First Fallow buck in Australia
This past weekend I headed out to one of the blocks I have access to with a couple of good Aussie mates both very experienced fallow hunters. After a week of cold showery windy weather( well cold for here around the 10-15degree mark) Saturday morning was calm with little breeze. After a quick walk out the front in the dark we sussed out where the livestock were, the sheep being relatively calm and the cattle flighty. As the day grew lighter the first mob of seven deer were spotted, too far away to make out what they were we quickly covered a kilometre to get a better look. "Bucks,excellent" at this stage we were looking at six, one spiker, three fork horns and two mature but not huge bucks they were in a difficult spot to get to and still 450 yards away with no cover to get any closer, then another buck raced up the hill to join his mates. this boy got our attention with his length and wide palms You know a taker when you see one, clearly he was a lot larger than other mature bucks there. Muzzy decided he wasnt big enough for him as his best buck went 214ds and this lad Morgan and Muzzy estimated at 215ish. Morgan had already taken three cracker bucks this year one going 221 and the two others 230 and 235. "Do you want him,mate?". "Yep he'll do nicely for a first head" was my reply.
We proceeded to watch the bucks move further up the valley and we were able to slip closer to them once we got some trees between us. With a reasonable fallen tree to shoot from we waited for the bucks to emerge from behind the trees.
And thats were it turned to crap.
Standing broadside on the skyline looking wonderfully majestic ,their heads flew up in the air. Had they pegged us? No , we could hear a rumble behind us ,we glance back to see in the paddock behind us the herd of 100 or so heifers had decided it was time for their morning lap around their paddock. The bucks watched the cattle looking for more prompt of danger and decided to bug out back to the scrub more than 800metres away. "Dammit". Skylined 320 yards and the cattle going for a lap there was not chance of a shot. He would have to wait....
That afternoon I headed to a different area with plans of returning on Sunday morning for the buck we had missed out on. By now the wind had got up quite a bit and it was howling across the flats so into the scrub I went. I had an hour to kill before I wanted to be out in the open to see the bucks emerging for an evening feed, sneaking along as quietly as I could I came upon a fawn who stood up and peered at me around a tree, mum was a bit smarter and ghosted off silently thankfully no bark from her. Another 20 metres down and I could see out of the scrub into the grassy faces. "Whats that?" I muttered to myself."Grey rocks?" a quick check with the binos revealed five bucks basking in the sun. They'd probably been there all day lazing about while does were non existent in the open during daylight hours. There was one larger one there"Better check him out, length ok, good palm on the left side, still got guard tines, what does the right look like?" It took 10 minutes for him to swivel his head so I could get a look. All the time I'm thinking "I should just walk away, hes not big enough, there will be others. ...What if I don't catch up with the one from this morning... go home empty handed"....Finally he turned his head... "There looks to be a guard there... no spellers....palm looks thinner than the other side, he's still lying down, wait til he stands up." What do I do?..."Walk away...nah..." He gives a twitch and slowly rises to his feet along with the rest of the bucks, just pups only spikers and small forkhorns, takes one step, and the bullet takes him behind the left front leg,"shit too far back!" he reels around in two circles runs a short distance and stands wobbling where another shot puts him down for good. After gathering my gear I'm not feeling quite as elated as I should , not much remorse at knocking this buck over, maybe I've shot too many deer this year.... the freezer is still full...There must be something wrong with me.... better snap out of if it, "you've just shot your first buck in Australia after looking at few of them over three years."
He's no monster but he will do me just fine.
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When rolling the buck over for photos there was a small area on his front leg with no hair from a scar. Upon hanging up and skinning him out I found an abcess near the scar having a dig I pulled out two large chunks of dead bone from his foreleg and the joint joining to his shoulder blade was inflamed but no bruising My initial thoughts were he had been shot but speaking to a mate who farmed fallow he reckoned the injury would have been caused from fighting, rough buggers these fallow being able to break bones. Tough to be able to tolerate that kind of injury and still be in pretty good condition.
Can't wait untill next year....bigger and better
Rifle used
Howa 30.06
155gr Sidewinder.Australian Custom Projectiles, Vortex viper 3-9x40scope range 220 yards
