We're counting days now. 10 th of August is the start of our roe buck season in Norway.
I have buck fever already. And one of the reasons is a very nice buck I've been seeing for a couple of years.
Most of his territory seems to be outside legal hunting ground, but I obtained permission to hunt as close as I can. Hopefully he will move enough for me to be able of hunt him.

I got some footage of this buck three days ago. He was quite far away, and I only had a small camera at hand, so the pictures are not the best.



He's and old fellow and a great buck. The antlers seems to be close to 30 cm and with great mass. His coronets are good. He must score a CIC gold... Wow, I sound like the ultimate trophy hunter. Sorry, I'm not, but this bugger is giving me the fever. Big time..

That's a superb buck! Good luck!

Looks massive

Got him on one of my trail cams..



This is just a couple hundred yards from legal ground

Well, this is a very nice and strong buck!

Hope You will have a nice start of the buck season soon...!

Here in germany the antlers of roe deer are not that big then yours in Scandinavia, but this one was also a very good one for my hunting area her - shot in May this year with my .375H&H

Nice photo's Anders.

I am down in Devon the week after next, hope to finally get a Roe Buck while I am there....

Whish you best of luck Anders, looks definitely like a "taker"

That´s a nice one as well Klaus, more to come I guess

This year I have only the first three days(friday 10. to sunday 12.) to try for a roebuck.
The rest of the season the farmer have paying guests on his ground.
That means early mornings and late nights coming weekend

I wish You good luck as well Arild! May a big one show up...!

(Yes, Arild - there are more to take: yesterday evening I had a youngster, which made his way to the freezer...)


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That's quite a nice buck, Klaus-Dieter. Waidmanns Heil !

WaidmannsDank André !

This weekend´s roebuck hunt is over.
Got a smallish one last evening.
He came in on the field at approx 170 meters and started feeding. He stayed in that corner until seven red deer suddenly jumped in and scared him off.

I thought that was the last I would see of him, but after a little while he reappeared much closer to my stand.
And when he stopped broadside at 80 meters I let the bullet fly and he dropped like a stone.

The funny thing was that when I retrieved him on the open field and started grallocing, the reds stayed in the area feeding and looking at med from approx 120 meters.

They obviousely knew that they are safe for another three weeks

Rifle, Kimber Montana, 308 W / 150 grs Woodleigh, scope Zeiss Victory 2,5-10x50

Waidmannsheil Arild,

good take - hope You have a nice bbq with him now...

Nice one Arild, young and tasty!

Waidmannsdank Gentlemen.
Yes, this is good eating

Waidmannsheil Arild, like the last bite tradition. Was pulling for you to get the big one but sometimes just not in the cards. Hope he's around for you next year!

Congrats Arild

I was lucky enough to get a nice little 4 pointer on the morning of the opening day

First kill from my climbing tree stand.





75 meters, 30-06 200 grain Lapua Mega dropped him on the spot.

Congrats Arild and Jonathan.

I have managed to get 2 bucks myself.
A 1 1/2 year old on the evening the 11th and a average 6 pointer for the area yesterday evening.
The rut seems to be almost over in the area.

In fact have I only seen rutting activity once for the last week in the area, and that is a buck and doe just about 500 meters away from my house. Sadly I don't have permission to hunt there as he is a very nice 6 pointer.

Congratulation guys, and Dom, thanks for kind words.
Tha last bit is a fine custom I have learned from continental friends. Not often seen here in the High North.

Now it´s to wait for Anders to be back from the fair, and nail that Big Un, while we have kept his thread busy in the meantime

This is a good thread and interesting. Good to see traditions and respect for the game we shoot taking place all over Europe. I normally give the last bite also but I must have been shot after dragging these guys out of the thicket.

Always a great morning when you can pull a double off 6,5x55 w/130gr Accubonds did the job back in May.

Congrats guys! Great to see that you're having success Not me though
Haven't seen the big one. I've seen another a couple of times, but no chance to pull the trigger.
That's actually ok, since I want the big one badly

Just over a week ago, I was a trip in south France to enjoy their Roe deer during the rut.

I was promised that there would be the opportunity to apply trophy around 400-500 grams. But despite several kilometers stalking in a lovely hilly terrain, and with many amazing experiences with small bucks in heat, it turned out that we did not have the skill to outwit the big buck.

Nice buck Allan

Congrats!

Nice one, Allan! Congrats!

I shot a buck this morning, but not the big one. It was the before mentioned buck in another area. Couldn't resist....



It's a young buck, and should have been saved for a couple of years, but there's hunters hunting all around this area.

Congrats Anders

I beg to disagree about your buck's age, Anders. Coronets are touching, pearls all over the (long) antlers, grey/white face, skinny look. To me it looks like an aging fellow who has known better days (he probably was a handsome 6-pointer before going down). How were the teeth, mollars still carrying points or ground flat ?

I'm not an expert at all, Andre, so it's possible that I drew a very hasty decision here Haven't looked at the teeth actually, but I'll do so. I put the hole head in the freezer, so it might be some time before I do so though.

Waidmannsheil Anders and also to all the successful hunters here. Always best to look at the teeth for age, can get an idea by looks of gray and antlers but always exceptions.

Unless you have a large Revier, that is mostly undisturbed, most Rehbocks are shot to young here. Few make it to the receding stage . . . from what I've seen anyway

Some might argue to say there are only two simple rules to hunting Reh, you shoot the Bucks when they are red and the Does when they are gray Not saying that is right or wrong, we can each decide for ourselves when we pull the trigger.

Anders

Long time no talk

Great pictures and look forward to your video

Would you like to share what equipment you are using for hunting videos ?

I am using a canon 5: Mk3 and the footages are so fantastic I have abandoning ideas so any pro camcorders

Are you fining the same ?

Everything else is post processing anyway ...

quote:

Originally posted by Andre Mertens:
I beg to disagree about your buck's age, Anders. Coronets are touching, pearls all over the (long) antlers, grey/white face, skinny look. To me it looks like an aging fellow who has known better days (he probably was a handsome 6-pointer before going down). How were the teeth, mollars still carrying points or ground flat ?

I agree that he is a mature buck.
But I am not sure he has seen better days as we have plenty of bucks that doesn't become bigger than that anyway

I have shot a few very old bucks that has gone totally down the drain antler wise.
With little or no pearling, small coronets and in general small antlers with short tines and teeth totally worn down.

This is a buck I shot some years ago.
His teeth were hardly showing anymore.
He looked like a young one in neck and body, but his face were totally white.
I guess he wouldn't survive one more winter.



Sorry about the bad photo as it is a scan of a papercopy from a cellphone pic...

I agree with you, Norwegianwoods. Had Ander's buck lived a couple more years, he'd look exactly like yours.

Thanks for the input, guys!
I boiled the head yesterday. If the weight is what I think he might just go bronze, but that's another story

Here's a couple of photos of his teeth. Looks like they're not very worn down. What's your guess for the age?

Looks like very little wear to me.
But the wear also depends very much on what they need to eat in the winter to survive in your area.

If they still can eat green grass and herbs most of the late autumn and maybe most of the winter, then the wear can be very little every year.
In my area with much snow and often hard and long winters, they wear their teeth much every year because of what they need to eat then to survive.

If it was a buck from my area, I would guess from the photos that the buck was 4-6 years.

That's correct. Tooth wear is misleading if considered out of context, because feeding habits play a major role. For example, food timber and sandy soil are notorious for accelerating tooth wear, while tender green does just the opposite. Therefore it is only meaningful to relate tooth wear and age among animals coming from the same place. Of course, experience is paramount to interpretate the readings. Otherwise, the only failproof way I know of to read age (from a subject unknown) is to slice a molar, put it under the microscope and count the growth rings.