End of May is usually a good time for roebucks in Poland. Green and full of wildlife, but vegetation is not high enough to cover deer. At this time of year I find it generally easier to age roe, as young bucks are not always clean, older bucks are clean off velvet, but usually still are in winter coat, while younger animals are already in summer coat. More clues, the better. Aging is a must here and selective shooting applies. Some may agree, some not with the principle, but have to follow the rules if want to hunt here…
I had a permission to take two roebucks and any wild boar, but really concentrated on looking for a nice buck. I had a week to go out and find one, so was rather positive I would find one after first outing. I saw a lot of deer, nothing very interesting though. Some young bucks, a few does, and plenty of mosquitoes…
I got a new camcorder and tried to film a few bucks. Would have to invest in a tripod soon as some videos were quite shaky, and it is not easy to film and watch through binos or scope at the same time.
After a few evening and morning outings I had a pretty good idea where it was not worth going. Everywhere plenty of bucks, but most of them 2-3 years old 6-pointers, which was good to see, but not what I was after.
I eventually came across a buck I thought it would be worth taking. I spotted him laying on the top of a hill. Not the best place for me as behind him was 50m stripe of trees and a lake. Also wind was not in my favor to get any nearer. I was standing near the tree thinking what to do, when the buck stood up. I aged him to be 5-6 years old. He was a good one to take, especially one of the times looked shorter (Below 3cm he would count as 5-pointer and be good to take). I was still thinking what to do and decided to take him if he wondered in my direction or let him go if he decided to go away from me.
After a few minutes he went in my direction. I straggled to look through the riflescope and hold camera steady. Mosquitoes were also not helping..
He got to about 60m, when I thought I better take him before he winded me. I set the trigger on Brno, checked cross hairs and pulled the trigger.After a shot he run for about 40m and dropped. 7×64 usually drops them on the spot, but not this time. I had not problems with finding him, so no complaints really.
He was 19kg at the dealer.
The head was about 420g dry, but I made a mistake of cutting the head a bit too much. He rather was not a medal head, but should not have done that anyway… I never thought it would be that heavy, just after it was boiled out, but it was too late. He lost a good 50g, maybe more. Still probably not a bronze, but you never know…
Have a look at the video, feel free to comment, rate on YouTube and subscribe to my channel.
