Last night...

[André]

…at dusk and 14 minutes left before legal ceasefire, I was getting nervous waiting for that 6-point Roebuck to turn sidewise 180 m to my left. Light was fading rapidly and he remained too close to the bushes he came out for my liking. If not dropped on the spot, he would no doubt jump back under cover were in wouldn't be an easy task to find him in the darkness (due to the heat, I hadn't taken along Czar, my (blood tracking) Labrador, fearing to leave him in my overheated car).

He went on grazing and it was now or never, a frontal shot or nothing. I waited for his head to lift, so that the crosshairs could center his narrow frontal chest. I closed my left eye, so as not to be completely blinded by the gun flash in the poor light, and, when the head came up, I let fly. I reflexively opened my left eye, just in time to see him go down.

I waited some and slowly went up to retrieve him. I found him dead all right but I couldn't see any wound or blood. Turning him on all sides, I found the small entry wound, where expected, square in the frontal chest but no exit. Night being so close, I started to gut him on the spot. In the open chest cavity, I noticed that aorta and lungs were destroyed, as well as 1/3 of the liver and the body cavity was filled with blood. No more damage, except that all the left ribs had been neatly clipped but still no exit wound. Then I remembered some previous experience and turned the deer to expose his left side. I ran my fingers all over the flanks and, sure enough, there was this hard, marble sized, tumescence on the left flank, behind the ribs and above the belly. I cut it open and a mushroomed bullet fell in my hand. After a square frontal chest shot, the 165 GK from my .30-06 had hit aorta and lungs before following the internal curve of the left ribcage, neatly clipping each rib one by one, before coming to rest, fully expanded and out of steam, in a hide pouch behind the ribs.

This is only the 3rd. bullet I recover, all coming from comparable frontal shots.

59% remaining weight and 256% expansion.

[postoak]

Congratulations on a good shot. That was very clever the way you shut one eye to keep your night vision in it!

I have never recovered a bullet although if I had looked harder I should have found one in the one and only frontal shot I took.

[Altjaeger]

Nice shot and bullet performance. But where is the buck?

[André]

Hello Altjäger,

Unfortunately, I had no camera with me that night. I will have to wait until the trophy comes back from taxidermy. No record buck though, 2-3 years old irregular 6-pointer (3 L + 2 R). The right main antler is a long spike growing well above the ear, making for a potential killer-buck (NB : plenty of fighting scars and fresh scabs on shoulders and flanks). I had first seen him shortly a few weeks ago and thought his R antler was broken, so I spared him, hoping he would look better next season. In the meantime, I saw him back and had time to assess him correctly but no shooting opportunity.

Typical physical condition of a rutting buck : scarred, emaciated, dirty and smelly. Little fat around the kidneys.

[Altjaeger]

Hello Altjäger,

Unfortunately, I had no camera with me that night. I will have to wait until the trophy comes back from taxidermy. No record buck though, 2-3 years old irregular 6-pointer (3 L + 2 R). The right main antler is a long spike growing well above the ear, making for a potential killer-buck (NB : plenty of fighting scars and fresh scabs on shoulders and flanks). I had first seen him shortly a few weeks ago and thought his R antler was broken, so I spared him, hoping he would look better next season. In the meantime, I saw him back and had time to assess him correctly but no shooting opportunity.

Typical physical condition of a rutting buck : scarred, emaciated, dirty and smelly. Little fat around the kidneys.

Sounds like a good management call.

[André]

Hello Altjäger,
I finally got back my skull mount and here it is.

As I said previously, nothing spectacular, a middle-aged buck who carries a deranging spike on the R antler. This could cause a lot of damage during ritual fights with his contenders, so it was best to take him out.

[Altjaeger]

Hello Altjäger,
I finally got back my skull mount and here it is.

As I said previously, nothing spectacular, a middle-aged buck who carries a deranging spike on the R antler. This could cause a lot of damage during ritual fights with his contenders, so it was best to take him out.

He is a good cull buck and you may have saved another buck is the process.