Offered a Managment Sika stag hunt but have questions????

Buddy of mine is in the oil field line of work and gets into high fence exotic hunting.
He was offered a Management hunt at the place he always goes to however unfortunately he has to work next weekend so he asked and he offered it to me.
This would be something totally new for me as in high fence exotic!

So here’s my question are any of you familiar with this species?
Is it basically a very large whitetail? I’ve been told by a few people at work they are considered mini red stags
However in my opinion they are still a deer.
Do I take a vital shot or do I take a shoulder type shot? I’m not exactly sure if their skin is like a white tail or if it’s tough.
If you have shot one what did you shoot it with?

I chose to do this as a warm-up for whitetail season.
I figured this could be something new that I have never done I with excitement.


Any bit of information would be great

There are three types of sika commonly in Texas; the Japanese Sika, the Dybowksi Sika and the Manchurian Sika.

The jap sika is the most common and the smallest. A mature male will weigh around 90-100 lbs. the dybowski sika are about the size of a mature Texas whitetail (150-175 lbs) And will often have spots. The manchurian are large ( 250-300 lbs) and are built more like a stag.

They are closely related to elk/red deer and can in fact interbreed with both of them as well as all the species of sika ( there are something like 20 something subspecies of sika total )

Just shoot them where you normally would a whitetail. I’ve only killed the smallest jap sika but the meat is delicious. Any caliber suitable for whitetail will be suitable for sika.

^^^^^

What TXTrophy said. The only one I’ve shot was a spike. Same shot placement as whitetail. I used a .270 Win with 130 grain cup and core bullet, and it did an excellent job. The meat is reminiscent of elk, and quite tasty. Would recommend.

Thank you for your response before I decided to respond here I messaged him and found out that this is the Dybowksi we are talking about.
Good to know it’s basically a LARGE Whitetail I kind of figured it was pretty much put the bullet where it needs to be type of situation however I’m not familiar with exotics as far as I know they could be wearing bulletproof armor.
Interesting I didn’t know there were three types.
I look forward to it.

Wow now y’all are getting me excited. Hopefully I get a shot

Yes they will be similar in size to a common Texas WT and require no special cartridge, bullet or shot placement. They are not large animals by any stretch. They are smaller than a mature panhandle whitetail or South Texas Buck

Here is a picture of a large antlered specimen to give you an idea of what they look like

Did you shoot this Animal ? I’m guessing this was high fence as I don’t recall any running low fence

They are pretty common LF in many hill country or western hill country counties now.

As others have said Sika are very tasty

Enjoy the hunt!

Very, very tasty venison

Use the same caliber you kill whitetails with and put the bullet where it belongs and you will have absolutely no problem at all.
I'd say .243 and up
I've killed many large bodied S TX bucks up to 185 lbs dressed with my trusty 243 and 100gr sierra GK bullets with one shot through the ribs right behind the shoulder and a Sika buck is no tougher or harder to kill.

Hopefully I get a good shot/chance

They are like any animal, they breathe. You take out their ability to do so, and they die. Use your regular whitetail set up, and go and have some fun. Good luck, they are a neat animal.

I've killed multiple japanese sika bucks, all in the state of Texas. Two of the three had very evident spots in their coat, and I have seen this feature very pronounced across multiple groups of japanese sika in various ranches. The hide makes a nice display piece at minimal cost, if you don't plan to shoulder mount your kill. The only one without visible spots was in the middle of losing his summer coat. In contrast to what has been previously posted, the japanese sika I killed were every bit as large as any hill country whitetail buck; easily in the 130-150# range on the hoof. Additionally, most biologists now consider dybowski and manchurian to be the same animal, so expect no variation in weight regardless of which name is used..

I've only shot one but it was the best game meat I've ever tasted. People talk about axis and oryx and I thought Sika was way better than both of those