Hunting Red Deer with my 9 year old son, and dog.

[@joshuasmith-holley72]

Pretty cool to watch you two cutting up the meat. sorry to say i laughed when you grabbed at the knife 😅 but you kept cool and made it a learning moment. Dad skills 100

[@NZDeerandDogs]

@@joshuasmith-holley72 haha, I had to keep calm since I did stupidly put my hand there

[@paulwright1237]

Great vids young fella. 👍

[@NZDeerandDogs]

Thanks Paul 👍

[@walkaboutthinny2523]

bloody brilliant all ways good to see a good dog at work and it's hard to say how was to blame for the cut thumb 👍

[@NZDeerandDogs]

@@walkaboutthinny2523 Thanks mate. Yea the cut thumb was definitely a bit of a team effort 🤣

[@Dad-Daughters-Dog-Deer]

Nice work.

[@NZDeerandDogs]

Thanks!

[@crestcutter2729]

Great work champ fantastic video

[@NZDeerandDogs]

Thanks glad you enjoyed it 👍

[@deertrackernz2203]

Nice one man👍

[@NZDeerandDogs]

Thanks ✌

[@johnmead8437]

What general area is this, & is there any major pest control aeras nearby? Bush is clearly hammered by the deer, but having kaka about is interesting. Dogs make a big difference if they are useful (the 90% hunting efficiency rule applies), but even with a good one they miss some with this style of hunting.

[@NZDeerandDogs]

@@johnmead8437 Tongariro National Park area. There’s plenty of 1080 drops if that’s what you mean by pest control? What about the bush looks hammered by the deer, I would say the opposite in this area, I hunt some areas where all the bark is stripped off the trees and nothing is left on the ground. Yes without the dog I wouldn’t even bother stalking this area, this time was exceptional getting 3 good indications, normally it would take 4 hours to get onto one deer. Kaka’s are pretty normal all around central north island, I think, I see them almost every hunt.

[@johnmead8437]

@@NZDeerandDogs Favourite palatables gone from understory & very open. Deer still do ok on less favoured species, takes quite a bit to reduce body size to around 40kg carcass weight for mature hinds/spikers. Many species are limited to inaccessible sites, & when deer invade an area they strip the bark off some species & eliminate what they can reach. This happened over much of NZ many decades ago. The commercial recovery period enabled bush & carcases size to partially recover in the more accessible sites, & sites with ongoing. 1080 drops do the same in some places, rec hunting in the most easiest places sometimes. Like carparks etc. Enclosure plots that fence deer out demonstrate the effect. Just because deer aren't encountered everywhere doesn't mean they are uncommon, they move around a lot and are still wary deer irrespective of population. Kakas surviving in some lower quality sites can be males (the population can be functionally extinct, & parrots grow decades old), the females get killed on the nests, parakeets also. The 1080 drops can tip the balance back to where females can survive (stoats eat poisoned rats & that seasons chicks get a chance) and importantly, flowering species get to recover enough from possums for quality feed for chicks to be available. Well documented in some sites, but they need ongoing maintenance before the tipping point is reached, like beech mast seasons. When hunting, locating red crown parakeets is something to highlight, they were in Pureora in the 1970s. Putting fido on a 10m length of heavy nylon might help, tread on it when it gets too far ahead. Might take a while with pointers, they can have their own program & don't like thinking much.

[@craigscott1563]

Wicked video team, what sort of camera is that on your scope ?

[@NZDeerandDogs]

@@craigscott1563 Thanks mate. It’s called a Triggercam 2.1 , it’s pretty heavy on the gun, so gutting when you carry it around all day, don’t turn it on for the shot 🙄

[@craigscott1563]

@@NZDeerandDogs know the feeling all to well, have a go pro and had that happen on multiple occasions