Since being given permission to hunt this property, I've been writing up my experiences and sending them to the owner, sort of a "here's what's going on" since they're an absentee landowner. Here's what I sent him for the last 2 days of the muzzleloader season.
Saturdays report:
I was standing on the North trail, on top of the ridge where the house will go. In the low area to the West, I noticed 5 does walking South, followed by what seemed to be 2 bucks. I had ranged a tree along the trail that was the end of a clear shooting lane, and it was 78 Yds away. The does continued on to your property, and stopped under a couple of Oak trees that were about 60 Yds away to paw for acorns. The bucks followed until they were just on the trail, then the larger one (I think it was a 10 pt) stopped behind a tree at about 70 Yds, and the smaller one (8 pt) that I nicknamed Clown (because it seems that it has a lot of white around the eyes) continued East on the trail towards me. I wanted to wait until the older 10 pt gave me a shot, but it wouldn’t budge from behind the tree. Clown continued walking towards me on the trail. It got to within to what I thought was 30 Yds, and stopped to paw at some acorns. I thought that if it continued and the bigger one didn’t show itself, that I would need to take Clown because he’d smell me in another 10 Yds or less. Well, Clown continued to walk and noticed me standing there. I had the gun up on the shooting sticks and as he started to get nervous I pulled the trigger. He whirled and ran off. WTH???? I watched him run down the trail to the West and out of sight. All the other deer ran off at the shot as well. I raised the binoculars and looked at where he was standing. There was a 2” dead oak branch that looked like it had a funny mark. I walked to where he was standing and sure enough, the bullet hit the branch and must have deflected. I went to where he was standing – no blood or hair. I followed his tracks down the trail until he went off of the property. No sign of any blood. Dejected, even though there was about 15 minutes of shooting light left, I headed for the car.
Sunday:
I was there in the same spot an hour before sunrise (1/2 hr before legal shooting light) and watched the woods awaken around me. Squirrels came out of their nests to greet the new day and start searching for food, Tufted Titmice flitted from tree to tree looking for bugs over wintering in the bark, Slate Colored Juncos flew from grass stem to grass stem looking for seeds and Chickadees flitted from tree to tree. No deer. After standing there for another hour in the 6°F cold, I decided to go home for a cup of coffee, let Kate out and shoot the ML to see why it shot so low the previous night. After getting a cup of coffee and warming up a bit I set a target out at 100 Yds and shot the ML. It shot about 4” low. ??????? I had it sighted in at 2” high at the start of the season and checked it a roughly 2 weeks ago and it was right on at 100 Yds. Oh well, today is the last day, I’ll remember where it’s shooting and diagnose it later.
I’m back to your place shortly after 10:00 a.m. and since the wind is out of the West/South West, decide to still hunt (walk very slowly thru the woods, stopping to look with the binoculars every 5 steps or so for any deer) directly East, walking due East on the South side of the opening around Pond #3. It’s 12°F out, but as long as I’m slowly walking I’m staying warm enough to have my jacket mostly unzipped so I don’t build up too much heat and start to sweat.
As I’m about even with Pond #3, I notice a deer about 30 yds in the woods to the NE of Pond #3. Now where did THAT deer come from? It wasn’t there 5 steps ago! The deer is looking right at me, so I slowly grab the rangefinder. 173 Yds to the trees. The deer is behind a few small trees and doesn’t offer a clear shot, but if it walks about 3 steps forward it’ll be in the clear. We look at each other for about 10 minutes then I feel the wind on the back of my neck. Rats. It takes a few minutes, but my scent finally gets to the deer and she runs off to the West, taking the yearling with her and 7 MORE deer that I never saw. One buck and 6 does. They were bedded down right inside the woods. Crap. That just might be the end of the season right there. It looks like they ran thru the whole property, probably scaring any other deer that were there.
I decide that I probably should still continue on with the plan, so I still hunted to the East edge of the property, then turned North to the North edge, then back West. I walked by two different Fox Squirrels that were extremely unhappy that I was invading their turf. They scolded me until I moved out of their area. I found where some deer were bedding down on the high points of the property, and they were really pawing up the leaves on the ridges looking for acorns. They weren’t doing that on the low ground, so I thought I would continue to look at the higher ground. I continued slowly working my way thru the woods until I reached the spot that I was standing at yesterday. I’m feeling a bit warm and sweaty, so I take off my coat and unzip the bibs and let the moisture that’s built up evaporate until I cool down. Still mentally kicking myself for muffing the shot at the buck, I broke a couple of small twigs out of the way and get dressed. I double check the distances, ranging a couple of trees to make sure of the yardage, shuffled my feet to pack the snow down that I was standing on, and settled in to look and wait until the season ended. No chair, I’ll stand just like yesterday so I can have a good 360° view.
I watched a Pileated Woodpecker work a dead Sassafras Tree, and the Tufted Titmice were out in force. At about 4:00 I noticed 4 deer walking from the South towards the Oak Trees that are SSW of the house pad. They’re about 80 to 90 yds away, so I put the Muzzleloader up on the shooting sticks and watched. 3 of the deer stopped by the Oaks, but one continued to walk thru the woods right towards me. It was a small yearling, about 70 pounds, about the size of a standard German Shepard. I really didn’t want to shoot it but if it continued it’d walk right into me, spooking the rest of the deer. I figured that 30-40 pound of venison was better than nothing. As it continued to walk, I kept mentally telling it to stop. It finally found some acorns and stopped to feed, luckily it was behind a couple of trees. The trees were at 11 and 16 Yds, but they were positioned so they blocked the deer from seeing me. Now the waiting game began. Would the other deer continue to walk to where this one was, or would this one walk out from behind the tree and spot me, spooking the rest of the deer?
I kept the gun pointed to the right of the trees, so I could move it to the deer if it walked out to the left, or move it slightly to the right if the other deer walked up. I have my mitten on my right hand folded back so my fingers are exposed, and they’re getting numb from the cold. The largest deer of the group noticed the one closest to me, and started walking closer, with another little one in tow. I watched her walk towards me with one eye, keeping an eye on the trees to make sure the closest deer didn’t step out and bust me. The deer kept walking closer and closer, all the time she was behind enough brush that I didn’t want to shoot for fear of having the bullet deflected again. She finally stopped, and about that time she looked right at me. Immediately she went on alert. Head picked up high, ears pointed forward. By this time I have the gun on her, and I’m looking thru the scope at her. She takes a stiff legged step closer, now she has a small tree right in front of her. She’s still looking right at me as I slowly lean a teeny tiny bit to the left. That slight movement was enough. She stomped her foot once, twice, and with that I squeezed the trigger. She dropped immediately at the shot and after one ear twitch, she never moved again. She died on her feet, and her legs folded up neatly beneath her as she went down, so she almost looked as if she were laying down. I ranged her, and she was at 24 Yds. The yearling that walked up with her stood there for a minute, then whirled and ran off. The other yearling that was closest to me ran off as well. I ranged where that yearling was standing, and it was right at 18 Yds.
Can you see the deer in the pic? The 3 trees that are grouped tightly together just to the left of center are the trees the yearling was standing behind when I shot.
What about now?
I look at the time, and there's still 35 minutes left in the season. I figure that I don’t have anything to lose, so I reload the muzzleloader and continue to watch the area.
20 minutes later I see a lone deer walking down the same trail that the previous 4 deer used, but by this time I was tired of holding the gun and I had it on my slung over my shoulder. This deer, at about 70-80 Yds hears the sling scraping on my coat and stops, staring right at me. I freeze with the gun about half off of my shoulder and the deer stares and stares. It does the old “I’m going to pretend that I’m feeding but I’m jerking my head up to look as soon as my nose touches the snow” game, and we play that for a few minutes. Finally she puts her head down for good and I can get the gun the rest of the way off of my shoulder. Once it’s off my shoulder, the sling is free to move around and it does, but one of the sling swivels squeaks a slight metal on metal sound. Not good. Her head is up, looking right at me. She raises her tail, and stamps her foot a few times. I can’t see her head, so I can slowly rest the muzzle of the gun against the tree ‘cause it’s getting really, really heavy by now. She takes a few stiff legged steps towards me, tail up all the time, and finally turns and walks away. Not really spooked, but not liking what she heard. With 15 minutes left in the season I figure the game is up, but I move the shooting sticks, rest the Savage on it, and dig out my grunt call. (Bucks grunt at each other and at Does as a form of communication) I figure what the hell, maybe she’ll think it was another deer and not run off, spooking any other deer that might be nearby.
I grunt at her a few times, but I can’t see her because of the brush. I wait a minute and grunt a few more times. Another minute or so goes by and I see a deer walking very slowly towards me from the direction that she was in. The deer walks to the North trail, and turns to walk towards me. I put the grunt call back inside my jacket, move the shooting sticks and put the gun on them. The deer isn’t moving, having stopped on the other side of some thick brush. I grunt at it again, this time keeping the call inside my jacket to muffle it as if the deer is moving away. It works, and the deer starts moving towards me again, staying on the trail.
It walks past the tree that I ranged at 78 Yds, and stops, looking directly at me. It’s partially hidden by a large Oak Tree that’s about 20 Yds from me. As it faces me, all I can see is its’ head, neck, left front leg and shoulder. It has got me, and I can’t move. Damn, the fingers on my right hand are starting to get numb. It’s COLD out now! There’s no way that the deer is coming any closer after being spooked with the noise that I made before. I can’t move at all, or it’s gone. I think back to when I saw that huge buck earlier in the season; why I didn’t shoot because of the bullet/sabot having to skim the trunk of the tree, but I figure that the season is about over, and if it is deflected, then it’ll be a clean miss. I remember where the bullet hit at 100 Yds earlier in the day, so I aim for its’ neck and start to squeeze the trigger. I start to jerk the trigger and anticipate the recoil, moving the crosshairs off of the deer. LET GO OF THE TRIGGER!!!!! I get off of the trigger in time, take a few deep breaths, let half of the last one out and start the trigger squeeze again. The gun goes off and the deer drops straight down. Even though the deer is dead, I reload because I’ve had a “dead” deer get up and run off once before. I look at the time, 5 minutes left in the season. I’ll just stand here, put my mitten back on because my hand is really cold now, and wait the last 5 minutes.
Nope, nothing is moving now, so season is over. I remove the primer. Hang the gun on the shooting sticks and go tag the deer. It turns out that the last doe that I shot wasn’t a doe, it was a button buck. Damn. Oh well, it’ll get checked as an antlerless deer anyway.
I put the transportation tags on the deer, walk back, grab the gun and shooting sticks, and head to the car. When I get to the car I look at the thermometer. No wonder why my fingers were cold, it’s 6°F out!
I’ve got to run back to the house, grab the trailer and the 4-wheeler, come back and get the deer.
Now it’s time to weigh the deer and field dress them. I’m not looking forward to this, it’s not getting any warmer out and my hands will be frozen by the time I’m done.
The button buck weighs 90#-95# live weight, and the doe weighs 140#. They’ll get checked in tomorrow. Both deer were dead on their feet and didn't twitch once they were on the ground. Both deer went straight down, their legs folded under them as they went down, looking like they had bedded down for the night. That's the way that I prefer to shoot them, no tracking required.
