Rehbok

[Altjaeger]

Well May 1st has come and gone. The Roe buck season has opened in Germany. I am not sure about Belgium and others. Any reports?

[Herne]

Its been quite warm here (from 1 April). A lot of deer and some very good trophies. Also with the very dry winter, bone densities are up, so weights are doing well. On the land I used to shoot, 4 bucks over 500g have been taken, and one was over 600. Several silvers over the 460-470 mark - 8 or nine, and several bronzes of course.

So yes, its been pretty good.

The lads will be stopping shortly and will wait for the rut. Once you get to leafbreak it can be quite hard to find them, and silaging will move the deer about. So all ones talent spotting goes to pot for a month or so.

[André]

Still a few more days to wait, Roebuck stalking is open from 05/15th till 09/15th in Belgium.

[Altjaeger]

Herne, it sounds like things are in good shape there. Andre', whats you reviere look like this year?

[André]

Looks promising. When shooting does and fawns between 01/15 -03/15, we saw lots of good bucks still in velvet. Also, several yearlings that carried 4 points already (we decided to spare them this season and watch how they develop). This year, we also had 5 roe's killed by traffic, a sure sign that their numbers are up again. A few years ago, the F&G administration forced us to shoot 5 more deer than we asked for, considering the increasing population. We complied reluctantly but, I must admit that today we see much better bucks than before, while the number of animals seen remain the same.

[André]

The Sauer spoke again last night. Nothing spectacular but I'm glad anyway. He was an old buck who had seen better days but he was ruling a, difficult to hunt, part of our territory (with many houses and roads). Very dominant, he constantly drove away every young male and consequently the road kill ratio was abnormally high in that sector. I started the evening hunting on the other side but was chased away by the farmer's tractor making hay. On my way home, I stopped underway and decided to cast a look in the "forgotten corner" described above, as the weather was exceptionally fine. Along the edge of the woods, I immediately spotted a fawn, soon joined by its mother. I watched for about 30' and suddenly, the buck came out of the cover to walk straight to the first 2, crossing the high grass between us. I switched from binos to rifle, took a rest and dropped him at 150 m.http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v244/Othello041990/Chevreuil230609002.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v244/Othello041990/Chevreuil230609003.jpg
NB : the buck was covered by legions of ticks (visible on the neck)

[Altjaeger]

An old and mature buck is always a good buck. Nice kill Andre'.:)