Hunting 81: Gathering Goods in the Mountains, I Spoil My Ex-Wife to the Extreme

"What method?"

As soon as Li Yunshan finished speaking, Uncle Zhou and the others all turned their attention to him.

Because there were as many as nineteen red deer in the distance, which was a very large herd.

Normally, they wouldn't even encounter one or two deer when they went into the mountains, but now they suddenly encountered a whole herd...

Just like Zhao Shuanzhu said, if we kill all these deer, how much money would we make?

Judging from the appearance of the deer, they should all be female.

This is because only male red deer grow antlers on their heads, while female red deer never grow antlers throughout their lives.

Based on their experience, these female red deer are of uniform build and generally weigh around 300 pounds. If they were to kill this herd of red deer...

This is the ideal outcome, but in practice, it's impossible for just nine people with nine hunting rifles to kill all the deer.

Because red deer are very strong animals, their auditory system is highly developed. In modern terms, red deer's large ears are like radar, capable of scanning the surroundings 360 degrees and accurately capturing faint sounds from all directions. Even the faintest sounds cannot escape their ears.

In addition, red deer have an amazing sense of smell. They can smell scents from hundreds of meters away and use these scents to determine whether the danger is a wolf, a tiger, or a bear, as well as the distance.

While killing all the deer was unrealistic, with nine men and nine hunting rifles, as long as they operated properly and nothing went wrong, killing three to five deer shouldn't be a problem, and transporting them out of this deep mountain forest wouldn't be too difficult either.

But if you're really lucky and manage to kill six or seven or eight deer, it would be quite difficult to transport them all out of this deep forest in one go.

Because the mountain roads were rugged and the ground was covered with a layer of snow that could bury their ankles, they could only carry hunting rifles, bullets, and a small amount of dry food. Even patrolling the mountains for a long time would be difficult, let alone transporting two or three hundred pounds of deer.

Although it's still uncertain how many deer we can hunt, and we might even return empty-handed if something goes wrong during the hunt and we accidentally scare the deer away, we should always be prepared.

Therefore, as soon as they heard Li Yunshan's words, everyone's eyes fell on Li Yunshan.

"If we hunt too many deer and can't transport them all out of the mountains, we can put the ones that can't be moved out into the caves where we'll spend the night. If it's still early, we don't even need to put the deer in the caves. We have a lot of people, so we can send two or three people down the mountain to find help in the village. As long as we're willing to pay, there will always be people willing to come into the mountains to help."

Li Yunshan offered his suggestion.

"It's still early, Yunshan's method is feasible."

Uncle Zhou looked up at the sun in the sky; the golden sunlight was dazzling.

Based on the sun's position and altitude, Uncle Zhou judged that it would occur around nine o'clock in the morning.

Because it gets light around 5 a.m. in winter here, and they got up early today, ate breakfast early, and went out to patrol the mountain. They've been patrolling for half a day now.

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's get started."

Cai Er said in a low voice, somewhat impatiently.

"We'll split up and sneak up to the deer. When you hear my gunshot, fire at the deer together."

"Remember, concentrate and fire quickly. Reload as fast as you can after firing two bullets. If we can fire another round, we might be able to kill a few more deer."

Uncle Zhou gave the instructions.

"Uncle Zhou, we know."

Killing even one more deer can significantly increase your income; if you kill several more deer…

Everyone knew the importance of the action to be taken later, so they all maintained an exceptionally proper attitude and looked extremely serious.

Soon, Li Yunshan and his men dispersed, but they didn't dare to stray too far from each other.

If they are too far apart, it will be difficult for Uncle Zhou to give instructions, and the pace will be inconsistent.

Putting aside other issues, let's just talk about the problem of shooting a deer after getting close. If the distance is too far and the signal is not transmitted properly, it will result in someone shooting first and someone shooting later. The person who shoots first will certainly hit the deer, but will also scare away the other deer. Whether the person who shoots later can hit the deer depends on their marksmanship and luck.

What they had to do was to fire at the deer as quickly and uniformly as possible within a short period of time.

……

In the woods, on the soft snow, a herd of red deer were shoveling snow away and nibbling on the exposed grass stems.

In the freezing cold season, when food is scarce, these red deer gnaw on even grass stalks with relish.

While munching on the grass stems, the lead deer would occasionally raise its head to observe its surroundings, or prick up its ears to listen to the sounds around it.

Using the surrounding objects for cover, such as mounds of earth and fallen tree trunks, Li Yunshan and his men lay prone on the snow and crawled towards the herd of deer, not daring to even breathe loudly.

Although the group had spread out, the distance between them was not too far, so everyone could see each other's movements. Therefore, no one suddenly rushed forward, and everyone's pace was still roughly the same.

As they crawled forward, no one dared to speak or even breathe loudly. They simply observed each other's movements and progress out of the corner of their eyes. Cai Er and Wang Lao Jiu even held sticks in their mouths to avoid making any noise later.

After crawling to a spot not far from the herd of deer, Uncle Zhou dared not move.

Seeing that Uncle Zhou didn't move, Li Yunshan and the others didn't dare to move either.

At this moment, Uncle Zhou looked up and quietly estimated the distance. After discovering that the herd of deer had entered the range of their hunting rifles, he gestured to Li Yunshan and Zhao Shuanzhu beside him.

The message was relayed through gestures, and everyone cautiously observed their distance from the deer before responding with gestures in return.

Those who were far from the deer and not yet within the effective range of the hunting rifle continued to slowly crawl closer; those who had already reached the effective range of the hunting rifle stopped where they were and waited for everyone else to be in position before listening to Uncle Zhou's signal to move together.

Li Yunshan estimated the distance between himself and the herd of deer to be about fifty meters, which was already within the effective range of his Tiger Head brand hunting rifle.

Of course, this distance isn't too close, which might reduce the hit rate when shooting.

To ensure a high hit rate, you need to get at least 20 meters closer, bringing the distance to within 40 meters of the herd of deer.

However, red deer have a keen sense of hearing and smell, and reaching a distance of fifty meters or so is their limit.

If we get any closer, we might alert them.

Most of the hunters in Guapigou Village use Tiger Head brand hunting rifles, and some use Gong brand hunting rifles.

The effective range of both shotguns is about 60 to 70 meters.

After a while, once everyone was within the effective firing range of the shotguns, Uncle Zhou made a hand gesture.

Li Yunshan and Zhao Shuanzhu also used hand gestures to pass on the information.

Soon, everyone held their breath, focused intently, and waited for Uncle Zhou's signal.

"beat."

As soon as Uncle Zhou shouted, the others, upon hearing the signal, almost simultaneously pulled the triggers of their shotguns.

"Bang bang bang..."

The nine shotguns fired almost simultaneously, creating a continuous chorus of gunfire.

Among the herd of deer not far away, several were shot and fell to the ground before they could even react, some dying instantly from fatal wounds, and others groaning in pain after being hit.

The remaining deer were startled by the sudden gunshot and scattered in panic.

After firing the two bullets from his hunting rifle, Li Yunshan immediately loaded two more bullets into the barrel as quickly as possible. Seeing the remaining deer scatter in panic, and one of them charging towards him, he aimed, pulled the trigger, and fired a shot into the deer's head.

The deer was shot, its body stiffened, and it fell to the ground with a thud.

After the others emptied their hunting rifles, some of them who were quick to reload happened to encounter a deer running towards them. They raised their hands and fired a shot, and another deer fell to the ground.

Those who loaded their rifles more slowly, such as Peng Youlian and Zhang Sange, were not very familiar with loading techniques because they had only recently bought their hunting rifles. By the time they finished loading the bullets, the deer had already run away into the distance.

"Damn it, Youlian, let's go after them."

Seeing this, Zhang Sange steeled his heart and took off chasing after a fleeing deer.

Seeing this, Peng Youlian also picked up his hunting rifle and quickly gave chase.

"Bang……"

"Bang……"

Two more gunshots rang out sporadically in the snow. It was Cai Er and his men who, after seeing that two deer had not been hit in vital areas, went and fired two more shots at the head of the two deer.

"Alright, let's count how many deer we've killed."

The gunshots rang out quickly and came just as fast. From the moment Uncle Zhou gave the signal and everyone started shooting at the deer until the deer scattered and fled, it had all been only two or three minutes.

"I've counted them; a total of eight deer were killed."

Zhao Shuanzhu walked over, his face full of excitement and joy, and said to Uncle Zhou.

"Eight heads? That's so many! We've really struck it rich this time."

Wu Shenghong and the others all showed expressions of surprise and delight.

The price of red deer is much higher than that of the wild boars they encountered before. What kind of price must that have been?

Although it's unknown how much a hunted red deer can fetch, the number of red deer is limited, and everyone knows that venison is more expensive than wild boar meat.

After all, wild boar meat has a strong, gamey smell, and you need to be quite skilled to cook it properly.

However, venison doesn't have much of a gamey smell, and it's highly nutritious, making it a delicious and nourishing delicacy.

Putting everything else aside, just take that deer blood...

Damn it, another waste of deer blood.

Upon realizing that they were in the deep mountains and forests, they were shocked to discover that they had no containers to hold the deer blood.

"What a pity, what a pity."

Zhao Shuanzhu couldn't help but shake his head.