“The chamois shotgun…” Mountain hunting is perhaps the most difficult and obviously most satisfying for a rifle hunter. The harsh environment, difficult and at the same time of extraordinary beauty, enhance the hunting action to the fullest.
Text and photos by Federico Cusimano
Chamois hunting: The Slovenian Alps will be our hunting scene, the chamois our prey.
It is a phone call this time that kicks off our hunting adventure, the one we now like to define with Monicellian memory, "gypsy". The spirit is in fact just that, the enthusiasm of a small group of friends who have now shared many, but never too many, hunting adventures.
Hunters ready to leave when the opportunity presents itself, ready to "desert" the many family and work commitments for a few days. Yes! We are gypsies, we love adventure, hunting and being together. The phone call comes from Slovenia, Martin, the director of the hunting reserve we have been attending for several years now, warns me that it has started snowing and invites us to come up to hunt chamois in the snow. The news makes the rounds among us: "Let's go" this is the watchword. Just enough time to organize things a bit and on Thursday we get in the car and go chamois hunting. Vincenzo, Paolo and I are now more than tested, the gestures are repeated almost automatically, in the morning we meet early and loaded the car with weapons and luggage we go away as fast as hares.
A stop at a motorway restaurant for breakfast and then off you go. We have lunch after passing the Mestre by-pass, we do not want to run the risk of losing time due to traffic. To go to the reserve that hosts us we pass through Austria, leaving the Italian border in Villach then, after about a couple of hours, we enter Slovenia. Here the usual mountain hotel awaits us without too many pretensions, but with everything we need for the next few days. The only distraction we allow ourselves is the stop in an Austrian armory near the border, which we take advantage of to buy something that, as usual, we forgot to put in our backpack. In addition, it is a must to shop at the supermarket for the lunches that we will eat in the mountains in the next few days, during the mid-day stop. Everything is now really ready, we can't wait to go with the rifle on our shoulders for the mountain trails.
The appointment with our game warden is for early in the morning, an annoying fog for the moment does not make us understand what time we will go to find, but Jose reassures us, arguing that things should be better at high altitude. Paolo, as usual in this hunt, is the most nervous of the group: despite being an expert hunter and having to his credit a very numerous array of wonderful trophies of all kinds, he seems to have no feeling with the chamois. Lots of releases and practically nothing. Indeed to be honest in his trophy room there is a one-year-old goat. Of course we, as good friends, make this thing weigh heavily on him, not missing an opportunity to remind him that chamois hunting is the hunter's university and therefore, despite everything, he still cannot sit at the table of the "graduates".
Arrived on the spot we learn that unfortunately for a rather serious problem our third guide will not be able to be with us, so only two game wardens, so I decide to go with Paolo, he will shoot today if the opportunity arises. So we split into two groups, Vincenzo with Jose will head up while we will scour the mountain at a lower altitude, together with the other guide. The appointment is set for one to eat all together before leaving for the hunt. It must be said that we are not mountaineers, all three of us come from Rome, and therefore for us hunting in the mountains is not the one in which we are most experienced.
In short, it is not like the Maremma Cacciarella we do every week, for us the mountain represents a myth, a dream to be achieved and conquered. Paolo, after frying his chamois for two years in a row, threw away his .243 Winchester that had given him so much satisfaction to roe deer and bought a brand new 25-06 caliber Kipplauf, on which he mounted a fabulous optic from Swarovski. So equipped now he has no more excuses. Vincenzo and I brought our usual and tested Blaser rifles, me in caliber 6,5 × 57 and Vincenzo .308. We too have mounted Swarovski riflescopes, in this hunting you can not rely on anything that is not of the highest quality as regards the pointing and observation systems. At this point we are really ready to start the hunt so, loaded the backpacks on our shoulders we greet each other wishing each other a sincere good luck. Fortunately the weather has opened and the fog has cleared, there are about ten centimeters of snow on the ground, but at least for now it seems that again it does not want to fall.
Chamois hunting: The first part of the morning does not offer great emotions, but when hunting everything changes quickly.
As mentioned, Vincenzo heads to the summit to try to surprise the chamois on the sunny side of the mountain, identifying them from above. It is a very difficult terrain: at that altitude the snow is very present and abundant. Paolo and I, on the other hand, start our search from a lower altitude, the snow does not cover all the ground and there is still some nice grass under the trees. So let's try to take advantage of this safe food source to try to surprise the chamois in pasture. Vincenzo has no luck in the early part of the morning, and apart from the encounter with a beautiful male deer who, annoyed, slips away towards the thick of the woods, he cannot find any chamois.
We have been informed that two trophy males are still available in the reserve's abatement plan, some females without pups in tow, and some yearlings. So we have a wide choice and of course both Paolo and Vincenzo, as I said today, do not carry the rifle with me but only a camera, they hope to be able to meet a handsome adult male. After a couple of hours of walking we find ourselves on top of a summit, and having not been lucky enough to find anything, our guide seems quite disappointed: he explains that it was very important to meet a group of chamois that in recent days were several times been spotted in those areas. Nothing to do, we just have to go back down, but as we go down the mountain, on a gully above us we spot a chamois, Paolo just has time to lie down on the ground, while I film the scene through the camera, zooming in until you see that it is a beautiful specimen of an adult male.
The rangefinder tells us that the distance between us and the animal is 125 meters, the chamois as if annoyed by something makes a couple of long leaps forward, then turns down to check what is happening below. Exactly at that moment, Paolo lets the shot go from his 25-06R caliber Kipplauf; the ball passes precisely through the heart of the animal making it roll downwards for about twenty meters. I am the first to rejoice when I turn to my friend who, however, bleeds profusely from the right eyebrow arch: the shot of the c ..., in short, the shot of the telescope. In fact, Paolo had adopted a non-optimal position, but the desire to be able to take that stupendous animal led him to shoot, so the recoil of the weapon made the aiming optic slam against my friend's forehead: it can happen. After making sure that it is only the classic superficial wound, I tell Paolo that after all it is right that he paid a tribute of blood for having taken such a beautiful animal. Paolo half stunned by the blow agrees with me, and says very sportily that there could not have been a better baptism. But now we have to go to the recovery and admire the killed animal.
A superb suede and which will prove to be a bronze medal. During the lunch break, Vincenzo and I celebrate our friend worthily who has finally managed to discuss his "thesis": a beautiful male chamois. But now it's time to go hunting again. After about half an hour of walking, on a side of the mountain where there was a uniform cover of about ten centimeters of snow, Paolo and I meet fresh traces of a group of chamois and after a quick consultation with our guide, we decide to follow them. We proceed with great caution, trying not to make the slightest noise going up among the trees. When we can see them they are about a hundred and fifty meters from us, they have not felt our presence and unaware they are walking upwards, the problem now is being able to get us within range.
The excitement is skyrocketing also because we can see another very handsome male among the group. Certainly it cannot be said that chamois hunting is a simple form of hunting and even on this occasion we have further proof of it. Paolo and I trudge along the ravine, being careful not to let the animals see and hear us, while trying to keep a constant distance. We move trying to take advantage of all the possible shelters offered by the trees, but at a certain point the chamois stop as if they had sensed something, Paolo is fast and finds a stump of a cut tree that he uses as a support, a knee resting on the ground and without think about it for a moment let go of the blow, the chamois jumps on its hind legs and runs away in the opposite direction from the group, this is the unequivocal sign that the animal has been fatally hit. We find it thirty meters ahead of the point where it was hit, observing it I realize once again how beautiful these animals are. Paolo is literally in seventh heaven, he doesn't fit in the skin, a fantastic double-shot of trophy male chamois in just one day.
The next day Vincenzo and I try to take our chamois: however, things have substantially changed, there are only females and yearlings left. After a very long chase that lasts almost until night, Vincenzo manages to recover his chamois boy who, unfortunately injured, has kept him busy for many hours. I, on the other hand, meet two wonderful males who, however, are no longer available for withdrawal. Nothing could be more correct: modern hunting is, and must be, above all management of the territory and of the species, so although with regret from the point of view of the hunter, I can only admire them as they go away undisturbed and give them an appointment for next year, to another unforgettable hunting adventure. Good luck to all.