We'll this weekend was Ohio's late muzzleloader hunt. I've got my buck earlier in the year so I decided to take my buddy Chris from church out again on saturday. You may remember he went out with me during shotgun (in search of his first buck) and had a half rack forkhorn at 35 yards and he froze up on him. He's talked about that hunt since.

WellChrismass day I get a call:

"Guess what I gotfor Chrismas!"he says to me.

"A muzzle loader of my own"

"Want to come check it out"

I could tell he was excited and I was only a couple miles away at my inlaws so I told him I'd be down in a minute if it was alright with his parents. I show up and he is waiting on me with a nice Traditions Deerhunter. It is a youth sized sidelock muzzle loader another guy we know had bought and shot a few times and then put up. His parents had bought it for him and you could tell he loved it. They cleaned on it and put bore butter in the barrels (you can probably see where this is going)

So I head back over to my inlaws for a while and I get another call.

"My gun won't shoot"

So I head back over. His dad has never used a sidelock and didn't know what was going on. I put a couple caps through it and nothing. Then poured a little powder under the nipple and it went off. So I had them pour some powder in and shoot a cap. it was hit and miss. As we talked they told me about thier cleaning it. I told them to go give it a bath. Hot soapy water until its clean. He did and it made all the difference. So I told him I'd take take him Saturday morning. I got over to his house about 5:30 and he was ready. So we headed to my stand. I had hung a hang on next to my ladder stand. I climb up first and strap in and then he comes up. After it gets light I see some deer behind us in the neighbors field. I tell him and he looks over. One doe... no two ....no threee... a bounch of deer. The are headed away unfortunatly then turn and cross over the back of our property at about 120 yards. There were about 10-12 of them.To far for his new muzzleloader (well for him anyway) So we sit and watch hoping they will come towards us eventualy. The go out and bed down nearly 200 yards away. We watch them or that area for an hour or so when we see them trot away out the back side of the property. A few minutes later I hear Chris say "Buck!" He's looking at a buck 250 yards away near the does we saw. So we watch these deer feed across the back of the property well out of range and then the buck followed them across and even grunted for us. Later we saw a few more beded nothing close.

So later I'm looking behind us and see movement. Its turkeys. I Grab Chris's gun and tell him to stand up and turn around. It would be worth it. He stands up and turns around gets to see about 30 turkey walk within 50 yards of us. I remebered my camera and snaped a couple pics and a video I'll try to attach. I've never seen turkey on this land but I had heard them that morning. All and al we had a great hunt and Chris had a blast.

Chris in the field we saw the does bed in.

The turkey video.

So my daugter had been after me to go out and I had planned to take her Saturday afternoon. I wasn't feeling good so I toled her I would take her Sunday. Sunday morning was about 20 degrees. Too cold for Caitlynn. She slept in and we went out in the afternoon. I asked her if she wanted to be on the ground or in a tree. She wanted to be in a tree. So back to the same stand we went. Almost imediatly she says she sees deer but way off. I don't see them but its way out of her range (40 yards) She's hunting with an older inline of mine. For a while we sit andweonly see the neighbors going in tohunt. It was a great day weather wise. Fairly warm(for December) andpartly cloudy, no wind at all. Just perfect. After a while of sitting seeing nothing My daughter is looking at the ground. I hear two grunts out in front of us maybe 50 yards. To thick that way to see so Iwisper to her to get her head up. She looks up and in about a minute I see movement. Two does. I tell her to slowly stand up and get ready. She does and the does are closing fast now they are 20 yards. I tell her to shoot the first doe. Then I see him working through the brush. A nice8point. "wait" I say "there is a buck." She see's him to and is on him. The buck is now at 15 yards the does are closer. She wispers "Daddy I can't get the safety off" I'm hugging the tree trying not to move. She try several times and I have to reach over and do it for her. BUSTED The does caught me and bolted taking the Buck with them. I bleat to stop him and he puts the brakes on. Unfortuntaly he stops facing straight away. I had trained her for a broadside shot and she didn't have that and wouldn't shoot. I'm so proud of her for doing it right. Man how bad I wanted to make the shot for her. I loved the whole experience. She's told everyone she's seen and keeps telling me about it too. I think she may be hooked! LOL

Thanks for reading and sharing in my two hunts. While we didn't bring home a deer either time the hunts were very succesfull in my eyes.

My daughter after the hunt.