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Well, the story started on 05/15th, the opening day for Roebuck, when I got this buck in my scope. However, I decided not to shoot for 2 reasons :

1. bagging my buck on the 1st. day of a 4-month season felt like an anticlimax ;
2. I was in a generous mood and decided to save this nice buck for Christopher who still hadn't shot a big buck in his (short) hunting career.

From then on we went each w-e., having exchanged our stands. The old guy came out the 250 m distant woods every evening around 21:00 but was so cautious to travel and remain under cover as wheat was already high. About a month ago, Christopher had the buck at 100 m on the outside edge of the wheat, but a overhanging low branch precluded his shooting from a rest. He waited for the animal to move into a better angle, which he didn't seem pressed to do. Losing his cool, Christopher decided he wanted that buck badly enough, took an off-hand shot and… missed, sending the fleeing buck back to the woods..

I told the very guilty feeling lad that all was not lost as the buck had seen no hunter, hence might most likely not have connected the noise to man. But I warned him not to try the same trick twice as that was sure to make this buck very smart and at once ! He seemed to have learned the lesson and promised not to shoot if unsure in the least.

And, we kept going out and seeing the same cautious buck in the same place, at the same time. However, rut was going on and bucks were chasing each other all over the place, so that their natural prudence dropped by several points.

And finally, on monday evening, wheat had been harvested and the fields were open, when "Christopher's buck" chased a challenger up to 60 m from his stand. Confirming he had indeed learned his lesson, Chris waited for his heartbeating to calm down, took a good rest, armed his "stecher" and waited for the magic moment. He placed the 160 GK from his 7x64 Mauser 66 right above the heart, severing the aorta (my preferred shot, BTW…) and dropping the buck where he stood (when I took the photo , we hadn't moved the carcass yet and it's seen lying inches from the initial blood spray) .

The hunt was over and my now very disciplined son-in-law, called me over on the cell-phone before allowing himself to… start shaking for all he was worth…

BTW, it will take several days before I'm back on the forum as we're leaving tomorrow morning for Tyrol (Austria) to hunt chamois.

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André
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3 shots do not make a group, they show a point of aim or impact.
5 shots are a group.