I vote yes. My own experience is very limited, but I´ve seen many falling on their shadows from well placed shots with almost any caliber, most of them with the venerable 7.65 x 53 Mauser, so often found here. Nothing of the sort with the hogs, which I´ve seen running 100 meters or more with the whole living apparatus destroyed. Same for the "venados" in Spain, which are a smaller version of our own "cervus elaphus".

100% yes
You "touch them" more or less right and they go down.

L

I have also found them nice and "soft" on the dinner plate.

Try dry aging them for a little while -- haven't tried it on red stag, but it does wonders for white tail, black buck and axis

quote:

Originally posted by Lorenzo:
100% yes
You "touch them" more or less right and they go down.

L

Not so sure...I have witnessed first-hand a stag with a well-placed heart shot to run about 1 mile before giving the ghost out.

Of course, if not in the rut, or not alerted the level of adrenaline is low, so his ability to withstand punishment is low too.

But I won't take it for granted...

I'm no expert, but so far I have more than 60 stags on my back, and they are not for underestimate animals.

Also, I don't know about the uruguayan ones, maybe the radioactive effect of the pollution in their blood makes them stronger!

A mile runnunig with a well placed heart shot ???

We are talking about hunting them with rifles not with slingshots

Man, those stags must have been exposed to some kind of radioactivity they must be the famous "argentinian mutant deer" who lives near the Uruguay river.

L

quote:

Originally posted by Lorenzo:


A mile runnunig with a well placed heart shot ???

We are talking about hunting them with rifles not with slingshots

Man, those stags must have been exposed to some kind of radioactivity they must be the famous "argentinian mutant deer" who lives near the Uruguay river.

L

My friend, if I had not witnessed that, I won't believe it either!...but I saw it happen. Weird.

Oh yeahhhh...the very famous "argentine mutant deer" as you have correctly indicated, is an offspring of the world-famous mix of paraguayan tereré and uruguayan mate...and yes, this strange compound is found off the shores of the Uruguay river.

I killed many ,many red stags during my long holidays in winter while in the air force in junin de los andes and i have to be honest i lost some spectacular trophies injured .Some clients lost red stag too .We habe been using 308s,300winch,30-378 -i believe he missed-,375hyh,30-06,and others.You must have in mind that in Los Ands you will shoot sometimes with great cross wind the red stag is big and muscular ,onetime i follow all the day a red s. with a 375hyh that affected one lung winchester silvertip after broken the front leg - sometimes you hunt in dense cover like San Martin or Hua-Hum or at long distance like in Junin almosteveryday windy or snowing if you hunt after roaring like i did for six years every july .SO I CONCLUDE THAT MOUNTAIN RED STAG IS THOUGH AND IF ITS YOUR FIRST TIME USE AT LEAST A300WINCH .The guides uses 308 but they live there a have many many oportunities and great experience .Juan

YOU GUYS, WITH ALL MY RESPECT AND ALL OF YOU KNOW THAT:

IS THE SHOT PLACEMENT AND BULLET CHOICE !!! NOT THE ANIMAL TOUGHNESS AND SOME TIMES, ONLY, SOME TIMES .... THE BULLET DIAMETER !!!

IF YOU DONT BELIEVE ME, ASK TO THIS REDSTAG FROM LA PATAGONIA WITH A 300 W.M. USING 165 GRS BARNES TRIPLE X BULLETS AT 250 YARDS.
A ELBOW-CHEST-CAVITY SHOT, THE STAG JUMPED, AND PASS AWAY (PERHAPS IN THE AIR)JE,JE.

[IMG:left] [/IMG]

REMEMBER THE OLD MASTERS LIKE F.C. SELOUS,HUNTED ELEPHANTS WITH BLACKPOWDER RIFLES,LEADS BULLETS AND EVEN WITH SPEARS !!!
NO TOMAHAWKS CRUISER MISSILS,

[IMG:left] [/IMG]

MAYBE IS NOT THE RADIOACTIVE EFFECT, MAYBE, THEY HAVE NOW KEVLAR SKINS , LET THE DRINK!!! REGARDS GUILLERMO.

Beatiful stag....
How old do you think it was?? It has thick antlers right to the top.

L

Guille you must remember that red stag i shot in Junin the bullet strike it over the front leg but performed bad against the bones -winchester silvertips-after that we fall from a cliff with an UNIMOG but thats another historie.During my holdays hunting with OSCAR PERZ LAUCHTZ an ex argentine marine and excelent hunter,we killed does in culling and sold the meat to restaurants and some bucks all with 308 fmjs and the problem is shot placement always was cross wind ,so i must advice again use enough gun ,red stags when not properly touched are easily lost .One more advice practice in windy country at least at 300 mts ,recently i have been conducting a course shooting at humanoids pepper poppers at 200,300,400,and 500mts with 308 exclusively and strong cross wind you cannot imagine the deflection we experiment .Another problen is shooting from an upper position your shot will always going high thats how i injured and lost a red stag in the last hours of a snowy day in July in San Martin de Los Andes ...Oscar must remeber that ...

Dear Juan: Surely each animal has his own behavior ;
But let me insist :

Is the shot placement and the bullet type !!!

Jack O Connor takes hundreds of Elks and Mule deers with a 270 Win in windy mountains.

I think that silvertip (No longer available in .375 ) exploded in the redstag shoulder, if you use a cooper solid barnes or a failsafe you destroy boths shoulders, heart and lungs
Im not talking about missplacement shot desviated by wind or gravity!!! , if you read my african report you will see that I almost fail to take the zebra by the wind deflection, but the barnes destroyed both femoral and femur and killed the stallion.
You know as a Doctor and PH that a shot in the hear, spine or Nerviuos sistem is a sure death, broken leg bones, chest cavity,stomach,neck and even head shots are another matter.Remember my 4 shots (two in the head!!!) to kill the Bison in South Dakota. You kill a 2000 pounds Water Bufallo with a 300 grs JHP 45-70 bullet!!!from you Marlin GG. 18 " barrel!!
But you hit in the neck (Cervical spinal) !!!
Good to hear about you, anytime Regards Guille.
Soon tribute to a Warrior!!!

my experience with them is not really. ive never ever seen one drop on the spot without it being a spine shot. i shot a young one with my 300wsm at 120yards with ballistic tips, it completely broke his front leg and minced his organs. he probably made it 50 yards up hill, not a bad effort in my books.

if you hit em just infront of the line of the front leg, you hit all the major blood vessels and they die pretty fast.

i was with my brother and we shot a stag 4 times with the 308 from a range of 10-15 yards. still took him 10+ minutes to die.

but hey they have been seen grazing at 6000ft...

in my limited experience, shot 2 stags in Argentina last year, both 1 shot 1 kill 30-06 180 grain Nosler Partitions

My friend Guillermo one of the finest rifle shot in the country is rigth with barnes x or bear claw or nosler partitions and good shooting any stag is down i even killed buffalos with my old cz308 and fmjs ,but I RECOMMEND TO BRING THE BIGGEST RIFLE YOU ARE CONFORTABLE WITH .....and things will be easier for me.Please the tribute can be for PAIMUN a real warrior that you know well .Please PM AFRIKANDER he will be hunting here soon ...you can came too.Juan

I think we all think in the same way here, just that we are assuming certain given results but from different situations ...

I think red deer are "rather" soft creatures (I am more concerned about boars´ resistance !) but I think we have at least three important variables, whose combined way in which they might take form can give absolutely different situations: shot placement, bullet used and how much "adrenalized" the deer might be at the moment he is shot...

Unless we are speaking of an impact that affected brain or spine, a heart / lung shot can result in a dead rush that can be (in my exerience) upto some 200 hundreds meters or so (depending if the heart was systolic or diastolic at the moment the bullet hit it)... that`s why I prefer to break the locomotion ability aswell, when these heart shots are needed ...

Juan, next weekend I will do my best to visit you!!!

I am really looking forward to see you, my friend !!

BTW, I once shot a red deer with a 300 grain silver tip (broad side shot from some 60 meters) the bullet broke the spine / neck but didn´t exit, just almost desintagrated inside the animal ...dropped dead in its tracks

Another same one I fired to another stag from some 30 meters: broke both shoulders but didn´t exit either ... I found this bullet just under the skin of the other side it entered, it weighted some 250 grains ...the deer humped two or three times using nothing but his back legs and died ...

these where the only two times I used the silvertips in my 375 for deers (too soft for me)... And I must admit aswell that I lost two nice boars I shot using this bullet ... I am convinced that the shots were well placed in the heart / lung area, but the bush was soooo dirty I never found them ...sadly I didn´t have any dog to look for them, just my rather poor tracking abilities

My friends. What I have missed by never hunting the red deer stag is brought home to me all the more by seeing the photo of the stag Guillermo shot. One day, I shall do so.

I cannot think they would be more difficult to put down than our elk. And with elk, as O'Connor's success with the .270 points up, shot placement is critical. I for one, prefer a heavier cartridge than the .270. I have taken elk with the .308, the .300 Win mag, and the 30-06. My biggest bull was with a muzzleloader shooting a 300 grain bullet at less than optimum velocities.

Depending on the distances, my first choice on your stags would be my 45-70 using a 300 grain Nosler partition; second choice, my .375 H&H.

One of these days.....

And, Martin, how I wish I could be with you when you go to visit Juan....

Below: daughter Jessica with her 1999 bull.
30-06 Federal Hi Energy 180 grain Nosler partition; 225 yards.

Bill,

Your choices for Stags are very good, but as you know, greater distance could be encountered if you go south, especially during the winter.

Nice bull your daughter took! I didn't know she was following her father's traditions! Kudos to that!

regards, Gus

PS: bullet placement and proper bullet, and everything goes down.

Nice Bull, Bill !!

I am getting fond of my own 45/70 aswell... seems to be the perfect boar medicine !

Now I am testing some local made bullets (its becoming quite difficult to find any reloading component in Argentina nowadays - not to say almost impossible)... so far these bullets seeming to be quite tough and with my rifle liking them also ... will test them on game soon

Hope to see you soon here, amigo !!

The calibre of choice used by New Zealand deer cullers was 222

That is because kiwis (the same that uruguayans) shoot better than the argentinians

L

I have yet to know the mere existance of that uruguayan (and I have spent many summers in Punta del Este) ...

Res, non verba, Lorenzo !!

What happened to that hunt challenge you once suggested?

So as to make things more equal, I promise you to shoot my rifle just using my left toe, without even taking my sock out

I will tell you a secret..sshhhh....last week we went to hunt pigs again to my brother in law farm and we saw 7 pigs, we shot four times and we returned empty handed..take your conclusions....

We cannot convinced the bloody things to stay still while we shoot them..

In my defense I can say that I was carrying the spotlight but anyhow..we are a team..

L

I have had a couple (well, in fact more than a couple ) of those unexplainable days by myself ...

You know, sh*t happens ! Just head and toe of this sport !!

Im hunting partriges ,you know , one of my favourite game ,because i hunted it since childhood with all my father ,today my father ,mother,broher ,wife and 3 child and the bird dogs stayed in the farm eating a barbecue and hunting partriges i used a remington ou 12,my son a anskb ou20,my brother a beretta a390 my father a custom made ou 16 ,a beautiful day cold but ,sunny ,and i was deligthed seeing the dogs working and my son shooting ....Bill can testified how he killed ducks...

Enjoy that wonderful time and place, my friend !!

I know this is an old thread but to show how soft of a critter a red stag is...

The stag I took on October 7th took 2 well placed hits through both shoulders with my .338 Winchester Magnum (250gr Partitions at 2,650fps) at 130ish yards, and still managed to go 50 yards. Despite blown up lungs and broken ribs/legs.

you can see the damage done in these two photos







This was by far the funnest hunt I have been on, and the hardest animal I have been brought up against to bring down.


Full Story and tons of pictures here....

https://forums.accuratereloading.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/3411043/m/950104347

nainital:

Red stags are no "softer" or "harder" than any other deer. I've only shot red stags in Spain (they have a smaller subspecies there, as you noted) and New Zealand (theirs are from central Europe, as are those in South America) and both took one shot each. I've also made one shot kills on eight elk, including some very large bulls.

If you want a tough animal, try a wildebeest. I shot one through the center of its left shoulder and took out both lungs in June, but it lived long enough to jump into the pond, swim to the dam, climb over it and run on three legs for 100 yards before it dropped.

We got it on videotape, and it all happened so fast that it didn't take much longer than it did to tell about it.

Now that's tough!

Bill Quimby

We must consider that most stags are hunted during their rut season, so they don't fed much and spend most part of the day fighting other stags and chasing their femals to keep them under control, not to mention having sex now and then...

So imagine yourself in the same situation...

All I will need will be a breeze to put me down

L

I shot mine during the rut

His neck was so swollen up I doubt I could have gotten my arms around it.

Lorenzo- For some reason or another I think there was a stag "jumping" party in a waterhole on my Camcorder

Billrquimby: As I´ve told to our mutual friend Bill Berlat and elsewhere, circumstances may vary. Indeed the African antelope you quote seems to be a very tough customer. But I once shot a smallish wild boar in the shoulder with my 375 H& H, took away most of its lungs, heart, shoulders and what not and it ran about 100 yards anyway. Others fell on their shadows. But the red stags seem to be somewhat softer. Perhaps Lorenzo is right, at least just once

quote:

Originally posted by nainital:
Billrquimby: As I´ve told to our mutual friend Bill Berlat and elsewhere, circumstances may vary. Indeed the African antelope you quote seems to be a very tough customer. But I once shot a smallish wild boar in the shoulder with my 375 H& H, took away most of its lungs, heart, shoulders and what not and it ran about 100 yards anyway. Others fell on their shadows. But the red stags seem to be somewhat softer. Perhaps Lorenzo is right, at least just once

You are right, nainital. I once saw a little javelina that couldn't have weighed more than 40 pounds soaking wet run a long way after being hit five or six times with a .30/06 and a .30/30. There was not much left of that little creature.

On average, though, to me all of the various types of deer I've hunted seemed easier to put down than some other animals, especially wildebeest.

For example, moose are the world's largest deer but most people who have hunted them consider them to be "softies."

The secret, I think, is in your first shot. If it's not placed well, certain individuals will find the strength to do some remarkable things before going down.

Bill Quimby