Traveling far and wide around Italy I had the opportunity to see many different methods for booking in the selection hunt but like this one in the province of Siena it had never happened to me! We are in Montalcino, invited by my friend Mirco for a weekend of fallow deer hunting. The chosen area is located in a strip of free territory between two AFVs. Here various stalking have been set up, all from the roof terrace, spaced by about 50 meters. To access the numerous roof terraces you risk passing under those already occupied by others and therefore in order not to bother each other and not to disturb the animals, it was decided to do a very fair thing: in a limited time slot those who intend to go on a of the roof terraces shows up at the meeting point, communicates in which movement you are headed and you move all together and all strictly on foot, so to go so to return.
"Until this morning I had in mind to go to 56, which is very scenic and profitable"Mirco tells me as we arrive at the meeting point,"but as well as in recent days, they also shot us this morning”Adds Mirco. In fact, a bit of boredom has been given to the fallow deer and therefore logically the 56 is reluctantly discarded and immediately replaced with a higher roof terrace that is less frequented and certainly quieter.
It is still daytime and we have just left the stairs of the roof terrace when two close roars stir up ours antennas. “Two little ones” comments Mirco closing the phone from which he has just learned of the lucky withdrawal that has just been consumed in the fields. "But how?" We had just been there and then they shot them this morning and in recent days too! " Incredulous comment. "Indeed- Mirco reassures me- this is the proof that rationality, planning… hunting are very important but not much use! ”.
The hours pass slowly and industriously with eyes that scan every hole in the wood to intercept any movement of fallow deer even before they go out into the field. As evening falls we telemetry an animal at the top of the cut in front of us, almost 180m away but it is a female and it is really very dark, we decide not to shoot and we walk towards the roof terraces further downstream where we will help the partner to arrange the little ones dreaming of the shovels of the male who has not been seen. The next morning when we open the door of the house we are welcomed by a clear and starry sky in which a slightly waning but very bright moon makes a fine show. "How about if we forget the probabilistic calculations and go to 56, where they shot yesterday morning and close to where they took the two little ones last night? From there badly there will be a wonderful view”Mirco proposes and I can only agree.
As the dawn turns off the stars, the silhouettes of plants and fields are outlined. In the field 500 meters from us, an area already within the borders of the AFV, three fallow deer stand out motionless, soon followed by 6 others. “They are all females with babies. No, wait! There are two large animals in the queue! One is melanistic! " I say to Mirco, "The melanic is a crossbow, behind there is a sheet pile and from the attitude it seems to want to drive it away" adds Mirco. The pack follows a path that ends in the woods that separates us from them. "In my opinion they are animals that are returning, once in the woods I don't expect them to go out anymore"Mirco comments with a vaguely resigned tone. A female roe deer with a gray mottled coat due to the winter moult already well started, retraces the same trot of the herd of fallow deer in the distance. After her, three, five ... eleven fallow deer appear to our eyes, between females and young that once again gain the wood through the same passage.
Enthusiastic by so much abundance of animals, although none can be shot for distance and position, we leave out a "small" detail that Mirco notices immediately after: in the field behind us two fallow deer, decidedly tall and to be precise, a melanic crossbow and a sheet pile decide to hide from our eyes and descend towards the wood, pausing for a few minutes in the hollow of the ground so that we can only see the blades. We go down for good luck from the roof terrace to ascertain that they are not yet there where we had no view from above but obviously the handsome males have taken very different paths. Even this exit sees us return empty-handed but the balance is clearly positive, having lived a weekend in a dream place under the banner of friendship and nature.