a couple of pictures of the fallow buck I've taken saturday in the Appennini mountains of central Italy.
Was and 7/8 years FREE RANGE old buck. A really wild and difficult animal to take and a good trophy




The other men on the second picture is my dad (78 years old) who the week before has taken another nice animal:

on the left the uncle 82 years old! 160 years in two for a chamois!

Excellent Mario !!
Have they ever determined if the fallow deer was native to Italy or introduced by the ancient Romans ? In northern Italy there are some cave paintings I've seen photos of , do they exist there ?

Mete,
I do not think they are native. They were only semi-domestic for hundrends of years. Surely the current population has originated from animals released by fences. But now they are very wild.
About the cave painting, I dont know if I understand exactly what you means but in my area ther'are a lot of painting on the rocks
http://www.archeocamuni.it/

Mario, that is awesome. The to oldtimers really made my day. Congrats to you all.

I went back to my book that has copies of figures. It just mentions 'rock carvings, northern Italy' ,not caves. It may well have been Naquane.Thanks for the link.
BTW I once saw a photo of a beautiful shotgun decorated only with some of these figures inletted in gold !

Thanks Billy.
Mete, it is possible as gardone Val Trompia the town of the italian firearms is very close to us and probably some engraver decorate the shotgun with our symbols

That is a beautiful fallow buck and a tough trophy to find free ranging and outside of the rut!

What gun does your uncle have on his shoulder - it looks like a very short barrel?

was the rifle of my dad: a Mauser 66, cal 270 win, stutzen model. Yes a beautiful gun with a very short barrel