I bought a muzzleloader earlier this fall and worked on getting familiar with it before the rifle season started. Since I was out in Montana chasing mulies during the rifle hunt, I hadn't filled my tag yet. Decided to head up to my brother in law's farm for a few days. The deer were starting to settle down after surviving the rifle season and the first evening I sat back to see where they were coming out to feed in the clover field. 2nd night I setup where they'd been coming the night before but wouldn't you know it they came everywhere but where I was setup and were out of range for any possible shot as I wasn't yet comfortable with it shooting open sights at longer ranges yet. The 3rd evening everything came together as the east wind was blowing from the woods in the the field and I was setup in the right place. A group of about 8 deer made their way around a small ravine and swung around right to me. I made one mistake in that my day pack was hanging on the left side of my tree too high and blocked my view as they came under my stand. The first two does walked thru and the buck followed but took a different route around a log pile and veered left broadside to me. I slowly raised the rifle onto the top of the pack, took aim, and fired. I hit him a tad high in the rib cage but it mattered not at about 25 yards as it lifted him off his feet and he just twitched his feet a bit and that was it. I was glad for a quick killing shot and for the venison going in the freezer. I attempted to drop a doe the next day and a half but held off on some questionable shot opportunities. I'm heading back Saturday mid day to hunt the evening and attempt to fill a bonus tag for my sister/brother in law's freezer since farming got in the way this year of them filling the freezer.
