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Deer shooting (or stalking as it is usually termed) is the principal method of controlling wild deer numbers. Many contradictory claims have been made during recent years as to the amount of "suffering" caused during the control of wild deer, but no proper statistics are available to quantify the situation. The main BDS charitable objective is to work for the most humane treatment for wild deer and so this project has been designed to identify:

The size and nature of any welfare problem
What causes inaccurate shooting or the wounding of animals
How best to recover and dispatch any deer which is inadvertently wounded quickly

The Society's aim to promote the humane management of deer is largely implemented through its deer stalker training programme. Deer wounding and loss rates are both reduced by teaching good marksmanship and the tried and tested techniques of recovering wounded deer to all deer stalkers. However, it is essential that our training and advice is based on sound and scientific evidence. Currently there are many opinions, but no scientific evidence to explain why deer are wounded in the first place. If the causes of wounding were known the problem could be further reduced by accurately-targeted training and, perhaps, such measures as promoting a Code of Conduct/Best Practice Guides.

BDS also gives unbiased advice to Government when legislation effecting wild deer is being drafted. Much of the primary deer legislation in UK aims to reduce deer suffering. However, there are different laws in Scotland and England governing firearm calibre, bullet design, ballistic criteria and certain rifle sights. Whether or not these different laws have different success rates has never been scientifically tested or compared.

Previous Related Research

Professor Bateson carried out some research into wounding rates during the stalking of woodland Red deer during his study into deer hunting. He used declared statistics from a small number of hunters and expert interpretation of wounds on carcasses from information supplied by game dealers. Similarly, the follow up Joint Universities study also used similar statistics provided by another set of hunters.

A recent research paper quantifies the number of wounds and their location on 1000 Red deer carcasses examined in a Scottish game dealer's premises. (K Urquhart KA & McKendrick IJ (2003) A Survey of Permanent Wound Tracts in the carcasses of culled wild red deer in Scotland)

Some similar projects have been carried out in Scandinavia which seemed to give reliable results, although the shooting conditions were different to those in the UK.

The British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC) has researched what percentage of the total deer cull in Scotland is shot by three different employment categories of deer stalker (amateur/semi-professional/professional) and is trying to extend this research to their stalking membership in England.

The declared Scottish deer cull total is published annually by the Deer Commission for Scotland and correlated with the figures collected from game dealers' records. The total English deer cull is not known.

Using these data sets and research results, our project may be able to interpret either accurate rates or even numbers of animals which suffer under given conditions and how best to reduce those totals.

Detailed Research Methods and Aims

The project intends to collect as much data over one whole year from about 300 volunteer hunters. BDS is very grateful to those who have volunteered to help with the project.

Details of each shot fired, each deer fired at, each hunter's situation, experience, practice, equipment, etc. and the exact conditions associated with the hunting activity and shot, will be recorded as objectively as possible. The data will then be extensively processed by expert statisticians to identify any trends or influences which have had positive or negative effects on the outcomes. We hope that the data will enable us accurately and scientifically:

Identify the actual wounding rate during deer stalking with a rifle in UK.
Investigate whether wounding rates vary between various different categories of deer stalker.
Identify possible reasons for inaccuracy or any shot not killing the deer outright.
Identify the value of range practice.
Identify whether equipment, rifle calibres or sights have any bearing on results.
Identify the exact outcome for each deer fired at.
Answer, if a deer is wounded and recovered, what techniques were the most successful.
Answer whether results differ between deer species.

Recruiting Data Providers

The current team of volunteer data providers are probably representative of the BDS stalking membership. However, preliminary analysis suggests that perhaps those who kill more than 50 deer a year may be under-represented as a group on a national scale. If there are any volunteers in this category who would like to join the project, we would be keen to hear from them up to end of February 2006.

All data providers are providing their statistics completely anonymously. There is a cut-out system in place whereby the project organisers who know the data provider's names and addresses never see their results and, conversely, the researchers who processing the data only know the providers as a unique code number.

Project Timings

It is hoped to adhere to the following plan, but it may be extended if additional data is required:

Cull data record forms issued to stalkers - October 2005
Project starts - 20 October 2005
Interim trial analysis - June 2006
All data returned - by 20 October 2006
Written report - January 2008.

For further details, please contact:

Hugh Rose, (Accuracy and Deer Recovery Project),
Trian House,
Comrie,
Perthshire
PH6 2HZ

Telephone: 01764 670062

Those taking part in this research can download the relevant documentation in Adobe format by clicking on the links below.

Form1 Shots (Pink)

Form2 Deer (Green)

Form3 Practice Shots (Blue)

Form4 Equipment Details (White)