2011 MN Muzzleloader Buck
I am going to try and not be long winded on this one. I shot this beautiful mainframe 10 pt (2 stickers also) with 40 minutes of light left on the 10th day of a 10 day hunt that I refer to as The Grind. The first 7 days I spent with the bow in hand and the last 3 our gun season opened up so I turned to the Muzzleloader. I had a tough, but what I consider a very successful archery hunt that week. I had great success in 2 new stands that I had put up in the offseason. I had picked these spots while shed hunting in the spring and they were great to say the least. I had an encounter 3 different times and elected to pass on a great 140ish 10 pt. My brother (Peewee) was able to harvest that buck on the same day that I got mine and I couldn't be happier for him. Great buck Aaron! I also had a lot of other great encounters and walked away from those 7 days feeling tired, but also successful even though I didn't harvest a buck.
Then Gun Season was upon us and I felt like a new human walking into the woods with my Muzzleloader. The opening weekend was warm, but the 15-30 mph constant south wind both days was disgusting to say the least. There were guys that were still able to harvest big bucks those two days, but the deer movement was absolutely nothing like a normal opening weekend. I had to go back to work on Tuesday and when I woke up Monday morning with close to perfect hunting conditions I was pumped...........not so fast, only saw 3 small bucks and a few doe and came out of the woods at 11 am for lunch and a mental break. During this break I was able to go see my brother's buck, which he had just shot, and that was a good way to get me excited to get back out there.
I got settled in at 1:30 pm and was a little displeased with a shifting wind that was sending my scent exactly to where I expected deer to come from. At about 3:00 I could hear deep grunts and chasing quite a ways off...probably at least 200 yards away. For the next hour and a half it felt like I was reeling in a 30 lb Northern Pike on a Snoopy pole. I was throwing everything in my bag at these deer and would hear a grunt and a little chasing about every 15 minutes. I even rattled once and all that did was bring two fawns in to about 30 yards and they just stayed there FOREVER and ate acorns. I believe this was actually a good thing, because it stopped me from doing anymore calling. They only thing I did was at about 4 pm when I sprayed a little more estrous scent into the air (I bet you thought I was going to say Nose Jammer).
Finally about about 4:20 I could hear a deer coming up the hill towards me and it turned out to be a large doe and she was walking right at me. Shortly after her, I saw 2 more large doe and they spread out a little bit on different trails and that's when I heard a deep grunt coming from the same direction. To me, it looked like this buck had these doe separate on different trails and they were supposed to go check things out for him. It didn't take long and the first doe was standing at 30 yds direct downwind and was staring right at me. Right about at the same time the buck stepped out of the brush at about 130 yards and I could see his rack without any help from my binoculars. I instantly thought Shooter but slowly checked with my binoculars and confirmed Definite Shooter. Up ahead of the buck I only had about 20 yards to work with to get a shot and with this doe staring me down I made a move. I slowly got my muzzleloader up and she obviously saw me move. She took off running straight down the hill at about the same time I got the buck in my sights. He actually started walking slightly uphill towards me and then turned right and went right into the shooting lane I was hoping for. It was a risk/reward move, but I felt it had to be done. I was guessing and hoping that he wouldn't know what was spooking the doe and give me that split second to make a shot. After the smoke cleared I put my binoculars up and didn't see a thing. For a few minutes there I didn't even know if I hit him. I reloaded and slowly worked my way down the 120 yards and didn't find any hair or blood, but did find the buck just over the edge of the hill. He went about 30 yards in total. When I walked up to him I said to myself, "give me a second folks, let me put this Thompson Center down" and grabbed onto the rack and smiled. What an end to a 10 day grind.
I'd like to thank Franny for gutting him out for me too. That is only the second deer that anyone has ever gut for me and you are more than welcome to come again next year. It was kind of fun watching you do it. haha
The downfall of an evening kill was no daylight photos. I am going try and get some tomorrow when I take him to the taxidermist, but may be a little stiff. I did a rough score, but will have someone else score him to make sure I didn't mess up. Here are a few pics. Good luck to you all the rest of the season.
MNML2.jpg
MNML1.jpg
MNML3.jpg
MNML4.jpg
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Stump
Hoyt Maxxis 31Bone Collector Edition-QAD Ultra HD-HHA-AI AS
