I'm back from Austria, having had one of the best hunting experiences in my life. The weather was awful, with lots of rain and mist (clouds actually). The 3 of us ("berufsjäger" Albert, my son-in-law Christopher and myself) hunted at 1500 m in a very hard terrain. I suffered but was glad that I trained during the preceding month and stopped smoking 9 months ago. Still the stalking was pretty steep and I suffered from vertigo several times (I never admitted, of course…). During our first day, we saw 3 Chamois, a young, an unsuitable buck (I was after a class 1 buck) and finally this one. We spotted him at 100m, walking the 5 meters that separated him from the cover and the rest happened very fast. I started to raise my bino's but the PH who had recognized the buck whispered : "nein, schiessen, schnell !". I dropped into position and let go 5 cm forward of the shoulder to compensate for the walking. The buck stopped, then took a step backwards before his hindquarters let go. He toppled over on his back and rolled downwards for a few meters on the grassy slope, never moving again. All in all, it was over in 3-4 seconds, not leaving me the time to get nervous, so that I reacted by reflex.

However, nervous I became when we stood before him, a giant buck counting 13 growing rings = aged 13 ! The 3 PH who saw him afterwards had good hopes for C.I.C. Gold ?!? Anyway, I'll have to wait till May 2008 before collecting the trophy as he will participate in the 2007 selection for "best chamois of Tyrol".

Needless to say, I'm elated for having confirmed the French saying "point n'est besoin d'être beau pour avoir de la chance" (there's no need to be handsome to have luck).