The date was Nov.20,1994.

On this day I decided to hunt with my T/C Hawken .50 cal muzzleloader instead of a shotgun. It's a decision I regret to this day.I had just recently acquired this muzzleloader and wanted to take a deer with it.While I had not hunted in the rain with it......it had been left in my truck for a week during which it had rained once or twice.

On the morning of the 20th,I climbed into the ladderstand of my best friends dad[my mentor]with his blessing and advice.
He was a diehard deer hunter and told me this was ''THE SPOT'' to take a big one.The stand was located on the edge of a 20 acre logged out woods that was thick with briars and honeysuckle.

I had been in the stand for an hour or so when out of the corner of my eye I see movement off to my right ! OH MY GOD !!! 40 yds. away stands the 2nd biggest buck I have ever seen :!: He would take a few slow steps and stop,scanning the area ahead of him.I was off to his left and he was broadside to me so I slowly turned and got a good rest and eased the hammer back while holding the trigger back so it wouldn't click.I drew a bead right behind his shoulder and squeezed the trigger......SPLAT.....the #11 cap fired....the gun didn't. The monster buck of my dreams slowly turned and walked out of my life forever as I scrambled to get another cap on the nipple. I think I may have cried a little as I sat thinking about what happened.The powder must have drew some moisture sitting in my truck during the week.My friends nicknamed me SPLAT after that.Lesson learned !

3 days later a 15 yr.old boy killed the buck less than a mile away.He was a 12 pt. weighed 203 lbs. and had an inside spread of 23 inches.WOW !

I hope you enjoyed my story.It hurts to think about it even after all these years.
Heres a pic of the '' one that got away ''.

You learned a good lesson that day...

When hunting with a muzzleloader it's best to reload every day
and make sure you have all the oils and grease out of the barrel
so it doesn't contaminate your powder...

Yuuuup!!! Those Muzzleloaders can be very fussy. I have learned this the hard way, by not keeping my powder dry enough. That was a monster buck by the way.

I think we have all had experiences like that. About 15 years ago I was hunting on opening day of our gun season. A medium sized six that I had passed three times during the bow season came past just after sunrise. I decided this deer must have a death wish so I shot him. He did the mule kick and ran off about 60 yds and went down. I decided to sit there for 30min and then go get him. After about 15min the largest buck I have ever seen stepped into the same spot where I had just shot the first one. He was so large his rack looked disproportional to his body. I'm telling you it was very tempting to squeeze the trigger but that wouldn't have been legal. He stayed around about ten minutes and finally went back the way he came from. I sat there another 15 min (crying) and then got down to get the other buck. Guess what, I never found him. There was alot of blood where I saw him go down and I tracked him for another 200 yards or so before the blood ran out in a picked bean field. Don't know what happened to him or where he went but that was a day I'll never forget.

Blessings......Pastorjim