While looking through some old photos, I found this picture of me and my first roe buck
Thing is, this isn't my first roe deer. I took my first roe deer a day before. My father set me up in the woods-facing corner of a triangular field.
There was a big meadow with nothing but clover (?) in front of my stand. For a while, nothing happened. And I mean nothing. After around 2 hours,
a roe deer doe entered the meadow from the right. My dad instructed me to wait, because there could have been bucks around. So, this roe deer was moving around the meadow,
grazing, moving into the woods just to come back out again. I watched this for a while, until I noticed movement on the ridgeline in front of me.
It was a huge buck. And I mean huge. It's antlers were higher than it's ears and it was a heavy buck. But, since I'm a responsible shooter, I decided to keep on waiting.
Waiting almost paid off, as a small buck appeared behind me. I soon realized, that there was no point in hoping to take it, since it started to bark and slowly trot away.
After almost 3 1/2 hours, my dad and I decided, that I should take the doe. I got my dad's .222 CZ527 ready and prepared for the shot. After hearing the click of the safety,
the deer stared at me and slowly turned broadside. After I took the shot, the deer ran off. Seemingly unharmed. We didn't find any blood on the spot, either.
We decided, to go home and get the dog. For once, she proved useful. After a while, we found a blood trail with lung-blood. After a bit of tracking, the track led into a
thick undergrowth consisting mainly of strawberries. Following the blood trail for around 20 meters (It felt like 200), I found the deer and dragged it out.
It turned out, that the .222 hit both lungs. That's what caused the 80m flight.
The following day, my father and I were out again. This time on a lower stand along the treeline, facing a field, that led into a knoll. The main reason for this spot was, that
the canola growing on it was very fresh, so it'd be a feast for roe deer.
The main movement in the first hour consisted mostly of rabbits and a lot of jays. After that, two young bucks showed up.
They were fooling around and soon disappeared behind the hill.
Now, I gotta say, that this day was much more quiet than the other one.
There were still lots of small game animals around. I used the time to try out shooting poses, because the stand had close to no rest at all.
After that, a young wild boar appeared to my right. It didn't stay there for very long, because it still was very bright.
Soon, one of the smaller bucks appeared again and my dad and I agreed to take it. It slowly walked along the knoll, while being on the
constant lookout for older bucks.
As he slowly moved onto the field, I readied my rifle (same .222) and waited for the deer to stop.
When the deer stopped, I didn't wait long and took the shot. The roe dropped right on the spot. I quickly chambered a new round and watched for around 10 minutes.
As we looked for the buck, it had almost disappeared in the thick vegetation.
When we inspected the deer, we figured that the shot entered at the shoulder blade, scratched the right lung and cut right through the spine between both shoulder blades.
The following day (yes the deer is field dressed), we took this photo