Well this will be my third season hunting and my first succesful season. I hunt in all areas of Ohio (Athens, Knox, Delaware counties) and have never harvested a deer until now. I bow hunt and never got a chance to get one. But opening day of gun season I took a friends muzzleloader out. I sat in a stand on the edge of a cut corn field when an old hunter who had permission kicked me out of the stand claiming it was "his" but I didn't argue. I sat on the edge of another field and at 7:38 popped this buck with the muzzleloader. I knew it wasn't a great shot because he ran so far and quick but I had a blood trail. I waited about an hour and accidentally kicked him up when I walked in the woods. He stood behind a tree but never moved. I didn't want to spook him again so I sat put and tried to reload. Somehow I lost my percussion caps and was unable to shoot him again [:@]. It was then that a neighbor came trotting through the woods with his shotgun and asked me if I had seen any deer. I told him I shot the buck and sure enough he was still standing right where he was before. He gave me his gun and I took him down. When we went to field dress himwe noticed my first shot was low and broke both of his front two legs and is the reason he didn't want to move too far.It was my first deer ever harvested and it was a wild story but I was so happy. I think the guy who helped was more excited than I was. But anyways I also got the chance to shoot this doe last day of gun season and was thrilled about that. Anways here's the pics.

congrats on your first kill!!

great story and awesome buck and doe congrats on your first

Awesome! Congrats on a great season, I hope it's a first of many!

Wow, two deer in your first successful season! That's great! congratulations and how nice it is to hear about neighbors helping neighbors rather than feuding. Awesome!

Congrats.

congrats on your first

Good deal, glad it worked out for you this time. You can't go wrong by waiting a bit to track a deer that runs off. But next time, reload the gun immediately after you shoot. Why you'd trail a deer with an unloaded gun is not clear to me, unless perhaps you had to trail on land that you don't have permission to hunt on.

Many deer are lost because hunters break one of the cardinal rules of muzzleloading.

What is the first thing you do after shooting a muzzleloader at a deer? RELOAD!!

Congrats... Nice buck and big ol doe... nice work...
Persistance pays off!

Congrats on a good season.