Informed choices

Joseph Nugent keeps one eye on his hunting future

Deer hunting in Australia takes many forms which will represent something different to each hunter. Whether going for meat or a trophy, there’s always merit and long-term advantages in allowing animals to reach their full potential. Here in southeast Queensland, the established population of red deer provide ample hunting opportunities for those with access, both in terms of provision of free range venison for friends and family as well as producing some of the best trophy stags in the country.

For many with regular access to these animals, taking a top quality trophy is rarely done by happenstance, as often years of regular genetic and population management goes into securing a single trophy stag. Although you can’t control what other hunters or landowners in the area do, educated and ethical meat harvesting is a major step towards improving both the quality and abundance of trophy red stags in the wild. A little extra effort goes a long way.

Expert best practice

Established in 1992 the RIDGE group (Research Into Deer Genetics and Environment) is committed to conducting research into historic and present red deer populations throughout Queensland. Through the use of various survey methods, they collect and provide publicly accessible data and management strategies on their website (www.theridgegroup.net).

Group founder Clark McGhie is a regular contributor to a variety of online platforms including Facebook and YouTube. He’s a highly respected hunter and owner of popular outfitting business Australian Wild Country Adventures. Primarily via his YouTube channel, Clark regularly shares his wealth of knowledge and explains details of his red deer management strategies.

His practice in managing red deer with the aim of developing trophy stags involves a fairly detailed concept, yet is simple in its approach. As outlined in his videos, he focuses mainly on the removal of poor genetic traits from the herd and selective harvesting of stags once they reach their genetic peak.

Given his experience Clark is adept at identifying poor genetic traits. He visually gauges an animal’s age while concurrently assessing antler development and symmetry. From this assessment he’s able to determine whether or not a stag is genetically sound and, as such, if deemed poor in that department it’s removed from the herd in order to reduce its impact on future generations.

Alternatively, stags which are genetically sound are left to breed and only harvested once they’ve fully matured and passed on their genes. Clark generally believes this occurs at 7-8 years of age and by following this framework consistently over many years, he and his clients have harvested some truly magnificent Queensland red stags.

My method

Hunting primarily for venison my approach to red deer management isn’t quite as scientific as Clark’s though is still highly effective and, in my opinion, a sustainable way to hunt. I also remove genetically poor animals and allow younger stags to grow, my practice in this respect involving (with the exception of ‘spikers’ destined for the freezer), only targeting stags 10 points or greater and removing those with obvious antler deformities.

Additionally, when hunting for meat those animals 12-18 months of age (or ‘yearlings’) are the preferred target. Being young and sexually immature they provide the highest quality venison with least impact to the gene pool and overall population health. Further, I believe that taking stags in soft velvet and pregnant or feeding does to be not only a complete waste of potential but ethically questionable and is something I never do. On practicing sustainable hunting for some time now, I’ve noticed the trophy quality and availability of stags on our own property has increased significantly.

Theory into practice

On a pre-rut venison hunt earlier this year, I was again able to put this theory into practice by selecting the perfect animal to harvest even as other options presented themselves. It’s common practice for myself, my dad and our hunting partner Dave to head out to the property a few weeks prior to the ‘roar’ in order to check trail cameras, open tracks and have a go at scoring some venison before things really kick off.

Although we’d seen some promising sign throughout the property, the trail cameras had indicated there was far less activity this year than we’d hoped for. The images captured have always been both interesting and informative, though we’ve learned they’re not always truly representative of what’s happening across the block in general, as we only target known hot-spots with them. Nevertheless, we still took the chance to do some venison hunting, as filling the freezer early would pave the way for dedicated trophy hunting over the coming weeks.

After discussing our options we set off for an afternoon hunt, Dave and dad having positioned themselves in areas overlooking tracks and clearings. Given much of the property is heavily vegetated, open ridge tops and meadows are highly attractive to both deer and wild dogs. Not being a big fan of stand hunting, I opted to stalk along a series of tracks and meadows which eventually took me above the steepest valley and largest creek on the property. As I made my way through the meadows, I noticed about half a dozen ‘beds’ imprinted in long grass, a good sign of recent deer activity.

On reaching the end of the clearings I navigated a track leading down into the creek where I was greeted by a fresh rub tree, a day or so old but a promising sign of things to come. As I followed the creek it was evident deer had been using it as a regular water source, with a number of tracks leading up and down the sandy river bed. There was no shortage of sign but no deer had presented as yet.

Now approaching the property boundary I was forced to leave the creek-line and begin the return to camp on a boundary track. The exit from the creek was overgrown which meant crawling under a series of pine saplings and lantana. Accepting this part of the hunt was over, I didn’t worry about being quiet and, making plenty of noise, crawled through the shrubbery and popped out on the track.

To my complete surprise, as I stood up to assess the best way forward I noticed three deer staring back at me, a young six-pointer stag, a doe and a yearling. After years of sustainable hunting the choice was now an automatic and subconscious one as I quickly shouldered my rifle, centered the yearling in my sights and fired. At just 40m the 130gr projectile from my Tikka .270 passed right through the young deer, sending it rolling back down into the creek-line. It was an excellent result which achieved the stated aim of our early season hunt, namely to put some prime venison in the freezer. The other deer rapidly departed for safer surrounds.

As any hunter will attest the most challenging part of any hunt is the homeward trek, often laden with the spoils of success, not that you’d complain about that. I’d taken the yearling as dusk was falling and even though I field-stripped it quickly, it was quite dark by the time I finished. To complicate matters further I was as far from camp as possible, facing a 1.5km uphill climb over some of the roughest terrain on the block. By the light of my headlamp I toiled and sweated for 40 minutes, carefully negotiating the rough and treacherous terrain to avoid injury.

The sight of the campfire and lights of the shed in the near distance lifted my spirits and soon I was happily striding into camp with a cheeky “your venison delivery service is here” to dad and Dave who were on the verge of going to look for me, having feared I may have come to grief in the darkness.

All’s well that ends well

This young deer was the perfect eater and provided all three of us with plenty of premium venison. The decision not to take the breeding-age female or the stag laying claim to her, preserved his trophy potential for years to come. In the end it’s incumbent on all of us to not only be ethical in our hunting but also restrained. If every immature stag encountered were to be shot, the possibility of taking a true fair-chase trophy head would all but disappear. Why take a head inferior to what you already have just for bragging rights?

Dad has always said “let ’em go and let ’em grow” and that’s been the mantra applied to hunting on our property, sometimes to the disappointment and angst of friends invited to hunt with us. Yet we have an eye on the future and hope our patch will remain satisfyingly productive for years to come due to sustainability of the management practices we employ today.

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