My season in VA got off to a really slow start. Hunted a few times in bow season to bag a couple of does. Finally got one but very little doe action. Not much deer movement with all the acorns, saw a few younger bucks on the move.
Then Early Muzzleloader opened last weekend and it was the worst opener I've ever seen. Hunted all weekend and saw a doe and a fawn. Hot weather shut them down.
I was able to hunt yesterday. I hunted a stand that has done very well for me the last couple years. It is a funnel where to large blocks of timber neck down to an hour glass funnel that's about 30 yards wide, but very thick. On the sides is a pond and cow pasture. Deer can come from any direction and on a good day you can see 20 deer. Killed some nice bucks here.
Yesterday morning the deer were moving but it was so windy I couldn't hear anything. A buck moved through my shooting lane but I didn't get him stopped and had no time shoot. Then a doe same thing.
I came back in the afternoon and it was very pretty, warm and sunny. Slight breeze. After a couple of quiet hours I stood up and took a leak. Barely got finished when I heard a deer coming toward my shooting lane. Looked to be a good buck, I got him stopped and took the shot...he looked to go forward across the lane into a thicket in front of me. I did not see him come out (this is the narrow part of the funnel) so I figured he must be dead right there.
I really didn't have time to think about it much when another shooter buck comes crashing down the hill from the opposite direction and stops in the thicket 35 yards in front of me. Now he can't see me and I can't seem him. Somehow I get my muzzleloader re-loaded, except for the cap. Now he starts walking and I'm trying get a cap out. He crosses my shooting lane just as I'm putting the cap on, and when I'm ready to shoot he is now in the thick stuff on the other side. I tried to call him back into the open but that didn't work.
Now this is the most action I've ever had in such a short period. I wait ten minutes and climb down to get my buck. I am certain I shot him about 1/2 way down a 100 yard shooting lane, and that he is dead somewhere in the thicket in front of me. But when I climb down, I can't find blood and he is nowhere in that thicket. I spent 45 minutes looking, searching through the funnel and up the wooded hillside where the other buck came from. Nothing. This is crazy.
I go back and search on the other side of the shooting lane, even though I saw him cross it to the side searched after the shot. Still nothing. I climb back up in the stand to confirm where he came out. Yep right there at 50 yards.
Well, thank goodness I expanded by search all the way to the end of the shooting lane, because that is where I found blood, at about 90 yards with a clumb of hair.....right where he was standing. Easy blood trail to follow. He crossed the shooting lane at as the shot as I had seen, but looped around it and circled back in the thick stuff at the end of the lane, where I didn't see him. Went a few more yards and dropped right there. Probably dead in less than 10 seconds.
Good thing I didn't shoot the second buck or I may never have found the first. Somehow the adrenaline of the situation caused me to completely misremember important details. Crazy but I almost didn't find that buck even though it should have been a very easy track. I made assumptions based on details I had misremember and was completely wrong about it.
Anyway this was my main target buck. Lots of pics since this past summer. I had estimated him to be 130" plus, but he only came to 115". That's not a big deal to me but I also though he was fully mature based on the body appearance in the photos. But the jawbone looks like a fresh young 2 year old. Not sure how to reconcile that.
Here's some summertime pics from the stand, trail cam photos of the buck, and the jawbone.
Shooting lane front/right.
Pond to the left:
Straight ahead
Then Early Muzzleloader opened last weekend and it was the worst opener I've ever seen. Hunted all weekend and saw a doe and a fawn. Hot weather shut them down.
I was able to hunt yesterday. I hunted a stand that has done very well for me the last couple years. It is a funnel where to large blocks of timber neck down to an hour glass funnel that's about 30 yards wide, but very thick. On the sides is a pond and cow pasture. Deer can come from any direction and on a good day you can see 20 deer. Killed some nice bucks here.
Yesterday morning the deer were moving but it was so windy I couldn't hear anything. A buck moved through my shooting lane but I didn't get him stopped and had no time shoot. Then a doe same thing.
I came back in the afternoon and it was very pretty, warm and sunny. Slight breeze. After a couple of quiet hours I stood up and took a leak. Barely got finished when I heard a deer coming toward my shooting lane. Looked to be a good buck, I got him stopped and took the shot...he looked to go forward across the lane into a thicket in front of me. I did not see him come out (this is the narrow part of the funnel) so I figured he must be dead right there.
I really didn't have time to think about it much when another shooter buck comes crashing down the hill from the opposite direction and stops in the thicket 35 yards in front of me. Now he can't see me and I can't seem him. Somehow I get my muzzleloader re-loaded, except for the cap. Now he starts walking and I'm trying get a cap out. He crosses my shooting lane just as I'm putting the cap on, and when I'm ready to shoot he is now in the thick stuff on the other side. I tried to call him back into the open but that didn't work.
Now this is the most action I've ever had in such a short period. I wait ten minutes and climb down to get my buck. I am certain I shot him about 1/2 way down a 100 yard shooting lane, and that he is dead somewhere in the thicket in front of me. But when I climb down, I can't find blood and he is nowhere in that thicket. I spent 45 minutes looking, searching through the funnel and up the wooded hillside where the other buck came from. Nothing. This is crazy.
I go back and search on the other side of the shooting lane, even though I saw him cross it to the side searched after the shot. Still nothing. I climb back up in the stand to confirm where he came out. Yep right there at 50 yards.
Well, thank goodness I expanded by search all the way to the end of the shooting lane, because that is where I found blood, at about 90 yards with a clumb of hair.....right where he was standing. Easy blood trail to follow. He crossed the shooting lane at as the shot as I had seen, but looped around it and circled back in the thick stuff at the end of the lane, where I didn't see him. Went a few more yards and dropped right there. Probably dead in less than 10 seconds.
Good thing I didn't shoot the second buck or I may never have found the first. Somehow the adrenaline of the situation caused me to completely misremember important details. Crazy but I almost didn't find that buck even though it should have been a very easy track. I made assumptions based on details I had misremember and was completely wrong about it.
Anyway this was my main target buck. Lots of pics since this past summer. I had estimated him to be 130" plus, but he only came to 115". That's not a big deal to me but I also though he was fully mature based on the body appearance in the photos. But the jawbone looks like a fresh young 2 year old. Not sure how to reconcile that.
Here's some summertime pics from the stand, trail cam photos of the buck, and the jawbone.
Shooting lane front/right.
Pond to the left:
Straight ahead
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