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Hi, I am new to the forum, up here in Fort Wayne, but I hunt in Noble County. I harvested my second deer (only my 2nd year hunting), on Saturday, opening day, with a muzzleloader. It was a decent sized 7 point, not real big in body mass, only about 140 pounds or so, but it was an awesome experience.

My boyfriend got me into hunting last year and I harvested my first deer, a buck with one measly point, lol, on second day of shotgun season last year... it took me three shots last year with a Remington 870 combo express magnum... I missed him with my first two shots as he was standing behind a tree and obviously because of inexperience, but I got him with my third shot as he ran straight under my stand, shot him right in the throat. He was a big bodied one, about 180 pounds or so, but he had apparently done something to his rack while it was in velvet because all he had was one point... looks like he broke them off right at the base of his rack. I was happy with him though. :)

This year, we saw three bucks opening day, one about 150 yards out, just a spikehorn, the next was a monster, but he went into the tall weeds and came out only for a minute or so at the edge of the woods about 120 yards out, I had no shot and I wouldn't have been comfortable with my accuracy at that range anyway. We had a guy hunting about 600 yards out from us, he shot early, about 7:30 or so, three shots, but he apparently missed all three, or had a bad shot, because he got down from his stand and was tracking for about an hour and a half, climbed back up in his stand and waited until about 9 or so when his two buddies came from their stands. We were going to get out at 9:30 or so, but we decided to stay because they were down and walking all over the place looking for his deer, so we figured he'd be kicking 'em up all over. Sure enough, about 10, my buck was walking right down the ditch line about 40 yards from me, I got comfortable and WHAMO! I got him, perfect shot placement, just obliterated his lungs, he ran about 30 yards and dropped. I was so excited. Shane was with me, as we bought a buddy stand a couple of weeks ago. It was awesome! We went back out on Saturday night, he had a doe tag to fill... and I wanted to sit with him, we saw no bucks, but 13 does, just none of them within range.

We went back out again Sunday morning, Shane got his doe, we saw 18 does Sunday morning, and of course, I still had a doe tag to fill, so it was back out again Sunday evening, didn't get a shot, I had a shot at one doe, about 80 yds out, just didn't have a good angle, so I let her go. All in all Sunday, we saw 33 does!!! We have a good spot, but I don't think the bucks around here are ruttin' yet because they sure are scarce, and they are usually crawling all over us in that area!

Anyway, I guess after all that I should introduce myself, I am Stephanie, 2nd year hunter, 24 years old, I look forward to reading everyone's stories. :)