Hi,
Yesterday was the opening day for Muzzle Loading guns. It started out cool (about 45 degrees), cloudy and with a breeze. My tree stand was set up to put me in the best position should there be a wind, so I felt pretty good at the outset. Yesterday was before the clock change. I did not have to get up until 4am. Today if I were hunting I would have to get up at 3am. That's just a bit to early for my liking. Any way, you do what you have to. We had a nice breakfast of fried eggs and toast, then headed out to pick up my father-in-law. We arrived at the hunting property around 6am. 30 minutes before sunrise would be at 7:10am. We had plenty of time to get out to our stands and set up for the hunt.
I got in my tree stand and settled down at about 7 o'clock. I was watching mostly the area where I expected the deer to walk through after being in the fields overnight. I was also scanning in the deep woods in case deer were walking around there too. It was just getting light when I spotted a deer body, standing broad side to me coming from the deep woods, headed towards the fields. At first I was not sure if I was seeing an optical illusion, those that you get during this time of dawn. I pulled up my binoculars to verify my sighting. Sure enough it was a deer. Just standing. Not grazing, not moving, just standing there. I had to check my watch to make sure it was after legal shooting time. It was by 5 minutes. I slowly raised my gun, taking the safety off. From my bow hunting at this stand, I knew the spot the deer was standing at was about 50 to 60 yards away. Chip shot for the muzzle loader, if I did my job right this would be a good hit. I aimed and shot. It disappeared! In the dawn light and the flash of the gun, I did not see what happened to the deer. But, about 10 seconds later I heard a crash sound in the leaves about 50 yards from where I shot. Somewhere behind a big thicket I was expecting to find the deer. It was so thick that even with the binoculars I could not see through it to locate the deer. I was fairly confident that I made a good shot.
I waited about 45 minutes in the tree stand before tracking the deer. When I got out of the stand I walked over to the location where the deer was standing. I found a bit of blood on a leaf. I tried to track the blood trail but there was not much to track. I walked slowly, scanning for the blood trail, and looking ahead to see if I could spot a body. It did not take long, I was looking ahead I saw the deer on the ground. Wow, was she a big doe. I had a lung shot, she did not make it far. I called my husband to let him know my good news. He was going to continue hunting until about 10am then he would come over and help me with the doe.
He was hunting a field edge and creek when around 9:30am a 7 point buck came his way. He had about a 30 yard shot. The deer ran full out, oh, maybe about 40 yards total, but always with in sight. Bruce saw the deer fall. No tracking needed.
My father-in-law was not so lucky. Bruce had his dad stand where he had just shot. One reason Bruce wanted Jim at that spot was to keep an eye on the downed deer, and two, to continue hunting while Bruce came over to where I was. While we were getting my deer gutted and put into the pickup truck, we heard Jim shoot. When we got back to Jim, maybe 30 minutes after the shot, we found out that Jim had missed a doe. Oh, well, it happens.
By the time we got Bruce's deer gutted and in the truck the winds had picked up considerably. This very windy condition makes the deer very weary. They will not move unless pushed. They cannot hear very well with the wind howling, so they typically stay put. We had planned on hunting the whole day but the wind made us change our minds. It was after 12:30pm, We decided to call it a day.
Monday (tomorrow), we will be back out there for an afternoon hunt. We have already decided where we will put my father-in-law, and hope for the best. I'll let you know how that hunt turns out.
Take care, good hunting and good shooting.
M.
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