Here are some of my recent deer stories from the archives of www.MidwestPredatorHunters.com
(November 19th)
I spent the afternoon scouting a farm that I hope to hunt in the next couple days. With about an hour of daylight left I slipped down to another farm, 30 miles south, and snuck into the edge of a field. As darkness started to fall on the field I saw a few deer come out of the brush at 250 yards. They worked their way toward me slowly. I waited to see if there was a buck following them, as some does are in heat, but nothing showed up. With only a few moments of daylight left I picked out one of the deer at 85 yards and let the smoke roll! My victim was unfortunately a button buck, I would've rather had a doe but such is life.
(November 20th)
I hunted a little farm this evening that has a big deer infestation problem. I've hunted this place for years and the population seems to stay strong dispite my culling efforts. Last year I saw 34 deer in one day from a stand, the next day I saw 35!! This place is covered up!
I got in the stand at 2 o'clock this afternoon and took a little nap. When I woke up at 4 there were six deer in the field grazing and playing around. All does, they were standing on their hind feet fighting and frollicking around.
I took out my new rangefinder and clicked off some yardages. I wanted a 200 yard shot but while they were at that distance the brush between us was too thick for a safe shot. As they milled around I got a clear opening at the largest doe at 156 yards. I let the muzzleloader roar, she did a death sprint to the end of the field and collapsed.
The other deer didn't know what to do. Some went back to grazing but two came sneaking in my direction. I reloaded and stopped the larger doe at 66 yards
(Range finders are so cool). I squeezed off another round and she was DRT!
The yearling with her, a button buck, ran off into another field and stopped within sight. I reloaded and shot him with the rangefinder. 128 yards, well within range and quartering to me. I touched off the smokepole again, BANG FLOP! Three deer down.
Out of powder I got down from my tree and started gathering my bounty. After stacking up my deer and gear I walked out to the truck. 20 yards from the truck there were two does grazing, but I'm without a gun so I proceed and run them off. After gutting and loading the first deer I came back through and saw the deer in the same spot. I got the other two loaded and prepared to leave but thought "Hmmm wonder if I could get another".
I dug out some powder and bullets from the truck and loaded myself another round. I approached the field from a different angle such that I would be in range and across wind when I could see the field. Sure enough there was a doe at 60 yards. Kabooooom my 4th deer in 30 minutes!
I had a hard time loading all the deer by myself because I tore something up in my back yesterday loading button buck alone. This season has started off pretty bad on the buck end of things but I'm having no problems finding does and yearlings to target practice on!
(November 21st)
The smoke was rolling again this evening!
I setup on the edge of a secluded hayfield around 3 o'clock. I didn't see anything until 5:00 as three does entered the field. I waited a few minutes to see if they had any bucks following them then took aim at the biggest one.
113 yards on the range finder, I touched one off and the 130 pound doe crashed to the ground. The deer cleared the field but one stopped where I could still see her in the woods. I reloaded, checked the range finder- 133 yards- took aim and put her down too.
With two deer down I postponed my dinner plans via text message and gathered my things. At that point I saw another doe in a woodlot to my left, she was facing me at 74 yards. I tried to get fancy on this one, feeling pretty confident in the muzzleloader, and took aim at the end of her nose. My bullet fell a little low and hit her in the base of the neck, killing her instantly.
Three more does came home with me tonight... that makes 8 in 48 hours from the various farms I hunt. Tomorrow morning I'm taking my niece out to try and bag a nice buck I've been watching in the area. He'd make a great trophy for her so I hope we connect. If not, we can always shoot a doe or four! LOL!
(November 23rd)
With camera in hand I trailed along with my brother tonight for an evening hunt on one of our farms. Around 4 o'clock we saw a decent buck trailing across the field at 200 yards but he wasn't quite what we were looking for. Five minutes later we saw another, on the other end of the field doing the same thing. After seeing a few bucks meandering through the hayfield we felt confident in seeing a shooter before dark. That's when the hunt went down the tubes, as three big dogs came barging into the field chasing a deer.
Frustrated we sat tight as darkness set in. Across the field at 300 yards we suddenly noticed what appeared to be a HUGE deer standing there. Upon closer inspection with the camera and binoculars we found it to be a basket rack buck on TOP of a doe! After he finished breeding her he came down and squatted like a dog dragging it's butt on carpet for about 3 minutes, I filmed the whole deal. As daylight faded we decided to stalk up that way and snipe the doe. After a few minutes of stealth-like walking we got within 100 yards of the doe and my brother popped her with his Encore. Great footage to say the least!