Deer Numbers

viper123 · 15-09-2013 12:25AM

CJhaughey wrote: »

Fat lot of good that is if you have to watch hinds destroying trees and not being able to legally shoot them.

They only stop if shot?

The Aussie · 15-09-2013 01:27PM

Can I ask, how many people have actually contacted the NPWS about their concerns so far arising from this thread???

One shot on kill · 15-09-2013 01:35PM

I'd take a guess and say no one because there afraid t will affect there license and there land.

CJhaughey · 15-09-2013 02:49PM

viper123 wrote: »

They only stop if shot?

Pretty much, you can scare them off a few times but they will come back after dark when you aren't there.
If its good enough to shoot the Stags why not the Hinds?

The Aussie · 15-09-2013 04:29PM

One shot on kill wrote: »

I'd take a guess and say no one.

I would say your right.

When ever a Poaching Thread comes up there are a lot of Hunters showing due consternation jumping up and down chest beating.

When in all realism it's just faux outrage and no one wanting to put their head above the parapet, its quite sad really.

PL05 · 15-09-2013 05:35PM

The Aussie wrote: »

I would say your right.

When ever a Poaching Thread comes up there are a lot of Hunters showing due consternation jumping up and down chest beating.

When in all realism it's just faux outrage and no one wanting to put their head above the parapet, its quite sad really.

Agree with ye here, but it has to be down to the individual to do something about this. would anyone be prepared to bring attention to their permissions? for example if the land owner knows that poaching is going on and say he knows the people involved would you contact npws or gardai and risk your own permission. As said here earlier about the powers that be not being interested in pursueing these issues, then these issues would have to be reported above the heads of these departments, afterall there are laws in place here that have to be observed and the npws and even the gardai dont make these laws but are supposed to enforce them. its a though one but i think that if the deer on my permissions where at risk of been wiped out, then i would,nt have anything to loose and i would,nt hesitate to report this.

rowa · 15-09-2013 09:12PM

The Aussie wrote: »

I would say your right.

When ever a Poaching Thread comes up there are a lot of Hunters showing due consternation jumping up and down chest beating.

When in all realism it's just faux outrage and no one wanting to put their head above the parapet, its quite sad really.

Report what you like, it won't make the slightest difference. In one of these anti-poaching threads someone mentioned they had called the ranger due to lamping or poaching of deer on his land, the ranger responded he had no diesel for his jeep or money to buy it and simply couldn't visit. The poaching of deer is waaaaaay down the list of government priorities with squeezed budgets in all departments. Do you honestly think the rangers, npw , etc don't know poaching is rampant and out of hand ? If a ranger doesn't know massive amounts of deer are being lamped on their patch then they shouldn't be rangers.

If they were serious about stamping this out all they would have to do is visit the gamedealers and find out the shooters are who are bringing in massive amounts of carcasses, visit these shooters and ask how they are able to shoot 300 or 400 deer a season.

The Aussie · 16-09-2013 05:50AM

rowa wrote: »

Report what you like, it won't make the slightest difference.

I'm not talking about reporting, like at the moment I'm asking why the NPWS are still issuing Deer Licences to people convicted of Poching, they issue the Licences, its akin to someone being convicted of drink driving and driving themselves home from the Court House, 3 emails and 1 phone call and still no solid answer yet.

Btw, there is something about the Ranger and the Deisel story that has the hallmarks of being born in a Pub.

rowa wrote: »

If they were serious about stamping this out all they would have to do is visit the gamedealers and find out the shooters are who are bringing in massive amounts of carcasses, visit these shooters and ask how they are able to shoot 300 or 400 deer a season.

Agreed. If they were serious they would have the Shooters PPS number logged along with their Licence with every Deer and hand it over to the department of Social Welfare to see if the Shooter in question are State Sponsored (working while on the Dole) and also to the Office of Revenue Commisioners, so as soon as they pass the €2000 threshold you can earn from Sporting Endeavours they can have the joy of the Revenue after them.

PL05 · 16-09-2013 06:17PM

rowa wrote: »

Report what you like, it won't make the slightest difference. In one of these anti-poaching threads someone mentioned they had called the ranger due to lamping or poaching of deer on his land, the ranger responded he had no diesel for his jeep or money to buy it and simply couldn't visit. The poaching of deer is waaaaaay down the list of government priorities with squeezed budgets in all departments. Do you honestly think the rangers, npw , etc don't know poaching is rampant and out of hand ? If a ranger doesn't know massive amounts of deer are being lamped on their patch then they shouldn't be rangers.

If they were serious about stamping this out all they would have to do is visit the gamedealers and find out the shooters are who are bringing in massive amounts of carcasses, visit these shooters and ask how they are able to shoot 300 or 400 deer a season.

As far as i know and again this is coming from word of mouth and 1 or 2 reports in the media, there has been a big clamp down and a few successful prosecutions on poaching in the wicklow area. Now if this is true, why cant it be the case in other counties.

rowa · 16-09-2013 08:38PM

PL05 wrote: »

As far as i know and again this is coming from word of mouth and 1 or 2 reports in the media, there has been a big clamp down and a few successful prosecutions on poaching in the wicklow area. Now if this is true, why cant it be the case in other counties.

Thats true. Two reasons, 1. Wicklow is the county that most deer are shot in legally (open to correction on that) so that county probabily has the largest poaching problem too. 2. The new Garda superintendent for wicklow is Paul Hogan who is a well known deer stalker and shooter himself, he decided to crack down on poachers last year. Sadly its the courts who drop the ball on this topic and hand out pathetic punishments when someone is up for this carry on.

http://youtu.be/Q25fI6TZ3BI

http://youtu.be/2H5uI58CYnE

robo-deer

http://youtu.be/Ez_bnJLaGXg

sikahuntejack · 16-09-2013 09:58PM

Got my second deer of the season a nice sika pricket it was in a field with 2 nice 8 pointers shot the pricket 150 yards heart shot took 2 hours to get him back to the car . Shot a 8 pointer last year the meat tough even after it was hung for 2 weeks so decided will not shoot any big stags for the table anymore

jmrc · 17-09-2013 01:02PM

Having read this thread with some very valid points I have a feeling it all boils down to a complete lack of knowledge and joined up thinking from the decision makers....
the NPWS have no clout, they are afraid to approch mountain bikers let alone poachers... and wouldn't blame them.
Gardai don't have the resources to fight crime in our towns... so the side of a mountain is way down the list.
Courts, well these are the decision makers and the poachers are laughing at them, cos if they do get caught they know nothing will come of it.

All we can hope is the market for Venison drys up... a marketing drive on Mad Deer disease???????

Cass · 09-12-2013 07:28PM

Thought i'd bring this back up as i've noticed a serious drop in deer numbers over the last 3 weeks to the extent i haven't seen deer, tracks, scat, etc in the last 2 weeks.

Anyone else suffering a drop?

At first i thought maybe a bit of poaching going on, but given the numbers i have being seeing up until the second week of November i doubt any poacher, no matter how good, could completely do away with the numbers i was seeing.

There has been a lot of changes in my permissions recently. My permissions border some Coilte land, and they have been felling/logging the last month, and the land owners have started to use fields/land that have sat idle/in pasture for years.

The Aussie · 09-12-2013 07:41PM

Deer of any variety don't like change, the extra external pressure is sure to have put them on the move, but in saying that they turn up in amazing places as well, I've seen them on edges of main roads and a few Kilimeters from cities without a bother from them, after Women they are the second greatest mystery.

wexfordman2 · 09-12-2013 09:32PM

Seen a serious drop in some of my areas, but others are still looking good.

One area that has dropped a lot I heard from the farmer he had seen people lamping in the coilte forest at 5am a few mornings back.

Also heard that a game dealer was travelling up our direction once a week now, from wicklow. And I'm in the South West so he can't be travelling for small numbers

Larry60 · 09-12-2013 10:49PM

Speaking for the areas I shoot, I have seen more deer this season than on previous seasons and in the middle of the day commonly. Also this season I have seen more big stags than on previous ones. I saw very few deer in both September and in December of last season. I saw very few deer in the first few weeks of this season.
I actually see more deer in the last few years than I did say twenty years ago which seems to be the opposite opinion to most of posters of this forum.
In conversations with some othe older gentlemen where I live, they commonly tell me that there were little or no deer about locally when they young lads.

If gangs of poachers, who are hammering the deer population are a problem in some areas of the country then it comes down to more carefull monitoring of the game dealers. It would be far easier for the Dep. to audit game dealers than to try to patrol the countryside 24x7.

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