Enough already, let's see some muzzy hunting pics, and stories!
I knew this buck was around because we had found a big 4 point shed off of him.Thought I had him in my sites during rifle season, he and another buck had dropped into heavy cover in a big deep draw. I saw a heavy beam and front shoulder and pulled the trigger of my stw. Down he went.
I could see two deer making thier way up through the draw below me, I was devastated when the buck i was after popped out on the top with a hot doe..ugh!
The buck i'd shot was no slouch but it wasnt him.
Here's a pic of my mom helping get him out of that draw.
But lucky for me I had drawn my first muzzleloader tag and borrowed my brothers TC.
Season opener came and it was really cold, I sat in a blind down in the bottom where three big draws met making a hub, very close to where the shed was found actually.
With about a half hour of legal light left he came cruising through at about 100 yards through the fresh snow.
I bleated to stop him and put the cross hair of the one power scope on him pretty much completely covering him..wth.
Tried to calm myself and pulled the trigger. When the smoke cleared he was no where around, no way I could have missed. Walked out and looked around the snow and his tracks...nothing..ugh again!
Went back to the folks place that night and had maybe one more rum than I should have had trying to erase the two bad memories of these encounters.
Next morning the alarm came early, looked at the thermometer and it read something like -20..ugh again.
I contemplated not even going out, for one thing he'd just been shot at and was probably in the next county and the other thing was that it was fricken cold!
But you can't kill them on the couch is what i always tell my boys so i bundled up and off I went into the darkness.
The sun couldn't rise fast enough, not gonna lie I was fricken cold. I started to rattle and grunt some and to my surprise a smaller buck ran out right in front of me at 50 yards looking for the action. All the sudden he swung his head and stared at something way to my right. I peaked out that window and it was him at like 40 yards right on the timbers edge standing between two trees looking my way!
It was now or never so I slowly slid the smokepole out the window, but I'm right handed and he was way right of my window. Great shot if your a lefty, all I could think of doing was rotating the gun completely sideways..there he was still standing there staring right at me! Cooked the hammer back put the crosshair right in the middle of him and pulled the trigger hoping it would even work! When the smoke cleared there he laid, stone dead right in his tracks still between those two trees!
All of the sudden it wasn't one bit cold. And with longest beams of 27.5 inches and 13 inch G2s,I had taken one of my best bucks to date!
Here was a clip of him alive I took through the spotter with the old flip phone, not the best but you get the idea of what he looked like on the hoof.