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A roebuck called „Smaug“

Author: Date: 04/09/2018

Jannick Böhneke

That specific buck „Smaug“ as we called him from day one on, was the one that impressed me the most. He’d be clearly bigger than all the little spikers and youngish sixpointers.
Besides my gun and lots of other stuff, I always carry my camera. The mighty 600mm-lens is definitely used more frequently than my Merkel HELIX repeating arm. The sheer height of „Smaug’s“ antlers was well visible when he was still carrying velvet on his horns, eventhough it was not that easy to estimate the mass of his basis.
Whilst spring was arriving in northwestern Germany, „Smaug“ managed to occupy one of the area’s best corners as his own territory. I was busy taking pictures of that buck for a couple month already and could hardly wait for the 1st of May to come – opening of roebuck season in Germany… To be on the safe site, I decided to do 3 more ambushes.
Of course I could have shot that buck a couple times straight away, but it did just not feel right.
05. May 2018, 06:30 PM: I’m on my way to the the so-called „Heart“ – a beautiful spot right in the middle of our hunting grounds. Sorrounded by roedeer, I had to make my way on all four and very, very slowly towards my blind, which lies embedded in the most succulend herb & grass fileds one can imagine. Upon reaching my blind, I carefully checked towards the buck only to see him running. Of course he had noticed me. But this time I was lucky: as the „emporer“ of this area, „Smaug“ suddenly came back from quite a distance to fight a youngish buck which had gone the wrong way.  In a matter of seconds, „Smaug“ was right in front of me again.
Until the very last second, I could not leave my eyes of him and  took pictures till the buck was as close as 15m. Then I had to hurry, get my rifle up and let the .30-06 fly. He went down like a lightning strike and I was very happy that my shot was right! That was my first real good buck: „Smaug“ – 5 years old – 361gr. Waidmannsdank!

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