HuntingNet.com Forums - First Muzzleloader Deer

Well after screwing up with my rifle I found myself at the range again Thursday morning for another sighting in. Long story short I took the rifle out of the stock since it was sooo dirty after my last range session. I don't know what I was thinking...guess I was just tired and not thinking.

SO anyways after 4 shots I'm back hitting very well. Hunted by the range for the afternoon and jumped 2 deer, but nothing to shoot at.

I decided to move since it was getting late so I called the wife while in the car. After talking to her for awhile I figured out that I had never changed the time on my hunting watch or in the car......well I had an extra hour to hunt.

With an extra hour now I could go back to one of my "buck spots". I debated to take the stand or not. Better vision convinced me to take the stand.
So back over the hill I go past a pipeline. I noticed a fresh scrape not far from where I was going to set up but decided not to sit it since they are usually visited after dark.

This is where it gets interesting....I wander from tree to tree trying to decide witch one would give me the best view. Finally deciding I started to set up the stand. The bottom was in place the rifle was tied to the pull up line and just as I got the top of the climber on the tree I heard a "squirrel" off to my left and behind me. A quick look confirmed....no wait that's a deer....antlers holy crap. I kneel down and grab the rifle trying not to move too much. It was still capped since I wasn't actually starting up the tree yet. Almost too thick for a shot where he came thru, but I sneaked one thru a small lane. I expected to see a bang-flop on a thirty yard shot, but off he trotted the way that he had come in. After he ran off I replayed the shot in my head and all I could think of was a deflection in the thick stuff. Little blood concerned me at first but after 20 yards it started to flow. He made it about 50 yards total. The shot was angling towards me and I took out the very back of a shoulder and the lungs...a bit high is why the blood trail was light to start. Nice hole...very surprising that he made it as far as he did.

Huge bodied buck with the typical bad genetics scrub rack for the public land I was hunting. Five point....tall rack with twin crab claws with a brow tine on only one side. This on a very big bodied 3 1/2 year old buck.

No pictures taken because the rack was so ugly that it may have broken my camera.

Mitch