Commercialised deer stalking Scottish highlands

[Stone14 9]

I'm all for deer hunting.  But looking up deer stalking in the Scottish Highlands im not that sure about. I get that the are a big issue to the landscape and the only reason, now, why trees find it unable to grow.  But my idea of deer stalking g is to essentially 'hunt out your own using your skills and knowledge. It seems from what I can gather online that Scotland has commercialised deer hunting which only allows you to deer hunt if you have an pro-stalker accompany you (an employee). Isnt this just paying upto or around £1k for a trophy head? By following some guy around till he finds you a deer, And not to 'hunt deer yourself'. It seems hunting roe on a uk permission is far more a show of your own skills than shooting a huge beast in Scotland...? 

Edited September 16, 2021 by Stone14

[3175darren 1,100]

Stone there are syndicates in Scotland, but few and far between, it is just daft money now, and in truth there are better trophies down south, people have been paying stupid money, and now the stalkers  expect it, a lot just see us as cash cow’s, a lot of the stalking has been bought up by southerners who hardly ever go, and try to get there money back by charging through the nose, using a local stalker to take people out, 

I just stick to roe stalking now and I have stalked since the mid to late 80’s 

[Stone14 9]

On 21/09/2021 at 20:12, 3175darren said:

Stone there are syndicates in Scotland, but few and far between, it is just daft money now, and in truth there are better trophies down south, people have been paying stupid money, and now the stalkers  expect it, a lot just see us as cash cow’s, a lot of the stalking has been bought up by southerners who hardly ever go, and try to get there money back by charging through the nose, using a local stalker to take people out, 

I just stick to roe stalking now and I have stalked since the mid to late 80’s 

Yeah I've checked some places out they charge you £100 per bullet shot plus charged by the size of deer you take, plus guide fees or tips id assume. Seems excessive considering we are told recreational hunters aren't doing enough to tackle the population problem. Maybe if it wasn't around £1000 per bloody stag people might shoot more.

Edited October 8, 2021 by Stone14

[Born Hunter 17,762]

I believe BASC run a stalking scheme offering self guided on Arran. That sort of thing is very appealing but they demand DSC 1 and some level of achieving DSC 2 now I think. Just not worth that nonsense for the single scheme imo. It'd be good to see much more opportunities like that though. Also some estates allow unaccompanied highseat sessions, which is an understandable compromise but about as appealing as driven game shooting to me.

Free stalking in the UK is hard come by and paid self guided is virtually non existent. Until that changes there's always going to be good demand for paid guided stalking.

Loads of deer, loads of people wanting to shoot them, loads of complaining from those who have it about shit venison prices and loads of excuses why the obvious solution ain't an option...

No doubt this post will provoke a reminder of them all but I just think we can do better.

[3175darren 1,100]

52 minutes ago, Born Hunter said:

I believe BASC run a stalking scheme offering self guided on Arran. That sort of thing is very appealing but they demand DSC 1 and some level of achieving DSC 2 now I think. Just not worth that nonsense for the single scheme imo. It'd be good to see much more opportunities like that though. Also some estates allow unaccompanied highseat sessions, which is an understandable compromise but about as appealing as driven game shooting to me.

Free stalking in the UK is hard come by and paid self guided is virtually non existent. Until that changes there's always going to be good demand for paid guided stalking.

Loads of deer, loads of people wanting to shoot them, loads of complaining from those who have it about shit venison prices and loads of excuses why the obvious solution ain't an option...

No doubt this post will provoke a reminder of them all but I just think we can do better.

To be fare it’s gone through the roof, DSC has made it worse in my opinion, everyone wants to charge through the nose,  and the venison prices are at rock bottom, it reminds me of the rabbit issues years ago, farmers complaining about the rabbits and wouldn’t let people on to catch them, I remember hind stalking in the late 80’s at £50 a day, and lodgings were really reasonable, people are far better heading south now, to be fair the trophies are as good or better, not that I go for them, and you are not dragged two days camel ride up a hill, to shoot a beast 200 yds behind the cottage . I am going to look for some munty stalking this next yr, 

[Stone14 9]

10 hours ago, Born Hunter said:

I believe BASC run a stalking scheme offering self guided on Arran. That sort of thing is very appealing but they demand DSC 1 and some level of achieving DSC 2 now I think. Just not worth that nonsense for the single scheme imo. It'd be good to see much more opportunities like that though. Also some estates allow unaccompanied highseat sessions, which is an understandable compromise but about as appealing as driven game shooting to me.

Free stalking in the UK is hard come by and paid self guided is virtually non existent. Until that changes there's always going to be good demand for paid guided stalking.

Loads of deer, loads of people wanting to shoot them, loads of complaining from those who have it about shit venison prices and loads of excuses why the obvious solution ain't an option...

No doubt this post will provoke a reminder of them all but I just think we can do better.

I plan on doing the dsc 1&2 anyway. Also heard from some that they got an open ticket for deer on their FAC licence when they had completed these courses pre-licence application. 

Edited October 8, 2021 by Stone14

[KimE 487]

Here in northern Sweden being a member of a moose hunting club costs about 400£ / year and you get about 30-50kg of meat, the majority of moose teams hunt with dogs. A smallgame  (including roe and lynx) lease cost about 50£/year.

[Deker 3,478]

On 08/10/2021 at 21:55, Stone14 said:

I plan on doing the dsc 1&2 anyway. Also heard from some that they got an open ticket for deer on their FAC licence when they had completed these courses pre-licence application. 

You seem pretty keen, but are also darting about all over the place with threads about this shooting malarky.

It would be a mistake to look at a DSC or a paid stalk as a route to your first FAC with an Open ticket!

 

Edited October 11, 2021 by Deker

[Tyla 3,179]

On 08/10/2021 at 21:55, Stone14 said:

I plan on doing the dsc 1&2 anyway. Also heard from some that they got an open ticket for deer on their FAC licence when they had completed these courses pre-licence application. 

I've you've not Stalked before, and don't have to permission available to teach yourself, then some paid stalking might not be a bad idea. You'll learn a lot from a trip out with an experienced deer guide, practical experience is far better, in my opinion, than any amount of classroom based qualifications. My advice would be to find someone local to mentor you. Spend a season watching, learning and being their drag and gralloch bitch

[sussex 5,777]

On 08/10/2021 at 11:56, Stone14 said:

Yeah I've checked some places out they charge you £100 per bullet shot plus charged by the size of deer you take, plus guide fees or tips id assume. Seems excessive considering we are told recreational hunters aren't doing enough to tackle the population problem. Maybe if it wasn't around £1000 per bloody stag people might shoot more.

…and there’s the rub , if it was cheap and uncontrolled there wouldn’t be any £1000 stags left ..stalking in the highlands has always been an expensive pastime , it’s a business with everyone from the landowner down to the local pub trying to get a living in a remote place by doing something they enjoy ..the general cost of living is as high if not higher than living in a town and that is the driver of prices ..

Down south around my old place in Sussex fallow stalking is available at sensible money , £100 will get you out for a day , I used to charge £70 for a morning wether you got a shot or not , often , especially with experienced stalkers two or three was quite common , less so with the inexperienced for obvious reasons .The last few years I stopped taking people out on a commercial basis simply because I couldn’t get the numbers of deer in the chiller when you were guiding someone .I had a small team of experienced friends , many were former clients , who I could depend upon to turn up , do the job , stick to plan and know I would have no safety issues with . .

It’s hard to make inroads into stalking but it’s possible , you have to knock on doors , get to know people and earn the trust , getting someone to trust you enough to let you walk and shoot over there land with a high calibre riffle is never going to be easy , I grew up in the East end of London , talk with a proper cockney accent , that always puts people on the back foot,  had never seen or been involved in shooting of any kind until I was in  my twenties but managed to end up managing the deer on two estates and several smaller farms for the last fifteen years , now retired my shooting pal runs the show ..

I never had any qualifications , at that time experience and trust were the way forward , if I was starting again today the DSC certs would be high on the list , if only to clear new hurdles that have been put in place by the various deer societies and lovingly adopted by the police ..no piece of paper will ever replace experience and competence to do the job but it is a starting point and one that in the future will be a requirement to get a foot on the ladder ..

[SheepChaser 8,083]

I’m not really into deer stalking, I can very much see the appeal of it but seems around here to be a closed shop where a small number of people who take themselves very seriously and have all of the gear rent big chunks of stalking ground, do very little to reduce or manage deer numbers and then charge other folk loads of money to shoot a few bucks. Then there are too many deer and someone just whacks them all on the lamp / night vision at the end of the season to get numbers down. 

[Bearfoot 1,477]

Most private shoots or leases never shot there target thats when they contractors are called in no matter whos paying .