Look here - http://www.thedeerinitiative.co.uk/best_practice/ , ignore law, season dates and stick to Red, Fallow and Sika. All sections are downloadable and is comparable to the manual.

This one will give you ecology on the 'native' Irish deer and a section of HCAP questions http://www.deeralliance.ie/ .

Search on my posts- cookimonster, and there's a complete data bank of HCAP questions with answers.

Ask and you recieve,someone kindly sent me a copy of this manual.
I'm going to make this a work in progress post with updates as I go thru it.

Also,I'm trying to make this a constructive critique for whomever,because if this is what they want to foist on the rest of us deer hunters outside Coilte,this manual wont survive 30 seconds on an accredited teaching board.FETAC or C&G would bin this within minutes in this version.

As I have only read it sofar for entertainment purposes,as I do,and then go in depth into each subject there are some terrific clangers sticking up already,more on those later. But what I have found is there isn't in a lot of cases explanations on how to do a certain thing or a lack of illustration on how something works.
For example they describe two types of binos,but there are no illustrations or cutaways of how the things look on the inside.There is a reason that technical manuals are full of pictures .It's easier to learn from a picture than a written explanation.BTW folks,telescopes have developed as well that they can be carried folded up in a decent sized pocket and still be as good or better than the antique brass and leather scopes some still carry.Of course they cost twice as much as a set of top binos..

I hope the law section is now updated in later versions,as it is hopelessly out of date, still dealing with the annual lics and not the tri annual lics.
On that point Clanger no 1...Semi auto CF rifles ARE legal to use to hunt deer in Ireland.As are lever and pump action,double rifles and combination guns [no mention of various different types of guns that can be used for stalking as well as driven big game] Nothing in the wildlife acts or firearms act says to the contary,or even mentions it or even magazine capacity for that matter.If you want to go hunting with a 100 drum on your rifle,go right ahead. Proposed EU legislation might say otherwise on your mag capacity,but you can still use 10 rounders no problem,[in packets of 10].Only mag restriction applies to shotguns for bird hunting,and seeing that we cant use shotgun slugs for deer hunting here[And no mention of them at all in the manual,considering they are the most used poaching round for some].
As the manual is now 7 years old at best,most of the law on firearms is somewhat out of date and hopefully corrected in later editions.

Tree stands and high seats. Extolling the virtues is fine both from saftey and scent.But the plans for building them lacks a lot of detail in this manual.In fact this is a practical task on the German hunting course that takes a full day alone.More if it is a more complex design. Our big problem here is for building these out in the field is simply we dont have the tree types that are fast straight growers,like larch,or fir.Or better said ,we don't specifically plant them to provide small scale timber for building things that need poles here. Yes portable high seats might be rickety and cold,etc,but you can take them down at seasons end,and even disable them from unauthorised use during the season by removing half the ladder on some models to prevent hooliganism or claims seekers.
This is what annoys me most about reading this manual ,the inconsistent detail of detail.A whole slew on ballistics,internal,external,and terminal which is fine to know and necessary to have a concept of as a hunter,and then a description of how the Germans train their dogs to lead you to the fallen game,but not the vital info,that you have to find the method that suits your dogs breed and chacter the best,[not to mind the work involved in the dog as well] No point in trying to teach a mutt that never shuts up barking at everything to be a Todt verbeller[a dog that barks when it finds the fallen game]:)

Dealing with wounded game. Tip its eye with a twig or blade of grass....!! ERr,why not use the muzzle of the rifle and be prepared for the wounded animal getting up in a hurry so you are ready to shoot it if need be???In fact,why not see first if it is breathing?IE the chest is rising and falling??Maybe just equip your rifle with a bayonet and run it thru as you "must be prepared to shoot it in the head if need be to prevent it from escaping." THIS is one reason I argued hard for stalkers to have kept CF handguns as a piece of mandatory stalking kit. Its a lot safer and easier to use a handgun in enclosed spaces than firing a big cal rifle in a situation like this,and of course the manual states ,you must never try to issue the coup de grace with your knife. Tell that to the French parforce deer hunters who kill deer with a very short sword/long knife on horseback with a pack of hounds on a gallop in a forest. Or old school German hunters,who know what they are doing and know better than some snowflake animal lovers.That is a knife blade trust between the last vertebrae and the skull. It is instant death as it severs both the spinal cloum and brain stem.

To be continued

Grizzly 45 wrote: »

They will be fought.Every.Step.Of .The .Way!HCAP BTW has no legal standing in any SI of Irish law.It is a cover your ass requirement for Coilte insurance purposes and nothing more. I would really love to see a copy of this manual and see what other mistakes and bad info they are propagating to the unsuspecting.

Too true !