Folks.

For your viewing pleasure - a couple nice beasts taken over in Italy while hunting with EXPRESS. Having been lucky enough to play on his ground in the past - I was able to guide KareVidar onto these beauties.

So, we have a Pom guiding a Norwegian on an Australian's ground in Italy. You tell me if there is a more appropriate forum to post it on!!!






Keep well.

Ian

Very nice.

A nice representative fallow and moufflon. Congratulations to your Norwegian friend.

When I was in "Express's" neck of the woods none of the hunters I met knew anything of hunting bigger game (other than boar). The opportunities were too rare and few. AND I had posted an enquiry about finding some hunting in Tuscany with Express posting a reply just before I left Aust. AND had made ALL the plans already. I am still kicking myself!

Looks good.

I remember that thick busg in the background. I went for several walks through the hilly countryside including cutting across country and some of the thick forest can be quite challenging.

quote:

Originally posted by NitroX:
A nice representative fallow and moufflon.

John, I don't know how big fallow grow in your area but for this uruguayan hunter that's much more than a representative fallow...that's a VERY good fallow

Congrats Ian

L

quote:

Originally posted by Lorenzo:
John, I don't know how big fallow grow in your area but for this uruguayan hunter that's much more than a representative fallow...that's a VERY good fallow

I wouldn't say no to him too.

That fallow has much more even antlers than the locals here - we tend to get ok palmation on one side and crap on the other , or a deep cleft in both . I suspect there is some mineral deficiency that plays havoc with antler formation . Doesnt seem to affect the taste tho.....

And that is an attractive sheep trophy ( although you would expect a comment like that from an aussie more than a kiwi...)

quote:

Originally posted by muzza:
That fallow has much more even antlers than the locals here - we tend to get ok palmation on one side and crap on the other , or a deep cleft in both .....

I would suggest genetics and selective culling in managed herds in Italy vs anything being shot in NZ (open slather).

Express may be able to comment.

I am working on building balanced antlers in my herd, but it doesn't help when the best stag for five years got himself killed.

IanF

Congratulations - a superb fallow. Who is in the picture - you, the Norwegian or the Aussie?

What rifle and calibre used etc?

Jon.

The happy hunter in the pics is Kare Vidar Pedersen. He's a good friend, excellent shot and editor of one of the Norwegian hunting magazines. By coincidence he lands in the UK on the 13th Jul - I will be putting him onto some CWD and Roe for a few days.

He generally borrows my Tikka 30 '06 (150gn) and gets on well with it. It has a ballistic plex Burris on top that I find works really well, allowing accurate shooting out to 500yds.

Nitrox

EXPRESS has computer probs at the moment - but just to make you jealous - this herd is totally free roaming and meaningful management pretty much impossible. Outside of fenced reserves, the Italian hunter has complete legal freedom to access your private ground and hunt game that he finds there! This often results in a see it/shoot it mentality.

Rgds Ian

I see. Ever property where I was, was sign posted with either no hunting, or it was a "hunting reserve" with the hunters name on it. Generally all the properties also had higher fences, or great thorn hedges.

Now I see the reason for all the locked gates, and high fences.

I thought the reason was people stealing vegetables or fruit. Another possible reason still.

But it doesn't make it easy to go behind a bush quickly when on an afternoon's country drive!


I saw a herd of red deer outside of Volterra on a steep road below the town. Made it hard to stop and take photos but managed.

Fallow deer somewhere but I have forgotten.

Roe deer here and there.

I also stayed on a hunting preserve in a hotel on a mountain above Florence, and did afternoon's pheasant shooting. This was only possible as this place had some sort of dog training permit, as I was there out of season.
Saw lots of boar there, plus a mountain goat, roe deer, various small game, ducks, hare, rabbit, pigeon. There is also resident wolves in that mountain range but rare.


If it is a free ranging herd, very well done on BOTH trophies!

Nitrox

To clarify - the Fallow are free ranging - the Mouflon are part of a breeding herd held within the posted reserve boundaries.

Ian

I'm back! Although only temporaliy. I'll be leaving for the south today and from there it can get hard to get online.

Yes that is a nice fallow, he has beautiful palms, though the typical buck in the area has longer beams and possible more bulk. This deer also had a very pretty double pointed rear tine that is not visible in this photo.

The mouflon have formed wuite a large heard and I am opening up more areas to them to avoid overbrowsing. There are some gold medal animals in that heard now, but soon it will be hard to keep track of them since they have alarger which very thick cover area to range over.

The laws and bearucracy make it hard to hunt here, although getting it sorted for foreigners is probably easier than hunting as a resident in some cases.

John, you should have dropped in...If anyone is interested, contact me and I'll let you know what is going on, as the situation is never the same from one season to another here but there is always some good hunting available. Volterra is only less than an hour form here, though we have very few reds on the place and hunting them at this point in time is still out of the question.

As to the wolves, in the time I have spent here, I have had them come up to the house at night on numerous accasions, though I have only seen them once from a distance. Tracks, however are very common. Just last week I had a very close encouter with a single wolf, which scrambled past me no more than 7 or 8 meters away in on a riverbank.

Till next time...