Congrats on the deer guys! I had a great 5 days off hunting with black powder, but not without some incidents. The trip started off with my Dad shooting a 8 point buck in his back field 7 am while we're getting ready to leave. That delayed our start but was worth it. That afternoon was short because of the delay and we only had 1.5 hours to hunt and we were going back to a spot we hadn't hunted in 15 years and never with anything other than a bow. The deer were moving though. I was on the ground and had a doe pass me at 10 yards and a 4 pt buck at 40. The next morning I had a spike pass me at 40 again first light and then an 8 pt at 100. Didn't take too much time to assess him, he was big enough (14" inside) and I took the shot. Meanwhile my 75 year old Dad decided to try and climb an abandoned wooden stand (act first think later) and the top step broke on him and he fell 10 feet hitting steps all the way down. Thank God he had no more injuries than a few scrapes, he wasn't even stiff the next morning. I let him know what I thought about his little adventure. So while he's lying stunned on the ground he gets a call letting him know that a friend that was just a month younger than him had died of a diabetic stroke, and no one knew he was diabetic because he never went to the doctor.
Meanwhile I'm having a tough tracking job because I didn't take the time to place my shot better. It took me 2.5 hours to track him his 250 half circle death run but I finally found him. Hit was back lungs and liver with no exit wound. Found the sabot in a perfect mushroom in the skin of his off side. My Dad then gets the truck stuck and I lose my bluetooth headphones. That evening we see 20 turkey and 5 does, all too far away. I have a buddy meeting me the next morning just to sit on a stand with me and catch up.
Next morning is cold and frosty but we don't see anything all day. We have to cut the hunt short to go to the viewing of our friend. We got back late that night and hit the sack.
Saturday morning another friend comes up to hunt and he sees a 4 point but my Dad and I strike out. The evening hunt I decide to set up on the ground in the middle of a field that's getting overgrown. I setup below a clump of 7' dog fennel about 60 yards from a persimmon tree. At 5 I give a grunt and a minute later I hear something coming to me from across the field. I can't pinpoint the location but it's crossing uphill from me. As I'm peaking through the fennel I hear something beside me. I look just in time to see a small buck 10 feet away from me turning tail and heading to the woods. He had circled me faster than I could spot him. He stayed in the woods stomping for a while and I tried another grunt but he eventually snorted and left. The ghillie suit worked well enough if I'd been able to spot him earlier. It was funny and a great way to end the hunt.
Rifle season opens Saturday for two weeks and then it's back to bow.