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December 18th Update
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After arriving Friday evening I retrieved our digital scouting camera
One of the most interesting deer was an 8 point that had a wound on it's back right above it's front legs. I told Ryan that this buck might lose its antlers early now that it was stressed by this wound. How the shot didn't take out this deer's spine is amazing. This picture was taken on Dec 7th.
Believe it or not I was right about something and after several more pictures the 8 point showed up with only one antler. A couple of pictures later you could see the antler laying on the ground right where the deer had been standing in the picture. The one antlered picture was taken on Dec 12th.
Ryan and I couldn't take it and at 8:00PM we put our warm clothes back on and headed out to get the shed antler.
A few pictures later he showed up with the other antler missing as well. It looks like he is going to survive the wound; we'll be looking for him to see how he does. The first picture after losing both antlers was Dec 14th.
If you look real close you can see one of his shed antlers lying behind them.
Another interesting thing that we found on our pictures was a picture of an 8 point buck that we hadn't seen in several weeks. This buck had been a regular earlier in the fall and was the first deer that Ryan and I had seen our first time out bowhunting this year. He was a distinctive buck since he had almost grown a ninth point and had one brow tine longer than the other. Somehow this buck had disappeared but had managed to survive. It would be interesting to know where some of these bucks go.
I got up Saturday morning and headed out to hopefully find a doe to shoot.
I dry fired a cap to make sure the breach plug was clear and then spent a good 10 minutes trying to get the expended cap off the nipple. The sun was starting to come up and there I was wrestling with that lousy cap. Finally I got it off and headed out.
As I approached the first food plot and feeder area I noticed that there were already deer there at 7:20AM. I stopped, and after they took their attention away from me I put my seat cushion down and just sat down in the middle of the road. I was about 100 yards from them.
Several deer had gathered including an 8 point, 5 point and a couple of spikes. It was difficult to see them very well through some trees.
Finally a doe stepped out on the road farther out and I, at first, thought that she was small. Then two small deer followed behind her. She started eating the tips from some limbs along the side of the road and gave me a shot opportunity at about 115 yards.
When the smoke cleared I saw her start over the hill and I thought that I had missed.
After finding the spot where I thought that she had been standing, I found a few drops of blood. Unfortunately there wasn't a good blood trail from there. I started following the most likely trail and found some tracks where the leaves were scattered. I followed this trail and found her lying about 40 or 50 yards from where I had shot her.
Believe it or not I had hit here right behind her front leg. The bullet had gone right through her heart and exited behind her far leg.
This is the first deer that I have killed with a muzzleloader after many years of trying. It was my third attempt with this CVA inline muzzleloader and I had missed on many occasions with an old 45 caliber Kentucky rifle over the years.
I have an older scope that I was thinking about putting on this muzzleloader, but maybe not just yet.
The doe weighed 85 pounds. Along with 85 pound does shot in 1997 and 2000, this is the heaviest doe that we have shot. Funny how I first thought that she was small.
I had first thought that she was relatively young but after caping her out her tooth wear showed that she was older then I had originally thought. After removing her lower jaw and brushing her teeth, my best guess is 51/2 years old and my wife is starting to think that I'm going crazy.
By Saturday evening we had her caped out and in the freezer. She may become a taxidermy project for us this winter.
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