I was fortunate enough today totake a doe in prime condition. My second day of ML hunting - again thanks to all those who helped a newcomer with all his questions. You guys played a big part in my being able to harvest the animal cleanly & humanely. Would have posted photo but haven't figured out yet how to get the photo down to allowable size.

congratulations on the taking of a doe. And how about the story? How far away was she, and what was the load you finally decided on using in your rifle? I take it all went well and she did not manage to get too many steps after being hit..

again, congratulations on muzzleloader hunting your deer. You are now hooked big time..

I stuck with the Hornady XTP MAG's and 2 - 50 gr. pyrodex pellets. I do plan to try different loads/projectiles next year (our nice weather is rapidly disappearing!) and devote more time to shooting the gun. The shot was at about 60 yds. - hit right behind the shoulder, destroying the lungs. Deer didn't go much further than 15 yards.

You are right about being hooked - and I think my younger son has also now been bitten by the bug!!

Wow that was fast.How long is yourML season in man.?

Congrats on the first and many more. The XTP's are a good bullet I have had excellent results from them as well. In fact they have accounted for the majority of the animals I have taken with inline's.

You can reduce the picture sizewith any photo editting sw program. Or open it in MS paint(if you have windows when you click on a pic it will open in windows photo/fax viewer on the bottom you see a task bar with icons to the far right second in is the icon to open in MS Paint for editing -click this icon). Once it opens in MS paint, go to the image button (top of the page)and click, then click on stretch/skew option &it will open up a window that allows you to reduce the image size to be allowable here (Under 100mb). Want you want to do is reduce the stretch size both vertical and horizontal in equal portions. You then save it to a new name to protect your original file. You might have to play around to get below 100 just depends on what your camera setting are. I hope it helps. Ifyou want email it to me and I'll post it for yeah!

Enjoy the eats. Looks like you'll need a spare for the boy.

skeeter 7mm- our season runs from Oct/24 to Nov/12. Had so much fun & enjoyment I'm thinking of getting a second deer tag. (Would have to convince the better half we do really have room for more chops, roasts, etc., etc.!)

"Looks like you'll need a spare for the boy" - he'd like that. The"boy" just turned 30 so I think he can look after getting his own ML or be good and hope Santa comes thru for him!!!!

Thanks for the tips on posting pictures - I'll play around with it and see if I can get it posted.

Randy H

I guess so ...lol!

Always room for more chops isn't their?? You could always tell her now you can just hunt for horns...that is what I tell mine!

No problems at all..hope it works for yeah!

Successfully took a doe also last week. But am so depressed by it. They came in and bedded down 20ft from me. So after 4 or so hours, I was getting ready to leave, and decided to mess around with them. I grunted a bunch with a mature buck call. They just looked up and then stretched out and went back napping. I then blew a doe call, just to see what they would do. They looked back at me and went back to sleep. So after 30 min, I waived at one. She bounced her head around and then went back to napping. I was shocked so you know the saying, "if you want me to move you are going to have to shoot me", so I did. And the one doe didn't even get up with my 250gr barnes kicking thru her. The other got up and jumped and then started feeding. Beats all I ever saw. So I figure why not a double if she was going to be so stupid. But then started calculating how long it would take me to butcher two of em, and hey it wasn't sporting. So finally after climbing out of the stand, she ran away. She ain't going to last long acting like that. So after butchering I took the renderings to the back of the woods, and there she is again jumped up and looked at me while Iwalked past her. Might have been someones pet. Any way it goes, I didn't feel good about myself.

I talked to a guy last night who reported to me he'd shot a nice big doe (a real beauty.. he had to bring it by the house and show me since I tuned his muzzleloader for him). I asked him how far away and he said 25 yards. He then said, I know she saw me, I'm sure of it. But she never ran. He dropped her right where she stood.

I then told him that small field where he was hunting, the people up the road in top of the hill feed deer allyear long in their yard off the deck and brag how they can sit on the deck and watch them. I am guessing one large doe will not be returning to their yard or feeders. That's the problem when you start feeding deer and other critters in the yards of homes, they begin to loose their fear of humans. In this case, it was not a good thing for that doe.

But this fellow has a beautiful fat corn fed deer to eat. I would have guessed that deer at around 130 pounds and just as nice and full as you could want.

If I've done this correctly here's the doe I got Wednesday. Had the tenderloins last night. Terrific!

Great picture