This year I used my new CVA Mountain Stalker in .54 caliber. I bought the rifle when they came on sale at Bass Pro Shop for $39.95. A really great rifle so far. I shoot 85 grains of T-7 with a wonderwad, .015 cotton pillow tick patch and a Speer .530 roundball. There is a stiff recoil with this load, but it is very accurate. I took three does this season.

Where I live, the does are getting so thick they are really a problem. I have a friend who called me three days before the T-zone hunt. He wanted some of them thinned because he said he has to fence his garden and even then they are busting the deer fence down. As he talked to me on the phone, he said he could count 18 deer in his yard.

So I went over there on the first Thurday of T-zone and hunted his cedar grove. I took two deer. One at 60 steps and one at 50 steps. The first one dropped where it stood and the second managed to run about 15 yards. On the final Sunday of T-zone I shot a huge doe on my property. She was 45 yards away, and managed to run about 45 yards before she dropped. The strange thing is, that roundball hit that big rib right behind the front shoulder, smashed that and pushed it into the lungs, and then the ball headed straight up and took a chunk of spine out of her. How she managed to run with a broken spine is still a mystery. When I skinned her, I pulled her in half actually.

I still have my bow buck tag to fill, so I have been waiting for the wind to die down a little before I climb back into my tree. Good luck people....