Day 2 of muzzleloader season

When man and I got up I just knew it was going to be a beautiful morning, very little wind and I just got a really good feeling.

We hadn't seen anything and hadn't heard any shots. About 7:15 I send him a text and tell him to be ready because in the next few minutes we are gonna see some deer. Honestly I just had that feeling.
I reach to lay my phone down and I swear I didn't even get it laid down before I saw movement in front of me and to my left.

I see three deer, all antlerless coming my direction. They were already within 30 yards before I saw them. It is THICK where I am hunting.

I ease the Encore up to my shoulder and glass each of their heads to make sure I ain't gonna shoot Chocolate.
I pick out the big lead doe and when she stops at 20 yards I pop her.
Deer go everywhere.
She just jumped with that "what was that" deal going on then walks out of view towards man's stand.

I can still see two of the deer so I begin the process of reloading. Before I put the powder in I get this feeling and for some reason I can't remember putting my caps in my film canister.

I pull the canister out, literally while one of the deer watched me, and look inside. Insert explative here.

I search every pocket, nook, cranny everywhere I can think of. I have no caps.
Then I think about how I posted that I was going to carry my bow and muzzleloader. Sigh... I have a big mature doe, yearling doe and button buck within TEN YARDS of my stand and all I can do is watch.

They move off towards man's stand. I think, well at least he will get a shot.

I wait about 20 minutes and reach down into my backpack to get a drink of coke. That is when the deer blew. They were all still within 15 yards of me, directly behind my stand in the thick stuff.

They all run away from man, of course, and then two of them stop about 10 yards from my stand.
I think, well I will just stand up and it will take off towards man.

I stand up, the deer looks at me.
I wave my hand / arm at the deer and it looks at me.
I wave it again and literally say, get outta here !
The deer looks at me.
I reach and grab a branch and shake it and break some of the limbs off.
The deer looks at me.
I end up with a stick about a foot and a half long in my hand. I point it at the deer and say outloud, BANG BANG you're dead.
The deer looks at me.
I throw the stick at the deer.
I missed.
The deer looks at me.
OH GOOD GRIEF ! I start climbing down and decide if the deer stands there I am gonna tackle it.
Finally the big doe, off in the distance blows and the little one takes off the wrong direction.

I send Taylor a text and inform him that a muzzleloader is useless as a killing tool with no caps.

While I was happy I scored I sure did wish they would have run to man, but he was happy I scored too though.
Pretty good opening weekend.

God bless and good hunting,
D.

Man's muzzleloader deer.

The weekend appeared to be shot when I found out that on my brother-in-law's farm there were not only going to be man and myself but my father-in-law, his cousin AND the other guy that has permission to hunt there.
Not a big deal it is basically one big field, one small field and three small scuds of woods.
We can hunt 5 people there but it will be pretty crowded and there will be some "cuttin off" of deer to someone.

Then I find out the other guy is bringing his uncle AND his cousin.

I decide I will take doublelung up on his offer and get up at 3:00 and drive to his place.

After talking to man he says he would rather sleep longer and go after the buck we have named Chocolate.

Then my father-in-law said he and his cousin are going somewhere else.

Drama, gotta love it.

So we get to the farm and walk in to man's stand.
He gets all settled in and I head to my stand.

I get up in the stand and send man a text to let him know I am up and ready and ask if he is good to go.
He replied that he was ready and told me good luck.
I sent another telling him good luck. I also added, after checking the time, that it was shooting time and to be ready.

I reach to lay my phone on the side of the stand and hear BOOM !
I grab the radio and ask if that was him. He can't hear me on our piece of crap radios so I call him.

He said it was a big doe and he busted her.
How far was she?
Twenty yards, right in front of me.
Where did she go?
She made a circle and ran into the woods and I heard her crash right here by my stand.
Ok, we will give her some time and then I will come over there.
Ok.
What did she do when you shot?
She fell down.

I asked him if he wanted me to come over and reload for him and us hunt a while or what.
He sent me one back that said, "It don't matter to me, I got MOG" For the uneducated in redneck that means MEAT ON THE GROUND. I think he gets that from his mother.

I get down about 20 minutes later and head over to his stand and when I come around the corner he is already out in the field looking for blood.

I go to where he was and he shows me where she was standing and how she ran in a big circle and hit the woods.
We go to where he said she went into the woods and there is a WALL of honeysuckle and green briar that a tank couldn't go through.

I move down about 10 yards to the trail I knew was there and asked if she could have been here instead.

He looks at me with "that look" and says, "She was RIGHT here."
Well, alrighty then.

Sure enough there is blood in the honeysuckle where she jumped about 4 feet high to get over it.
I tell him I will circle around from the trail and when I find blood in the woods he can come in.

I take a few steps and hear a deer running through the woods. Sounds kinda like she was stomping her foot or something. That worried me.

We follow the blood trail about 10 yards and see foamy pink blood and bright red blood. Then we find the bed where she had laid down. After that, NOTHING. That REALLY scared me.
I follow the turned up leaves, praying all the way, and then about 20 yards later I see a deer laying there.

I take a few more steps and see that the "doe" had something sticking out of her head.
Three years in a row man has scored with "my" Ruger muzzleloader.
He is THE MAN.
Shot was a little back from where most people would say you should shoot but it still got one lung. I told him, as we were field dressing it, that the shot was perfect or we wouldn't be elbow deep.

Turned out to be a nice 5 point buck.


Dead buck, field dressed and in the truck before 7:00 a.m. that's what I'm talking about.
God bless and good hunting,
D.