posted by Husqvarna M98:
Ok and here comes the question, do you think I could get a better chans at a woodland roe buck by using apple concentrate to lure him in?

I never tried that concentrate, some people feed them the remains of apple cider pressing, mixed with some oats, they like that in winter.

Usually a salt lick works well during all seasons. Put it in a place where they walk close by anyway.

quote:

Originally posted by griff:
Jacobs,
"Desrerate actions by desperate stalkers"
Not exactly the best way to introduce yourself.
The fact you admitted to having to cut up carcasses to get them out, was that not the act of a desperate stalker.. Great that you have the option to slice and dice, we DON'T!!

regards
griff

Griff

Sorry, was I supposed to have introduced myself? I'd not read anyone else's intro so worked on the basis that just posting replies was the way to go.

"Desperate acts by desperate stalkers in the most part."

I meant nothing by that remark. Just saying it as I see it.

If your not chasing numbers I cant see the point of dropping the hammer on a beast that is going to take the rest of the day and additional of man power to extract. Especially if you don't have the slice and dice option available to you.If you are under the cosh in regards numbers I'm still one for giving it aa second, third, and forth thought. If its just numbers and nowt else adopt the NZ approach and leave it where it falls.

In our case it was a numbers game but we had openings for split carcasses if that was the only option. Not what I'd call desperate just acceptance of the last resort option. From what I've read and heard your Arran ground leaves little option. Which leads to desperation. But I'm always willing to be better informed.

What opportunity is there on your worst bits for rigging up a net work of skylines similar to the Yanks forestry operations? If possible it would save you hours of futile, hernia inducing humping.

quote:

Ok and here comes the question, do you think I could get a better chans at a woodland roe buck by using apple concentrate to lure him in?

Chris,

This is only one way to find out! If you can get cheap apples from some where, I chop a few into quarters and shatter them at the base of the tree you hang the container in...

If you can rake the ground down to the soil under the tree first, you've go a chance to see the slots of anything that comes to the bait..

Regards,

Peter

A stalker I know who has an old orchard always collects the wind blow into old feed sacks and drags them out to his stalking lease.

He reckons the deer get a real taste for them.

Is called the Himalayas "salt" it works very well!!!

Apples are a favourite for a one off wandering red hind that lives where I work, we leave her be, as she costs little to run!I'ts pleasing to be able to get within feet of her.Steve.