I don't start threads often but when I do, it's on BH.com...so here goes...I had to share this story with my BH.com family mainly because it involves all of you...sort of... So this past Thursday, I am undecided if I should go into the woods for muzzleloader hunting or not. It was one of those times where I really wanted just one more deer for the freezer however I was feeling lazy and not really wanting to put all the clothes on and walk the 200 yards back to the "Tower of Terror" stand. I was also thinking about all of those other things which I needed to get done. So finally at about 3:00 PM, I said to myself, "Self, we are going to kick it in gear and get our butt out to the stand! After all you are not going to see deer while in the house". So gear up and out to the stand I go, 1.5 hours before sun set...let me assure you this is definately not my normal hunting practice...As I am walking to the stand, I am thinking there is no way I am going to see anything because of the very loud, crunchy frozen slushy snow cover we have...jeese, I mean even the birds left the woods I was so loud! Once in the stand I figure I am not going to be cold and whats it matter since I got out so late anyway, so I start my mini heater up. Then I start to play with my phone, yes I know, another "no no".Does it make it any better that I went onto BH.com?? I was actually on my team thread posting when the deer contest closed out and attempting to rally some oorah spirit when I looked up and saw a flippin deer in my food plot. I must have had that "deer in the head lights" look as I thought, are you kidding me? There's a deer about 60 yards in front of me!! I watched the deer for about 5 minutes in the field. It was a nice sized doe, all alone. I decided she was a nice deer standing broad side to me. I placed the barrel of my borrowed muzzleloader, which I have never shot, out the window of the stand. As I rested my hand and the barrel on the adjustable exterior window, the plastic snaps. I look up, and the deer did not even react, but kept grazing as though nothing haad happened. Now I'm thinking "Are you kidding me?" Im the person that gets busted every time a mouse farts. I repostion my hand and the barrel, and line up the deer in the scope. I was told this muzzleloader is dead on at 100 yards. I also know that the person who sighted this gun in and I shoot similarly. I decided that I wanted to drop the doe on the spot and aim high shoulder...Thank the Lord I did this....I squeeze off the one round. The smoke then clears enough for me to watch the doe run away from me with that tell tale sign shes been hit...you know the one, that twitching tail. So much for dropping the deer on the spot...I then attempted to make a phone call to my boyfriend who promptly asked me why I was calling him at this time when he knew that I was out hunting. He quickly figured it out...after a period of time, I realized that I really had not anticipated seeing, much less harvesting a deer and did not have one single flashlight other than my phone on me.So since I had to walk back the way the deer went to go get a flashlight, I looked for a little blood trail too. I found a little blood but not the kind of blood trail I had expected...in fact there was much less...I walked back, retreived a flashlight and came back to where I last had blood on the main trail. Of course the deer ran into a pine plantation...good luck tracking there. I stuck to the trail where I knew the deer had entered the pines on, and there 50 yards away was my deer! WOOT WOOT! Turns out I had hit the deer in the ribs behind the heart and under the lungs. I was still not certain what caused the deer to die after field dressing it, aside from two gaping .50 cal holes...Long story I know, but proves that some times doing everything wrong is just right! This was also my first smoke pole deer! (Oh yeah, and the boyfriend, whom I borrowed the gun from, has yet to shoot a deer with his muzzleloader...He says he is not too jealous! )
