Back to 1984: Hunting in the Mountains

Chapter 82 Hunter’s Rules

These two roe deer are a male and a female.

Male roe deer have horns, which are covered with many tiny bumps. If you look closely, it can scare people with trypophobia to death.

The dragon horns in traditional mythology are taken from the horns of roe deer, but these horns are not very hard and fall off easily.

September is just a few days away, which is the mating season for roe deer. It is obvious that this male roe deer is a foreigner and is trying hard to attract the attention of the female roe deer by "singing" and dancing.

If a woman can win her heart, she will soon become pregnant, with a gestation period of about seven or eight months, and give birth in May or June of the following year.

Yu Qiutang did not rush to shoot, he was still waiting.

Generally, roe deer do not appear in pairs. Since the male roe deer is an outsider, that means there are at least two other roe deer with the female roe deer.

Three are the minimum system for a roe deer group.

He gathered all the roe deer together and caught them all in one fell swoop.

At this time.

The two roe deer were tired from playing, so they drank some water from the small pond and started to flirt with each other on the grass nearby. Occasionally, a few mustelids would run out from the woods and would also carefully drink water by the pond.

Ten minutes later, the team Yu Qiutang was waiting for finally showed up, and beyond his expectations, four more came at once.

Two of the adult roe deer should be over two years old, and the other two are smaller in size. The male roe deer's horns have not yet fully grown, and are estimated to be no more than a year old.

After the four roe deer came over, they first stood by the water blankly for a while, and then shouted "howl" to the surroundings. The call of the adult roe deer was very old, a bit like the cry of a sheep, and a bit like the barking of a dog.

The little roe deer kept chirping. If it weren't prey, it would actually sound quite cute, especially with their clear big eyes.

Yu Qiutang did not move immediately. He waited until the four roe deer behind joined the two in front. From their positions, he discovered that the female roe deer that came earlier was their "leader".

Then he aimed at the female roe deer and fired a shot.

"Oh!"

The gun went off!
But the female roe deer did not fall down. At the critical moment, the damn gun missed the target.

Yu Qiutang was completely confused.

How can it be!

According to his feeling, how could the gun miss the target? At such a close distance, if he aimed at the roe deer's head and shot it on its body, it would be understandable. But to say that it missed the target directly was simply unbelievable.

Only then did he realize that there was something wrong with the tuning of this gun and it was not something that ordinary people could use. The bullet had been at least half a foot too high and ten centimeters too left.

but.

If the gun was inaccurate, he saw Lao Qin shoot down a cuckoo with ease last time, and it seemed like there was no problem.

Could it be that his marksmanship has really regressed? !
But no matter what, Yu Qiutang immediately pushed the bullet into the gun, roughly calculated the deviation of the trajectory in his mind, and fired at the female roe deer again.

"Oh!"

This time his luck was extremely good. Although he did not hit the roe deer's neck and the bullet was too low, it hit its front leg. The roe deer instantly fell to the ground with half of its leg shot off.

Without any hesitation, he simply took the crossbow and shot the arrow that had been loaded earlier, straight into the neck of the female roe deer.

This is the end.

The female roe deer is the sure thing.

At this time, the roe deer were still not too panicked. They just retreated a dozen meters, then stopped and looked at Yu Qiutang who stood up.

Yu Qiutang took advantage of this situation and fired the second shot.

The reason why roe deer are called silly roe deer is that they have been staying in a very small range for so many years that they are insensitive to many dangers.

People here like to call roe deer "Silly Three".

What does that mean.

This means that roe deer will generally stop at least three times when they encounter humans.

The first time, when they suddenly hear a dog barking, they will not run away in a hurry, but will stand still and observe the dog for a while, and will continue to run only when the dog starts to bite.

The second time is when they see humans, they usually stop and stay for a short while.

The third time is after they have escaped or their companions have been injured, they will return to check on them.

Skilled hunters know that to hunt roe deer, they must seize these three opportunities to shoot, and generally they will get something in return.

If you wait for them to run, it will still be difficult to hit them.

Small in size, covered by vegetation, and agile in movement, they are not easy moving targets to capture. Those who can hit a roe deer while it is running are the best among hunters.

With the preparation from the previous two times, his gun finally did not miss this time and directly hit the head of a male roe deer. The roe deer fell to the ground and the other roe deer then fled in all directions.

Yu Qiutang ignored the roe deer he had shot, and immediately ran forward with his gun in hand, taking a shortcut. The straight line segment between two points is the shortest, and after running two or three hundred meters, he saw the roe deer that had been panicking just now, which had indeed stopped and looked in the direction it came from.

Yu Qiutang estimated the distance to be about seventy or eighty meters. He was unsure of the range of the modified gun, so he quietly slipped down the hillside and groped forward twenty or thirty meters before firing another shot.

There was something wrong with the shooting. The aim was originally to target the neck and abdomen of a roe deer, but when the shot was fired, another one happened to come over, and the gun hit the roe deer's butt squarely.

The roe deer howled in pain, quickly fled into the woods in front and soon disappeared.

Yu Qiutang looked at the direction where the roe deer disappeared and shook his head helplessly.

Although he had already caught two roe deer, he still felt unhappy.

There are too many surprises.

Hunting is very dependent on mood and luck. The problem with the first shot affected his mood and made him a little anxious.

If he had been a little calmer and waited a moment, the roe deer that blocked the bullet might have moved aside, and he would have been able to knock down the original target with just half a body length.

"Forget it." He shook his head. This was his first shot after his rebirth. He couldn't ask for too much. It was good enough if it could be like this.

Besides, the roe deer just ran away at this moment, but their hunting was not over yet.

He had made plans before coming. Roe deer like to come out in the evening and morning, so the three of them would stay in the mountains for one night. If tonight didn't work, they could try their luck tomorrow morning.

Returning to his original position, he shouted at the two of them to come over.

The direction in which the roe deer fled was opposite to where they were ambushing, which meant that in this first wave of hunting, the two men did not play any role.

So when he saw the two roe deer being killed by guns and crossbows, even Yu Qiujiang felt a little regretful.

"Damn it, if he hadn't run to our side, I wouldn't have been able to perform well." Wang Haofeng was even more depressed.

Yu Qiutang thought to himself that you are just bragging. Roe deer are not carnivores and will not attack people at close range. If you use a crossbow, with your level of skill, I am afraid you won’t be able to touch even a single hair of the roe deer.

"You are still awesome."

After seeing Yu Qiutang's record, Wang Haofeng praised him generously and said with a big grin, "With you here, our trip is not in vain."

Yu Qiutang was not deliberately modest.

First of all, it's not worth it. We are all good friends and we know who is who. There is no point in being humble.

Secondly, he also consciously established a small authority. Any organization or team must have a leader so that everyone can work together. Otherwise, when things come up, everyone will have a lot of ideas, which will delay things.

This hunting team is organized by him and he is the core.

When the two roe deer were taken together, it was found that the female roe deer was bigger than the male roe deer that was killed later, which meant that the male roe deer was not fully adult and its size still had room to grow.

"Not bad!"

While Yu Qiutang was still thinking about what to do next, Wang Haofeng was already "content with a small fortune" and was quite satisfied with his current gains.

"Do you want to deal with it now?" Yu Qiujiang asked.

Yu Qiutang thought for a moment and said, "Let's not deal with it for now. Roe deer are not as sensitive as wild boars. The main thing is that we are halfway up the mountain. If we deal with it directly, the bloody smell will be too strong and may attract jackals."

Yu Qiujiang looked at the sky. The sun had already set in the west. Unknowingly, it had become a little colder on the mountain.

"Besides, we have to stay in the mountains tonight. It's fine during the day, but at night those meat-eating guys will come out. We are not at an advantage, so it's better to be careful."

"You make sense," Yu Qiujiang nodded, and added, "Fortunately, the temperature on this mountain should be quite low at night, so the meat won't deteriorate quickly."

Wang Haofeng asked from the side: "Tangtang, what are we going to do next?"

Yu Qiutang had already thought of the subsequent arrangements, so he asked Yu Qiujiang and Wang Haofeng to find a place to prepare dinner and make windproof facilities in preparation for spending the night.

He himself had to search around again.

It would be best to catch one or two more before dark.

It looks like tomorrow will be a sunny day. The sun will probably rise very early and the roe deer will not be out for too long in the early morning.

The chances are better tonight.

"Don't you want us to follow you?" Yu Qiujiang was not very reassured.

"No, it's safer for the two of you to be together," Yu Qiutang thought for a moment, and took out a whistle from his pocket, "Take this with you. If you encounter an emergency, blow it hard and I will come back."

"it is good."

This whistle is also called a "bone whistle". It is made from pheasant bones. The sound it produces is very sharp. It not only travels far, but can also scare wild beasts to a certain extent.

Hunters and rangers nearby all wear it with them.

Yu Qiujiang didn't say much, he took it and hung it around his neck, "Then be careful, it looks like it will be dark in less than two hours, you must come back before then."

"I know," Yu Qiutang looked at his electronic watch. It was only about 4:8. The time difference in the northwest was originally late, and it would actually get dark after 9 o'clock. Considering that the sunset was even later in the mountains, the dark time would have to be pushed back even further. Maybe he could last until o'clock.

He also reminded Wang Haofeng not to run around and to listen to Yu Qiujiang. After Wang Haofeng agreed, he left with his gun, crossbow and steel fork on his back.

It's just that he is very strong. Most people can't carry so much equipment at the same time.

Together they weigh about 60 to 70 kilograms.

For people with less strength, let alone hunting, just carrying these things up the mountain would make them breathless.

Yu Qiutang continued to climb along the ridge and saw that the terrain above was relatively high and there was a protruding rock. He climbed up the rock to observe the surrounding terrain.

When he saw a relatively flat hillside three or four miles away, surrounded by sparse trees, which from a distance looked like a bald spot on the head of a middle-aged man, he smiled with satisfaction.

As expected.

He was just thinking about this question: these roe deer gather here and run to the small puddle to drink water. So where do they replenish salt?

It was obvious that the small puddle was a freshwater pit and could not meet the salt requirements, and the nearby ridges were all soil, which could not possibly contain salt.

That can only mean one thing, there must be saline-alkali land nearby, and these guys are reproducing around the saline-alkali land.

Sure enough, he saw it appear a few miles away.

There are many reasons for the formation of saline-alkali land. Based on the formation process, the area size and salt concentration are also uncertain.

If the salinity is low, some salt-tolerant plants will grow first and play a certain neutralizing role. As time goes by, vegetation will slowly appear around from far to near, and finally only the most core position will remain, and the rest will be covered by vegetation.

At this moment, a plump female roe deer was leisurely licking the moss beside the saline-alkali land.

He roughly estimated the distance, which should be about 150 meters away. If his eyesight was not better than that of an average person, he would not be able to see it so clearly.

However, although he could see clearly, considering that the accuracy of the gun in his hand was too poor, he hesitated and did not take action. Instead, he slipped down the rock and quietly used the bushes as cover to move towards the saline-alkali land.

According to previous experience, to ensure the accuracy of this gun, it must be at least within 50 meters of the prey, otherwise it will be difficult to estimate the exact point.

He moved slowly and approached. His voice was very light and he was against the wind. He had already reached the edge of the saline-alkali land, but the roe deer did not react.

Yu Qiutang found a raised position, climbed down, aimed at the roe deer, and was about to pull the trigger.

however.

Just as he was about to pull the trigger, he suddenly saw two little roe deer heads emerging from the bushes behind the mother roe deer.

It looks like it won’t take more than a month at most.

Yu Qiutang moved his fingers again and again, sighed helplessly, and put the gun back on the ground.

He encountered the thing he least wanted to encounter.

This female roe deer is currently breastfeeding, and there are some crying little roe deer behind her.

Hunters have their own rules, and not killing pregnant or lactating prey is the most basic ethics.

Although there are some hunters who are particularly hard-hearted and will kill any prey, most hunters still have an instinctive respect for life.

Just like people eat chickens, ducks, cows and sheep, it is because of the biological instinct, but normal people will not abuse them at will because they think they have no emotions.

Hunters rely on the mountains for their livelihood, so they must ensure that the creatures in the mountains can continue to reproduce. If they fish out the pond and kill pregnant and lactating creatures, it will be equivalent to damaging subsequent development.

If you do it, you will be despised by others.

Yu Qiutang would naturally not do that.

He lay in the bushes and continued waiting. After more than ten minutes, the mother roe deer left contentedly. When she left, three little roe deer ran out from the bushes, walked around, and then happily went back in.

half an hour.

One hour.

Apart from the occasional hare running by and the chirping of various birds in the trees, no roe deer came to the edge of the saline-alkali land.

Another hour.

The weather was getting colder, and Yu Qiutang had no choice but to change his posture and stretch his stiff body. He looked at his watch and it was almost seven o'clock.

He looked at the saline-alkali land again, thinking that if he had no harvest within half an hour, he would go back and try his luck again tomorrow morning.

Just then, his eyes lit up.

Two male roe deer appeared at the edge of the saline-alkali land. They looked very leisurely and had no idea that someone was waiting for them. They waited so long that all the flowers withered.

(End of this chapter)