I had a good morning this past Saturday. I had my first double and almost limited out on does for the day in the CWD zone. Three shots fired from my new CVA Optima V2. I am shooting 100 grains of Hodgdon Triple 7 pellets with 250 gr. Powerbelt Aerolites.
First deer came out at around 100 yards walking away. She turned broadside at about 140 yards, and I fired. The smoke was thick and hung. I did not see the deer move at all. She was in the middle of a bushhogged lane cut in a CRP field. I hoped she had dropped right in her tracks, but that hope was soon shattered. This was right around 7:30. I decided I would wait until 8:30 and get down to see what happened.
Just before 8:30 things got a little crazy. Had a doe and fawn come out of the CRP into the same lane I shot at the doe earlier. They worked straight to me until they got to around 80 yards. The doe turned broadside. I fired. She took a few steps to my right into the CRP then came back out into the lane. She took a few more steps and fell belly up. I sat for a few seconds and decided to reload. As I was loading, another doe walked out 2 lanes over. She was very calm, so I took my time, aimed, and fired. She hunched up and took off into the CRP she came from. I saw he jump easily 5 feet once then nothing else. I watched the lanes on either side of the CRP to see if she came out headed for the woods for about 10 minutes. Nothing. The only other options were that she was laying up in the CRP or she ran a couple hundred yards back up to the other end into the woods there.
One of my best friends was hunting his farm about 20 minutes away. He was done for the morning since the wind had switched up on him. I asked if he had time to come down and help me search. I got down around 9:00 and walked out to the sites of the first and third shots. No blood, no hair, no sign. I got my stuff together and went back to the gate to wait on my buddy. We got back in there after 9:30 and started grid searching. Absolutely no sign of the first deer. Never found a drop of blood or a hair. We looked on both sides of the lane and on the far end of it. I can only hope it was a clean miss. Then we started looking for the third deer. Same thing. No blood, no hair, nothing. I had a little more to go on because I did see her after the shot and at least knew she had stayed in the CRP. We started gridding it out. I had given up after about an hour and began to doubt what I thought I saw. I looked over at my buddy to see that he was still searching hard. So I decided to keep walking and praying. I took maybe another 5 steps, and there she was, belly up. It turned out that she was within 40 yards of the point of impact and probably died less than 30 seconds after I pulled the trigger. That CRP and no trail made it almost impossible to find her. Both kills were complete pass throughs with very little expansion.
I have only killed half a dozen deer with the muzzleloader. Only 1 dropped where shot. One really had a substantial blood trail. The others were all mediocre to no blood trails. My friend that came out to help Saturday has nearly 40 years experience with muzzleloaders and lamented that this is a common issue with them.
What do you all think? Do I need to bump up to 150 grains of powder? Different bullets? Just accept that this is the world of "primitive" weapons? Thanks for reading all of this!
First deer came out at around 100 yards walking away. She turned broadside at about 140 yards, and I fired. The smoke was thick and hung. I did not see the deer move at all. She was in the middle of a bushhogged lane cut in a CRP field. I hoped she had dropped right in her tracks, but that hope was soon shattered. This was right around 7:30. I decided I would wait until 8:30 and get down to see what happened.
Just before 8:30 things got a little crazy. Had a doe and fawn come out of the CRP into the same lane I shot at the doe earlier. They worked straight to me until they got to around 80 yards. The doe turned broadside. I fired. She took a few steps to my right into the CRP then came back out into the lane. She took a few more steps and fell belly up. I sat for a few seconds and decided to reload. As I was loading, another doe walked out 2 lanes over. She was very calm, so I took my time, aimed, and fired. She hunched up and took off into the CRP she came from. I saw he jump easily 5 feet once then nothing else. I watched the lanes on either side of the CRP to see if she came out headed for the woods for about 10 minutes. Nothing. The only other options were that she was laying up in the CRP or she ran a couple hundred yards back up to the other end into the woods there.
One of my best friends was hunting his farm about 20 minutes away. He was done for the morning since the wind had switched up on him. I asked if he had time to come down and help me search. I got down around 9:00 and walked out to the sites of the first and third shots. No blood, no hair, no sign. I got my stuff together and went back to the gate to wait on my buddy. We got back in there after 9:30 and started grid searching. Absolutely no sign of the first deer. Never found a drop of blood or a hair. We looked on both sides of the lane and on the far end of it. I can only hope it was a clean miss. Then we started looking for the third deer. Same thing. No blood, no hair, nothing. I had a little more to go on because I did see her after the shot and at least knew she had stayed in the CRP. We started gridding it out. I had given up after about an hour and began to doubt what I thought I saw. I looked over at my buddy to see that he was still searching hard. So I decided to keep walking and praying. I took maybe another 5 steps, and there she was, belly up. It turned out that she was within 40 yards of the point of impact and probably died less than 30 seconds after I pulled the trigger. That CRP and no trail made it almost impossible to find her. Both kills were complete pass throughs with very little expansion.
I have only killed half a dozen deer with the muzzleloader. Only 1 dropped where shot. One really had a substantial blood trail. The others were all mediocre to no blood trails. My friend that came out to help Saturday has nearly 40 years experience with muzzleloaders and lamented that this is a common issue with them.
What do you all think? Do I need to bump up to 150 grains of powder? Different bullets? Just accept that this is the world of "primitive" weapons? Thanks for reading all of this!
