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2005 Muzzleloader SeasonWelcome to the whitetail deer hunting season journal for December 17th. This whole week was muzzleloader season here in West Virginia. Since we didn't get an opportunity to hunt any of doe season the week before we wanted to get out in muzzleloader season. We started the weekend off, as usual, by heading out into the darkness on Friday evening to retrieve our digital scouting cameras. It was a little cold but we always look forward to seeing what shows up in the photographs. There was an interesting visitor this week. A nine point buck showed up that I don't think we have seen yet this year. He's no monster buck but he looks pretty good after so many of the bucks that we had seen all fall have disappeared. He looks a lot like an eight point buck that we had seen a lot two years ago. We even have one of that bucks shed antlers. It's hard to tell if it could be the same buck or a close relative. Hopefully he'll stick around and we can get more pictures of him. 
Saturday was sunny but cold and turned out to be a real nice day. We spent the afternoon taking down treestands, putting our digital scouting cameras back out, filling the feeders and setting up a blind for our late afternoon hunt. It was a great day to be outdoors. In the late afternoon we headed out, Ryan with muzzleloader in hand, to try to get a deer. He was looking for a doe or a respectable buck. We had decided to hunt at the oldhouse food plot/feeder area. It shouldn't surprise you to know that this was where we got the pictures of the new nine-point buck. On our way we saw three does in the hayfield so we stopped to take a look at them. While we were watching two more came up out of the woods. They were over 100 yards away but Ryan wanted to try to get a shot. We kept trying to pick out the biggest doe but they spent a lot of time either facing us or all bunched up. After several minutes they tired of us looking at them and headed out of sight. We moved farther into the field to try to stalk up close to them but were busted by one of the does. Ryan tracked them into the woods but gave up when they headed for the hollow. Thank God, I wasn’t looking forward to a drag out of the hollow. Once again three filled tags can make you a little lazy. We arrived at the blind at 3:30 or so and started our evening vigil in a sun warmed blind. The first visitor was a button buck that came into the food plot. He noticed the blind only 30 yards or so from him right away and bound back into the woods. Later a small three-point buck came in to the feeder and was joined by a button buck after several minutes. As it was getting dark a deer came into the food plot in front of us. When it first appeared I thought that it was a buck that had shed its antlers but wasn't sure. After it circled back through the woods to the feeder we were able to verify that it was a buck that had already shed. I think this is the first time I've seen a buck that had already shed its antlers while hunting. That’s no real surprised as this is a very hard thing to pick out unless you get a real good look. It looks like it is time to start looking for shed antlers and pictures of bucks that have lost theirs. The cycle continues. We headed home without a muzzleloader kill for this year but we had a fun day in the woods. One interesting thing happened when we tried to shoot our muzzleloader at the end of the day. For some reason the firing pin wouldn't fire until after I cycled the bolt again. I've never had this happen before. It would have been a real trying circumstance if Ryan would have tried to take a shot at a deer. We decided that it was probably best that a big buck didn't show up. That would have been real frustrating. The newer muzzleloaders are much more dependable than yesteryear but they still aren’t as fool proof as modern rifles. The week after Christmas includes two days of youth doe hunting and four days of regular doe hunting. Right now we plan on getting back out for one more hurrah.
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