Find out everything you need to know about deer management from getting started, to what you can shoot, right through to honing your skills.
Deer management is necessary to protect habitats and their associated species, forestry and agricultural crops.
Deer are prolific breeders and, if numbers are allowed to increase unchecked, they may become prone to starvation and disease. They are also involved in 74,000 annual recorded vehicle collisions each year.
Deer are also a significant problem for farmers and foresters in many areas and will damage and destroy crops if left unchecked.
BASC promotes sustainable deer management across the UK by providing advice to members on habitat and species management, developing and supporting best practice, offering deer stalking opportunities and influencing government policy. If you’re a BASC member and have a question for our deer management team, get in touch here.
The Wild Game Guide provides information on the hygiene regulations for food businesses that supply wild game for human consumption, and for people who hunt wild game and supply it either in-fur or in-feather or as small quantities of wild game meat.
The guide is available to download in full from the link below, along with the photo annex and the HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) plan.
As of April 2021, if you have completed your DSC2 qualification, you will have achieved ‘trained hunter’ status for large game (ie. deer).
The Rural Affairs and Islands Committee has published its report on the Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill, which BASC says undermines self-regulation in Scotland’s deer management sector.
Conversations around food sustainability are growing louder in many parts of the world, presenting an opportunity for wild British game, writes Sophie Stafford.
Araba Cole had become estranged from nature and physical resilience. Deer stalking and a season as a ghillie in Scotland was her way back.
