Hunted the seven days of Ft. Sill conventional muzzleloader season and one day of any muzzleloader season. It was very hot; always a high of 85 or higher.

1st day: Saw one nice buck in overdrive going away.

2nd day: Several does and fawns started in and winded me, they took off. Three elk cows came in with their babies. A 7X7 bull elk stayed in the brush. Suddenly a yearling doe came running into the game plot, stopped 20 yards from me and started eating ravenously. Just could not shoot that doe.

3rd Day: Two big does without fawns started in and were immediately chased by a very good ten point buck. Buck stopped broadside about 70-80 yards away. Drew down on him and could not see the bead on the front sight. Did not shoot.

4th Day: Two does with fawns busted me and took off

5th Day: One doe and a small fawn came in. They were within 50 yards but i would not shoot.

6th Day: Saw some deer a long ways away.

7th Day: Some deer came up behind me snorted and took off.

8th Day: Hunted with the Encore. Two big does came in with a small fawn. Could not tell which doe the fawn belonged to and i did not shoot.

Hung it up and put a set of Encore fire sights on the TC New Englander. Broke off my last 8X40 tap, got fed up and soft soldered the sights on the gun. Now the gun will be given a camouflage job something like the one Frontier Gander did a while back.

Saturday starts OK muzzleloader season and i'm after this buck. Yep he is a cull buck, last year his antlers looked worse than this year.

Nice report Falcon. Hunting with temperatures that high is a bugger. At least you saw a lot of game to get your heart pumping. You should have no compunction over shooting a doe with a fawn unless the fawn is still carrying spots. The fawn will survive just fine and those does taste mighty good.

all those doe will be a good thing in the near future. dont scare em off or stress, they will be back when ya need em most.

Looks like a nice buck to go after. Hope you get him .
Sounds like you had a good week even if you didn't fill a tag .

Nice report. Like Semi said, at least you saw a decent amount of deer. I really don't like hunting when it is that hot out- for me even 70 degrees is sweltering....

I'm not crazy about shooting does that have a fawn with them either. It's more of an issue for me in early season, though. Usually by later in the season the does are running together in groups and it is impossible to tell which yearlings belong to which mature doe. In that situation, I usually gun for the biggest doe in the group. I've heard that if a yearling's mother dies, another doe will take over. In any case, later on in the season they are always in groups, so taking 1 deer out of the group isn't going to affect anything...

If you're out for meat, the biologists will tell you to shoot the young doe so long as you're sure it's not a button buck. That little doe won't breed this year, but the adult will, and will probably have twins next Summer. So shooting the doe fawn takes one doe out of next year's herd. Shooting the mature doe takes three deer out - probably two does and a buck.

Well it sounds like you had a good time hunting and that is the main thing. I am sure that you will have better luck and get a shot at the one you want. Good luck to you.

Good Luck falcon, hope you get that nice looking buck! Nice report also.
Wow that's some Hot Weather to hunt in. Being a Northerner we dont even bother to hunt if the temps get warm, our deer have a thick winter coat and they seldom move when the temps are warm, especially that warm.
Our hunting seasons weather is normally cold and snowy, sometimes downright cold 0 degrees and lots a snow, that's what we like.
Again Best Wishes and Good Luck on that Buck!
(BP)