Deer – Lures and Methods of Deer Hunting
The red deer is a species that inhabited the European steppes thousands of years ago. It was not a forest species before. This can be deduced from the impressive antlers she puts on and sheds once a year. Such impressive antlers rather disturb him during forest walks.
Perhaps that is why deer tend to go out into the fields at night and forage in vast meadows and farmlands. The deer forest serves as a hideout. Although, for example, in the mountains, where, apart from small alpine pastures, it has dense forest complexes at its disposal, it often also has to forage in the forest.
This is especially true in winter. At this time, it becomes a nuisance, especially for foresters, who are heavily damaged by crops such as silver fir and pine.
We hunt red deer in the autumn and winter, using several hunting methods. Since the end of August, we hunt male deer, known as bulls, using a method known as “sitting” at the beginning of the season.
Methods of Deer Hunting
The hunter stands where deer migrate and waits in the evening as deer stags come out to the feeding grounds, and in the morning the other way round.
How they return to their daily resting places from feeding grounds. In this way, we hunt deer, stags and female deer practically throughout the hunting season for this species.
Another much more complex method of hunting deer is the method of baiting. During such a hunt, the hunter imitates the voices of bull deer and thus attracts other bulls to himself.
However, this method requires a good knowledge of the species, the red deer, and above all, it requires a perfect musical ear and a voice from the hunter, which the roar of a bull deer must imitate.
An experienced hunter-lure can recognize his age at a distance, without looking at a given individual, by his tone and how he roars. It should be added here that this method can only be used during the mating season of red deer, called “rutting.”
This method requires many hours of listening to the deer of bulls and practicing on various types of decoys of the voice of the deer, or “roar.” The red deer rut lasts about 2-3 weeks with breaks and begins and ends differently in our country.
Another method of hunting individuals of this species, regardless of sex, is used during winter, when we have snow cover. It is most effective when the snow is unfrozen and you can move about noiselessly. Of course, I am talking about the “on the trail” method.
In the fresh snow, with the so-called “re-run,” you can see the imprints of deer hooves. So we can get to know more or less what individuals we are tracking. Bulls usually have tracks larger than they do or calves, although a bull’s deer track does not reflect either its size or its age.
When using this method, he must remember to be vigilant. In this case, we are approaching the deer, not us. So we must remember about appropriate clothing.
First, it must be a garment that does not distinguish us from the environment. The best, of course, is all kinds of camouflages with different patterns. Don’t be afraid to use camouflages with orange or red elements.
Deer see everything in shades of gray anyway. The color temperature of the red color in shades of gray is similar to that of green.
The most important thing is that the garment is not of one color because it emphasizes our figure, which is visible against the background of various-colored and various-shaped bushes and trees.
We must also remember that the material from which the clothes are made while moving does not make noises that could scare the approached animals. So much for the essential methods used in individual deer hunts.
Now a few words about the methods used during collective hunting of red deer. The first method is the so-called “soft brushing” method. At first glance, hunting is no different from collective hunting for other species.
The two main differences are that dogs are not used while driving; the other is that beaters do not scream but move softly from time to time, tapping sticks against tree trunks.
Last Words
This method causes the driven deer to stroll towards the hunter’s line and not rush at “breaking their neck.” Individuals can then be identified and possibly age assessed before shooting.
The second method is the so-called ” Swedish” forcing. It consists in placing hunters on booths or pulpits in the hunting ground and causing the game to migrate during the day.
Both hunting dogs and beaters are used, which move around a specific area. Shots are fired from a certain height, increasing safety during hunting.
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