"Bananas, cookies, toys, diapers. Nothing should be missing, just in case ...". "Don't worry, I don't call you except for real emergencies, I know how precious a hunting trip is for you”, Simona dismisses me smiling as she welcomes the children to her big house on the hill to give Vincenzo and me the chance to finally go hunting together! As the door closes behind us, I'm already tying my boots, savoring the taste of freedom.
For the occasion we decided to dust off a stakeout dear to me, which has given me several adventures in the past, excellent for this season because the grass has not yet been sown and the exposure to the east gives us warm rays from the shoulders that illuminate until late the narrow gorge at the bottom of the hill.
We discuss as usual with Vincenzo about which is the best position among the various objects, each point discovers a new view but inevitably losing a few patches of lawn. You shoot from top to bottom, in total safety and in a lying position, and so we settle down and put on the binoculars. The distance from here to the edge of the ditch down at the bottom is around 200 meters, so binoculars are not necessary to intercept the roe deer. But the fields all around extend for kilometers and the eye longs to meet the silhouettes of the little deer dotting the distant hills, studying their movements, and so we wander for some time looking at 360 degrees on this sun-kissed hillock. Every now and then we take a look down, from where the animals usually emerge after having crossed the thick woodland that embraces the hill. Nothing. The sun behind us lowers until it touches the horizon, its red rays make the ribbon-like clouds vibrate and send us the last tenuous heat of the early January afternoon.
The right time is approaching, promising in the first darkness of the ditch down there to send us the coveted elf. I am hoping for a zero class, but given the rarity of my releases I already know that I will not stop in front of an adult female if necessary. A male emerges from the woods. Seems nervous does not stop to browse. With a decisive step he heads towards the top of the hillock in front of us. He has not passed through the ditch full of brambles as usually happens, and does not seem to want to go down. A female follows them shortly. She too did this unusual route and stopped on the opposite hill, unsure whether to go up to the top or stop. Vincenzo telemetry the roe deer at almost 300 meters, he gives me the information and he would never expect me to prepare for the shot. Calmly we think about what to do. I feel comfortable trying to shoot, the rifle is precise and calibrated, the optics reliable, the bipod well placed, I am comfortable and strangely calm…. at the moment. I engage the somersault in the optics without turning on the red dot because the light is still sufficient.
With 16 magnification I am more and more convinced that it is a thin one, (maybe the little girl who saw me in August and running away made the handsome male I had aimed at run away twice?). It is now at 270 meters. Vincenzo, consulting the ballistics table, suggests me the clicks to give. I turn the ring without moving the viewfinder and now that everything is ready I feel a wave of emotion that rises from my stomach to sabotage the cold blood I have had so far. Before giving in and above all before the somersault decides to move from the perfect position with which he now offers me the blatt, I pull the trigger, and the music almost forgotten by dear Blaser tickles my ear that for a few seconds begins to whistle.
The young female immediately collapses on her side without any other movement while the male flees to the top of the hillock disappearing from our sight. We rush to the remains of the somersault after about ten minutes, with a certain concern given the hour that turns into the dark. Both Vincenzo and I are happy and satisfied not only for the result of this exit, an animal taken in an impeccable way with a respectable shot, but above all because for once we will not tell each other about this beautiful adventure because after a long time we have it. finally lived together.
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