FOUND MY MUZZLELOADER BUCK
 

While shed hunting yesterday I stumbled across my buck I shotthe last day of the first illinoisshotgun season with my muzzleloaderand never found. It was only about 200 yards away from where I gave up. Itis the first buck I have ever shot with a muzzleloader. I was extremely happy to find it, the rack was still in perfect shape. Lost a lot of sleep because of this boy.

RE: FOUND MY MUZZLELOADER BUCK
 

Glad to hear you found it!!! I wouldn't have slept if I had lost that guy!!! He's nice.

RE: FOUND MY MUZZLELOADER BUCK
 

Thats a nice lookin rack and too bad you couldnt find him after you shot him but just to warn you im sure someone is gonna raz you cause you didnt look hard/ long enough but hey at least you found a bit of him:).

RE: FOUND MY MUZZLELOADER BUCK
 

Oh believe me I looked for him for 2 weeks. Unfortunately there was no blood trail and it was basically like looking for a needle in a hay stack. Took my dog with me and had her try and sniff him out and everything. So I definitely made a valiant effort to retrieve him before now. I'm just glad I found him.

RE: FOUND MY MUZZLELOADER BUCK
 

Gosh, it's ashame you didn't find it, nice buck! You could do a Euro Mount!:)

RE: FOUND MY MUZZLELOADER BUCK
 

Another fine specimen of oursweet illinois herd!

Congrats on the deerand the find.

RE: FOUND MY MUZZLELOADER BUCK
 

glad to here that you found it

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Tha6ts a nice buck. Too bad you couldn't find him earlier. Better late then never.

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Glad you found him, too bad you didn't get the chance to enjoy the table fare.

RE: FOUND MY MUZZLELOADER BUCK
 

Glad you found him...at least now you know what became of him.

Now onto the learning aspect of this...

Make sure you study all details of this situation so you can learn from it. If you can, try to find where your bullet struck and why he died. Was it from the initial shot? Or did he simply die from infection later on? Look at where you found him....think about where he was when you shot....study the terrain inbetween and figure out why he ran where he did. How far did he travel? What features are around him? Thick cover? Water? Ridgeline? In an escape route? Bedding area? Make note of everything possible....then if (we all hope it never does, but sometimes it does) it happens again in the future you can think back to this buck and remember key aspects of why the deer behaved the way he did. It may just help you out later on.

Everytime I find a death bed in the woods, I study everything I can about it and put it away for future reference....its amazing what you can learn. I actually used this type of knowledge this year to find two does who bled very little....I thought about normal escape routes and where they went. I followed that intuition and found both deer.

RE: FOUND MY MUZZLELOADER BUCK
 

Good to see ya found him. Did ya make a decent shot or why did he run so far?

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congrats on finding him. atleast you got your head from your first ml buck. its a dandy too.

RE: FOUND MY MUZZLELOADER BUCK
 

that is a nice buck.

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Glad to hear you found it....thats a really nice buck!

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Its too bad you lost him after you shot him. At least you found his final resting place. Nice Rack

RE: FOUND MY MUZZLELOADER BUCK
 

I've been there. not a good feeling at all. Glad to hear you found him though. ;)

RE: FOUND MY MUZZLELOADER BUCK
 

Nice buck, and glad you found it. Ditto on the euro mount.

RE: FOUND MY MUZZLELOADER BUCK
 

Don't undertsnd this "glad you found him" "at least you got the rack" "at least you got the head?"

Maybe it's me, finding him would have bummed me out more knowing the animal was wastedexcept for the scavengersand I would have proably left the rack in the woods. Maybe if your hunting mostly for the rack finding one you shot that much later is a good thing.

Not saying you didn't look him enough or anything like that you said you looked for two weeks,just don't understand the mentality shown here.

Did you tag him?

RE: FOUND MY MUZZLELOADER BUCK
 

Glad to see you found such a nice animal.

Stuff happens - Don't let it bum you out.PA Bow/Flinter made some very good points.

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RE: FOUND MY MUZZLELOADER BUCK
 

Sorry you lost him, but glad you found him. It's nice to get closure. He's a dandy.

RE: FOUND MY MUZZLELOADER BUCK
 

cttgarcia03

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Posts: 20
Joined: 3/14/2006
From: Fairview Heights, Illinois
Status: online
Need some advice from my fellow hunters. Yesterday was the final day of the first shotgun season in illinois. At about 3:30pm I had a 130 class 8 pointer come out into the field on me. He was originally at 200 yards. I am using a .50 cal muzzleloader with a 3x9 scope. When he got to about 150 yards I knew he was not going to get any closer, I grunted to stop him and took the shot. He almost instantly jumped up in the air and bucked like a horse. I of course got excited because I thought I had nailed him. I tried to gather some composure and got down to start trailing him before it got dark. Upon coming to the area which I had shot him I could find no blood. I continued looking all over looking for blood and walked in the direction he ran but still found nothing. I guess my question is, Did I in fact hit him since he did the famous mule kick or did I miss him??????? I can't get back up to our place until this weekend to look forhim and if I hit him then I definitely want to go or am I just looking for a dead deer that doesn't exist? Please help me get this bad boy out of my head! Your replies will be greatly appreciated.




So let me get this straight.

You shot this deer on Sunday, made the post above on Monday (From a place other than where you were hunting???), then waited until the following weekend to go look for it?

Hmmmmmmmm

RE: FOUND MY MUZZLELOADER BUCK
 

I don't know too many hunters who would be bummed out that they found their deer even though it has been 2 and a half months since he was shot.Regardlesseven if itwas a buck or a doe, just knowing that it was not foundwould bother me a great deal. Believe me I was very upsetknowing that the meat had went to waste. I love the taste of backstraps just as much as the next hunter. I was even more bummed knowingthat not only was the meatgoing to waste but that thetrophy was also out there somewhere wasting away. To say you would leave the rack lay is crazy to myself and I'm sure many other hunters.I, along with many, enjoy shed hunting.I wouldn'tleave one of these antlerslay in the woods. Wouldyou? To find this trophy of mine meant a great deal to me and I am definitely glad not (bummed) that I have found him. Unfortunately the table fare went to feeding the coyotes and I am sorry for that.

RE: FOUND MY MUZZLELOADER BUCK
 

Yes I made the post from somewhere other than where I was hunting. Sorry don't have internetin our deer cabin. I live an hour and a halfaway from where I hunt. I have a full time job working almost 60 hours a week. I had 2 guys who live near where I hunt looking for my deer every day after they got off work. On friday after I got off work,I went up to where I hunt and spent the whole weekend looking.

RE: FOUND MY MUZZLELOADER BUCK
 

So, was it the weekend after that you went to look for him?

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That clears a lot up, cause from what I had read it didn't sound like you searched until the following weekend. My appologies.

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Glad you found him to bad you can't get him mounted.

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Too bad you did not find him them, but atleast you know that he not going tp spend the rest of his time in pain!

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Good thing you found him!!! Well I still havent found a good eight I shot 11/9/06. I know I hit him good my cousin was beside me and saw through the binocs that it was a poerfect shot. We searched all of the woods but to no avail. There was good blood, but it stopped after 10 yards.He rpobably jumped fence. THe fence is about 80 yards form my feeder. I looked good and even looked this weekend as I was hog hunting.Wish I would find him, at least you did.

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Great buck...congrats!!

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if you know its the same buck you shot,then its your trophy . just hang on to the antlers and mount it on another cape ,we do this all the time.

back around 1985 i shot a huge 6pt near a big swampy thicket,he was bleeding like a stuck pig when he entered the swamp. we looked for days and couldn't find him. there were no buzzards near there for a week, then 10 days later it warmed up and i found him while hunting the other side of the thicket,there was one buzzard setting in a tree . now i knew i killed this buck, he was the biggest 6pt i'd ever seen. i kept that rack and about 5-6 years ago i mounted it,with the cape from another buck i killed. the buck is 22 1/2 outside spread and heavy .you just don't find many 6pts that size in va.

RE: FOUND MY MUZZLELOADER BUCK
 

well-did you find any sheds?

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Great buck, congrats!

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;) Yes I found one side to a nice 8 pt.

RE: FOUND MY MUZZLELOADER BUCK
 

Don't give up keep looking if you know you hit him good. Hopefully you will find him when you are shed hunting.

RE: FOUND MY MUZZLELOADER BUCK
 

I would definitely agree with you. Somepeople on here don't see it that way. Or should I say one guy on here doesn't. My taxidermist already said he has a cape for me if I wish to use it.

RE: FOUND MY MUZZLELOADER BUCK
 

CONGRATS !!

dd

RE: FOUND MY MUZZLELOADER BUCK
 

How much is a cape to get a mount done?

I got a 13 pt last year and it killed me to know that it's likely the biggest deer if not one of the biggest I'll get in my lifetime and since I'm in school, I couldn't afford to get a mount made. Eventually I want to get a cape and have him mounted, just wondering how much it will run me.

He would have made a cool mount too, thick brow hair of an almost red color. I'd love to find a cape from an older deer since the rack has some broken points and I think an older cape would add to the overall character, but I'll be thrilled to have it mounted regardless!

Here's what he looked like alive:


And on my med student budget ($10 for a saw and $12 for a mounting kit at Scheel's) here's what I have hanging above my desk in my office:

RE: FOUND MY MUZZLELOADER BUCK
 

Just depends, some taxidermists won't charge for the cape and some will. On ebay a nice cape will go for over $100.00. And around here the average deer mount will be around $350.00. SoI would say it would cost you between $350.00 and $450.00.

RE: FOUND MY MUZZLELOADER BUCK
 

Thanks for the info!

Maybe I'll see if I can talk the wife into letting me get it done next spring as a graduation present!