This is my first attempt at posting pics, I think it works!



This should be a pic of a nice, but very old fallow buck from last year.



Here we should have a very big boar taken several years ago.

I just wanted to share these pics of what I consider to be my best 2 European trophies so far.

Enjoy.

Nice pictures, now we only need the stories behind them
Lets have them


S�lvi

The buck;

It was a nippy autumn afternoon, I had been assigned one adult male, one adult female and 2 young animals for each sex to cull.

The other tags had already been filled and I had passed up several mature bucks in the hope of finding a truly great, old buck.

My hopes were beginning to fade that I would find my buck. I had spent the afternoon slowly stalking up and down a patch of semi open low brush, at the same time keeping my eye on a field where the deer often feed.

As it began to get late, I decided to climb a tree and wait. The animals would be moving about by now, so I didn�t want to blunder into them in the bush. Sometimes you can catch them in the thick stuff during the day and if you are very careful, you can stalk in for a shot.
Now the time had come that I would probably cause more commotion by moving about.
A large oak just beyond the hedge at the edge of the field gave me a good view, and the wind was in my favour.
It would only be a matter of time�

It was rather uncomfortable in that tree and I was dressed for stalking, not sitting in a tree.
As darkness neared I had just about had enough. Nothing had stirred. I had seen no animals whilst stalking either. They must have moved somewhere else to feed.

I got down from the tree heavy heartedly and began to make my way toward the ute parked just a couple of hundred meters away.

I stopped midstride and decided not to call it off yet. There was probably another 10 minutes of shooting time left.
On the other side of the field I had been watching over, there is a ruined homestead, with another, less popular field on the other side of the hill. I could just make it there in time to get a last minute glimpse of the field before it got dark.

I tried to be quiet as I walked up the gravel road leading to the homestead and I damned the tiny rocks and gravel were crunching under my feet. It was a less than perfect approach, I was tired and jaded.

Past the main house there is a small building that once served as a pig stye. I paused and settled my breathing, nerves and warmed my hands before peering around the stonewall corner.

Standing no more than 30 meters away was a deer, obviously a buck judging by his bulky neck.
He was standing under an old oak tree and some low branches, already bare of leave were obstructing my view of his head. Slowly I made out a long antler amongst the branches, then he snapped to attention as I eased out from behind the wall, slowly raising the rifle to my shoulder.
Through the scope I could see things much more clearly. I could clearly see the other antler, and yes, it was also intact.

I didn�t waste time to lower the crosshair onto his shoulder, he was broadside, head up looking intently at me through the tangle of branches.
I aimed for a spine shot, not wanting him to go anywhere in this light, at the very edge of a clearing.
I jabbed at the trigger. Thankfully I had set the steccher trigger and the shot took him cleanly. The mighty old buck just collapsed.

As I walked over to him I could see he was still alive so I put another shot into the front of the chest.
Then it was just quiet.
I rolled a cigarette and gave the buck his last bite of oak leaves.

Great pics, great trophies! Weidmannsheil! Just goes to show how prejudice we are, I never imagined you'd get animals like this in Italy. You Italiens must have kept this a deep, dark secret for all these years...
- mike

Mike, The pig is a very good one, but the fallow do get better. That buck is beoyond his prime and his palms and points had began to wither.
There are some trulu amazing trophies in Italy, I myself would never have imagined.

E friend took a CIC gold medal roe this year 40kg from my place.
There are probably a few fallow around my place that would be pretty close to a gold medal.

Just that it's not easy to get them.
These animals have been hunted, molested and poached for centuries. Some of them can even read and write,

This is my first (and only) chamois. Not a huge trophy but a nice one. Lorenzo [IMG][url= http://"http://www.hunt101.com/?p=61096&c=535&z=1"] [/url][/IMG]

Nice one Lorenzo, Weidmannsheil! Is that a doe? I have a hard time seeing how much the tips of the horns bend down (not that this is always a 100% indication). They sure look long! I assume this from the Pyrenees, yes? Are the chamois there smaller in body than the Alpine ones??
- mike

Thanks Mho, but it's a Chamois; I shot it 40/50 km north of Nice (or Monte-Carlo, if you prefer) and it's an "Alpine" buck. Their cousins from Pyrenees are called "Isard" and are a little smaller and lighter of colours. The hook at the end of buck's horns is more bent than doe's one. I shot it with my Ruger 77/II, 270 Win. 130 g. Grand Slam Speer bullets, reloaded ammos; distance 70/80 meters. - Lorenzo