dai dog 11 Posted February 21, 2007 Report Share Posted February 21, 2007 now ill admit, ive never really had much to do with these odd little creatures! ive dealt with roe & fallow in the past, but muntys are a bit of an alien species! purely beqause we havent got any round this neck of the woods! i have some permission in wiltshire & have never seen any on the lamp yet have seen them once running in front of the car at dawn! (so theyre defo there)! last night i was away with work & went for a walk, i put 3 up in a matter of minutes! i also know that this area is heaving! i decided to have a look in the dark with the lamp, purely for observation ( i enjoy watching things aswell!) i couldnt spot one! do they come out to graze? or predominantly stay in the bushes? how did people used to catch them pre ban? bushing? lamping? how did they run? at the end of the night i spotted some roe feeding out, upon closer inspection there were 4 roe does & 1 munty buck whose eyes lit green as opposed to the roes yellow! funny behaviour!? any info on the species would be great as they really intrigue me! cheers rhys. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bill88 6 Posted February 21, 2007 Report Share Posted February 21, 2007 Rhys,there are some football pitche's and a kid's playground near my house,and it is crawling with muntjac at night.In the day you would never know they are there but after 11pm,its covered.I work some ground nearby,and when i've walked past and put the lamp across,i've seen anything upto 14 of them all grazing happily. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Ossie 11 Posted February 22, 2007 Report Share Posted February 22, 2007 round my way there's loads of woods, and they're absolutely heaving with them. i walked my dog down my road one day last summer, and found 6 dead ones in various states of decay (all past eating stage unforunately!) in less than a quarter mile. i drive through 3 woods on my way home from the pub, i usually see at least 6 or 7. by the roadside, they seem to hang around in pairs, although i have seen 5 on a verge before. i regularly see pairs of them on my track too. Gyp chased an absolutely massive buck on one of our back fields a while ago. dog is about 25", and this munty was easily 3 or 4 inches taller than him. i don't doubt that with more space he'd have caught it, although f**k knows how we'd have killed it! sod getting near those rippers! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Simoman 110 Posted February 22, 2007 Report Share Posted February 22, 2007 Gyp chased an absolutely massive buck on one of our back fields a while ago. dog is about 25", and this munty was easily 3 or 4 inches taller than him. Thought the average size for a munty was a round 18 inches, 28/29" Are you sure it was a munty :whistle: Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Ossie 11 Posted February 22, 2007 Report Share Posted February 22, 2007 no mistaking those backwards-pointing antlers(?), big pointy fangs and low-slung gut... deffo a munty, i was a bit surprised meself! near shit myself when he bolted it right in front of me! unless they can interbreed with other species of deer? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Simoman 110 Posted February 22, 2007 Report Share Posted February 22, 2007 no mistaking those big pointy fangs and low-slung gut... I think you will find that your dog was coursing Jade Goody ossie Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Ossie 11 Posted February 22, 2007 Report Share Posted February 22, 2007 she is a munt.... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Rabbithunter 456 Posted February 22, 2007 Report Share Posted February 22, 2007 sod getting near those rippers! Head lock :11: Quote Link to post Share on other sites
stoaty 171 Posted February 22, 2007 Report Share Posted February 22, 2007 PMSL@ Simo Quote Link to post Share on other sites
skycat 6,174 Posted February 22, 2007 Report Share Posted February 22, 2007 Are you sure it wasn't a fat Chinese Water Deer! We're heaving with muntys round my way too: I'd say that the tallest buck I've seen probably went about 25 inches: an ancient skinny old thing, but have had them a lot lot smaller, specially does. We seemed to catch more bucks than does, thank God, always put out by the terriers out of brambles. They are really hard to find at night as they slip out into the open for a bit of a graze, then disappear back into the cover and are invisible again. If you got them out in the open they could turn as quick as a hare, but any dog should be fast enough to pull one down: I had a mongrel Collie years ago and she had no problem catching up with them. In woods they are very dangerous as they can dart through the trees far better than dogs and I lost a very good little bitch once broke her back chasing one through a wood. They also think nothing of swimming across a lake or river to safety: they can swim faster than any dog I've ever seen (reckon its their hollow hair that helps them float so well) I reckon they are the best eating out of any of the deer species: I just love the little things: try pan fried fillets one day cooked in lamb fat, and not overcooked either: they just melt in your mouth. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
COMPO 54 Posted February 22, 2007 Report Share Posted February 22, 2007 They stick pretty much to dense cover, it would have been difficult to get a running dog behind one pre-ban without a few good hound types pushing them from the cover first. Local shooting estate near me culls them by having a muntjac drive, this is the only real way to make an impact on them in large blocks of dense woodland, stalkers only shoot a few at a time on a good day as muntjac are very illusive and really like very dense bramble or rhododenrums , a days driving can account for 30, using 12gauges and AAA shot, beaters and guns walking in line. I have shot a few using a 12gauge and AAA shot, where they were causing damage to woodland/crops near to house's and a road. If you had a few hounds or terriers with a good nose, you may be able to persuade them to leave the cover for the open, my little hound yesterday flushed one from ablock of bramble ridden woodland, but it went round the wood several times before it realised it had a better chance on the open, and then they tend to run from patch of cover to patch of cover. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
dai dog 11 Posted February 23, 2007 Author Report Share Posted February 23, 2007 thanks for the replies guys! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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