Gun season opening day in Illinois was Friday 11/18/05.
I hunted in the morning with my buddy and got a 120 yard shot at a nice 6-8 pt. He donkey kicked and ran off into some weeds to bed down. I could see through the binocs that he was limping and had blood on his right front leg. Anyway he bedded down for about 1-1 1/2 hours and all of a sudden gets up. We did not push or pressure him. We watched him hobble off and tried a hail mary shot to stop him. We found bright red blood trail and followed it until the blood was real small drops then circled out from there and eventually couldn't recover him. Coyote's-1, us-0.
Went back out that evening and got a neck shot--about 40 yards at the doe pictured and dropped her---Yes! She'sa healthy girl and weighs 122#'s---Nice. Got some meat for sausage now.
Next moring my son Zach 15 years old shoots the pictured buck with 1 shot from his CVA optima. Very good shot that connected in the shoulders and dropped him at about 30-35 yards. More meat---good!
Zach's load was 90 gr of Clear Shot with 250 gr T/C Shock waves.
I also shoot the same load out of my T/C Encore--luv dat gun.
This is my sons first deer with a muzzleloader and yes I'm proud--172 #'s and a nice 12pt rack thats going on the wall.
Thanks hunting gods--you did us right.