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Louis
.375 member


Reged: 13/05/15
Posts: 977
Loc: France
My 2019-2020 Hunting Season
      31/03/20 12:32 AM

As hunting in France closed on 28 February (some areas extended boar hunting until 31 March but due to lockdown it is not anymore possible to hunt anywhere), it is time for me to share some feedback about my 2019-2020 hunting season; in a nutshell: same game i.e. roe deer and isard as the previous years, some hunting opportunities unfortunately missed due to work/family obligations and bad weather conditions, and hard lessons learnt!

I hunted roe buck in the Western Pyrénées Mountains foothills area where I usually get tags; this hilly area, which combines crops (wheat, sunflower and maize mostly), small woods and meadows provides good cover and feeding opportunities to deer. I used this year my Sauer & Sohn kipplauf (1957) in 6,5x57R, zeroed with 9,1 grams / 140 grains RWS DK ammunition.



I went out at several occasions in late July and in early August, at rutting season peak time, always in very early morning. I spotted several bucks that would have been worth being harvested but could not get adequate shooting opportunities or was winded while trying to get closer.

On 7 August in early morning I went back to an area where I had spotted a good buck in the previous week. It was still dark when I get into shooting position in a treeline, on top of a small hill overlooking the meadow where I expected the buck to feed.



Shortly after sunrise I could spot the buck, along with two does (probably the mating doe and her female offspring from the previous year, not yet old enough for breeding), feeding at c. 250 meters away; the shot was a bit long in this environment and, in addition, the deer was on another hunting territory the boundary of which was between me and them; I am not always shy about poaching when it is borderline poaching but in this case this would have been blatant and daylight poaching! I was therefore forced to wait in case the group of deer would move closer to my position while feeding. I waited for almost one hour and at one point, “my” buck started to walk quickly straight into my direction - I would have been slightly worried if it had been a buffalo bull, until I lost sight when it disappeared at the foot of the hill from the top of which I was stalking. Thirty seconds later I saw a nice buck running in front of my shooting position, chased by “my” buck; it was in fact the alfa buck of the area chasing a lesser buck that had come too close from its doe! “My” buck stopped three-quarter broadside at c. 75 meters from me, slightly downhill, looking at the lesser buck that had stopped running and had started to feed at c. 100 meters away. I shot from the prone position at “my” buck; it ran for c. 25 meters to the left, then stopped and ran back over a similar distance before falling down.

The lesser buck, a nice one also, was still there, unafraid by the shot and still feeding at c. 100 meters away; as I had reloaded my kipplauf just after the first shot, I also shot at the lesser buck; as the previous one it ran after having been hit for c. 25 meters in one direction, then stopped and ran back over a similar distance before falling down.

I had achieved a double of roe bucks with a single-shot rifle, over a 30-second maximum period of time!

I packed all my stuff and went to have a look at my bucks. They were nice mature bucks sporting decent trophies; both had been hit in the shoulder/heart area.

“Alpha” buck.


“Lesser” buck.


I gutted/processed them on location, packed the backstraps and hind quarters, as well as the heads, and left the remainder on site, concealed under brush, for carrion crows and foxes.


I was back to my car one-hour and half later.


As I still had one tag left, I went out again in late August; the rutting season was now over. It had been raining most of the previous days, it was still drizzling and there was a well set low westerly wind; this made for me perfect stalking conditions as wet ground allows moving without being too much noisy and as a well-set wind prevents from being winded because of constantly changing wind. I had already stalked from vantage points many tree-line bordered meadows over almost two hours after sunrise - without much luck, when I finally spotted at c. 500 meters away the reddish spot that materializes roe deer from mid-Spring to mid-Autumn (they are greyish the rest of the time). I managed to get closer and identified what was an average buck, not a huge one but one worth a try anyway. Then hide-and-seek game started, we were in low ground covered with tall grass, distant from c. 100 meters from each other; when I could see it, I could not shoot and when I was in good shooting position then I could not see it! In the end the buck sneaked back into the wood, apparently lost to me. I knew that there was a disused track entering the small old fir plantation the buck had gone into so I went there; as soon as I entered the wood I saw the buck feeding on the track side at c. 50 meters from me. It had not yet noticed my presence and it was now for me a matter of take it or leave it; I sat in the mud, resting my elbows on my knees, and shot. The buck looked in my direction, jumped into the dense brush and black thorn that bordered the track, and vanished. I went to the anschuss location, no blood at all; I may have missed however in these shooting circumstances it would have been like missing an elephant in a corridor! I did not enter the brush for tracking it in order to leave it time to die peacefully in case it would have been hit and went instead visiting hill pastures on the other side of the valley, but it was already mid-morning and all deer should have gone back to cover as I was not able to spot any. When I came back one hour later, I found the deer dead at 25/30 meters of the place I had shot it; it had been hit in the shoulder area. It sported a medium-size trophy with broken antlers but big roses.


I gutted/processed it on location, as I usually do.



Just before I left, while I was taking a short rest before going back to the car, a doe paid me an unannounced visit; I was standing motionless back to a tree, she came within 25 meters of me, ran back quickly over a short distance, and came back slightly closer before leaving for good, uninterested by me!

The roe buck staking season was now over for me until next year!


Foxes usually pay also their tribute during the buck stalking season!



Now that the deer season was over it was time to go mountain walking more frequently over the rest of Summer and over the start of Fall in order to get in good shape for isard mountain hunting in November!


Heavily sought mountain hunting this year was unfortunately an almost cock-up from start: I was forced to cancel at the last minute - due to conflicting family obligations, a hunting slot with friends in mid-November, I went hunting in late November but only with mixed result (see hereafter) and was - again, forced to cancel a hunt in late January due to extremely bad weather conditions in the Eastern Pyrénées Mountains.

I hunted for two days in late November the same French Forestry Commission area in the Central Pyrénées located on the border with the Andorra Principality I had already hunted the previous year.




We hunted an area comprised between 1800 and 2200 metres; it had snowed heavily in the weeks before, but only remained a cover varying from ankle-deep in wind swept areas to tight-deep in wind protected areas. The weather was fine. With me were the compulsory Forestry Commission Guide, now a friend after having hunted together for several years, as well as a non-hunting friend that had asked to join and – thanks to him, took a lot of photos, some of which are posted below.









On day one, after some tabbing, we were lucky to spot in the distance what looked to be a good buck and were able to navigate the terrain in order to reach unnoticed a good shooting position.



The buck had been standing almost motionless for almost one hour on a rocky spur, its body was partially hidden by a small bush of either dwarf juniper or dwarf rhododendron but it looked to be an easy target at c. 120 metres, slightly uphill! I aimed at the chest and shot through the brush; the buck was hit, reared twice, stayed for a while staggering before falling out of sight on the far side of the spur.


I was such confident about this easy shot that I even did not take the opportunity to double, which I would have had time to do. My friends congratulated me on this fine shot and we started moving uphill to the anschuss location, which we reached a quarter of an hour later. No buck, but large stains of blood on the snow and rock and the quarry spotted moving away, slightly limping from the front left leg but apparently sound, already distant from more than 300 metres!




As it’s never too late for learning:
• I should not have shot through the brush, which probably deflected the bullet’s trajectory from lung/heart in the chest area to flesh around the shoulder/upper leg, inflicting only a superficial wound to muscle (bright red blood, large stains initially, drops subsequently, and nothing after a short while).
• I should have reminded to always double when it’s possible to double.

We tracked the buck in the snow for more almost one hour, there were only small drop bloods from time to time initially and bleeding subsequently stopped, but it managed to constantly increase the distance between us and I never get a good shooting opportunity.


After a while, it entered a very steep area and we gave up chasing him!


The rest of the day we only saw young isard, or goats, or goats with youngsters.

Young adults:


Goat alone:


Two goats with youngsters from this year and from the previous year.


On the following day, I was lucky to harvest an average 5-year-old buck that was grazing on a small flat area.





It was another easy shot, almost on the flat at c. 150 metres; after being hit the buck ran downhill, leaving large marks of blood that we followed. I was for a while afraid to have lost it as the area he had gone into was very steep but fortunately not rocky and with no cliffs. We found it c. 100 metres downhill in an area covered with dwarf rhododendron; it was processed on the spot in order to avoid carrying back uphill the entire carcass.









That was all for this year, in addition to the usual pests (crows, magpies & nutria) that provide sport all year round and wood pigeon shot with rimfire calibres; I will not make any mention about feral cats as, although it is authorized in France to trap them alive, it is forbidden to shoot them!

Next hunting season will hopefully be good and game is for the time being left extremely quiet in all areas that we are not allowed to roam due to the lockdown situation that prevails, probably almost worldwide. Let’s only hope that in France the situation will be back to normal so that we can start the roe buck season on time, from 1st June 2020!

In the meantime, I wish you and your families good luck through the ordeal we are all going through.

Louis

--------------------
"Everything that doesn't kill me makes me stronger"

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Entire topic
Subject Posted by Posted on
* My 2019-2020 Hunting Season Louis 31/03/20 12:32 AM
. * * Re: My 2019-2020 Hunting Season NitroXAdministrator   01/04/20 08:53 PM
. * * Re: My 2019-2020 Hunting Season Louis   02/04/20 12:05 AM
. * * Re: My 2019-2020 Hunting Season NitroXAdministrator   03/04/20 12:33 AM
. * * Re: My 2019-2020 Hunting Season DarylS   03/04/20 03:39 AM
. * * Re: My 2019-2020 Hunting Season NitroXAdministrator   03/04/20 10:18 PM
. * * Re: My 2019-2020 Hunting Season Louis   03/04/20 05:25 PM
. * * Re: My 2019-2020 Hunting Season NitroXAdministrator   03/04/20 10:25 PM
. * * Re: My 2019-2020 Hunting Season Louis   04/04/20 05:44 PM
. * * Re: My 2019-2020 Hunting Season 264   07/04/20 01:58 PM
. * * Re: My 2019-2020 Hunting Season Louis   12/04/20 12:54 AM
. * * Re: My 2019-2020 Hunting Season 264   12/04/20 09:06 AM
. * * Re: My 2019-2020 Hunting Season DarylS   12/04/20 10:15 AM
. * * Re: My 2019-2020 Hunting Season 264   12/04/20 10:29 AM
. * * Re: My 2019-2020 Hunting Season Louis   12/04/20 04:15 PM
. * * Re: My 2019-2020 Hunting Season Waidmannsheil   02/04/20 08:56 PM
. * * Re: My 2019-2020 Hunting Season NitroXAdministrator   03/04/20 12:21 AM
. * * Re: My 2019-2020 Hunting Season Waidmannsheil   31/03/20 06:46 PM
. * * Re: My 2019-2020 Hunting Season DarylS   01/04/20 04:01 AM
. * * Re: My 2019-2020 Hunting Season Louis   01/04/20 04:01 AM
. * * Re: My 2019-2020 Hunting Season NitroXAdministrator   01/04/20 08:29 PM
. * * Re: My 2019-2020 Hunting Season Waidmannsheil   01/04/20 07:54 AM

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