ETHAN’S FIRST FALLOW BUCK

FEATURE Ethan McMasters

This hunt started on a Sunday afternoon with it being perfect conditions for hunting. We arrived earlier than usual, given the wind was in our favour for this spot, and started walking to our pre-planned position near the top of the ridge, giving us the ability to glass the entire opposite face of the gully. While we made this short walk I had to look twice and quickly grabbed my binoculars to confirm that I had just spotted my first fallow deer!

This had to be the first time I had ever spotted a deer before Dad, but on the right side of a large dam stood four fallow deer. Two of the deer were white and the other two were light brown. I was unable to determine if any were bucks but they were 100% fallow deer. I quickly whispered over to Dad about what I had found and we all had our binoculars up. My uncle, grandpa, cousin and sister had all joined us for this family hunt. All of us looked over at the deer which were approximately 600m away. With everyone now seeing the deer we quickly made our way to our glassing spot, out of their sight to ensure they wouldn’t see or smell us.

Once we were in position I quickly got my binoculars out to get a better look at them. I could see that the white deer was a buck. I turned to tell everyone and perfectly in sync Dad and I whispered "he’s a buck!”. A few seconds later two more bucks walked out of an opening along with a few more does. At this point we had all seen them and I started to take photos with my camera. Using the photos I was able to zoom in on the deer and their antlers. We found that all the bucks were all in hard velvet. The two light brown deer had fairly good-sized antlers with decent palms, while the white buck was definitely a younger deer but had lots of potential.

By now it had started to get late so we decided to make a plan. I had talked so long about one day taking a fallow buck and Dad said to me if we plan this hunt right I might just get my chance! We were far enough away from the deer that we could talk semi-normally. We decided that Dad and I would make our way to a tree that I could shoot from. By now all the deer had made their way back into cover after drinking from the dam, however Dad knew that they would likely come back out and it wasn’t very long until they did.

We made quick time into position across the gully around 200m away from where we thought the deer might come out. If we were right, we would be able to take a shot if the opportunity was given. Just myself and Dad had moved in closer while everyone else stayed back and watched the hunt unfold; it all would come down to this window of time leading up to dark. We had already discussed that we would leave the white buck and we would decide which one of the other bucks I would take if they showed again. After a short wait the fallow began to come into view. Unbeknown to us everyone else sitting further back up on the ridge could see the deer heading our way a long time before we could see them. One of the brown bucks really looked good to me and I told Dad he was the one I wanted to try and take. It was about now that I started to get buck fever. I couldn’t stop my hands from shaking! Dad stepped in at this point to calm me down and told me to put the rifle down so we could just watch the deer for a while.

For the next few minutes we watched the deer feed quietly along. This gave me the time to calm right down, I got my breathing in check and setup a good rest. We later found out everyone watching the hunt unfold above us couldn’t figure out why we hadn’t taken a shot at this stage. Calmly picking my rifle back up I was now focused and ready to take a shot. The white buck and the biggest brown buck were in my view. Making sure that the white buck wasn’t in danger, I placed my crosshairs on the brown buck’s shoulder and waited for the OK from Dad. Dad made sure that I was solid and with a few cross-check questions he confirmed I was aiming for the correct deer. At this point he put his ear plugs in and told me to squeeze the trigger when I was ready. Doing one final check I breathed out and slowly squeezed the trigger of my 30-06. “Bang”!

I knew instantly that it was a good shot, but as always I quickly reloaded and got myself ready for a back up shot. None was needed. The buck didn’t go far until he dropped, I couldn’t believe it! I had just shot my first fallow buck! After sitting there for a few minutes Dad and I began the walk back up the hill to the others. I saw the look on my cousin and sister’s face, it was the first deer they had seen taken and they were both really excited!

We all hopped into the car and headed over to the opposite face. When we got there I was more excited than ever. I had watched countless hours of fallow buck hunts on YouTube trying to learn all I could about them and now I had just taken one. We were all super excited. As I walked up to my buck I really saw how different they are to sambar and how different their hair is. We all got some photos with the buck and then loaded him into the car. As always we took all of the meat: backstraps, eye fillets, front and back legs. We also caped him out as I had permission from Mum to put my first fallow buck on the wall. It was an amazing hunt where everything went to plan with the final result seeing me take a beautiful fallow buck with both my sister and cousin there along with my uncle and Grandpa. I can’t wait to get my buck back from the taxidermist so he can go on the wall, locking the memory of this hunt away forever!