This year I was lucky enough to go down to the La Salle's with a couple friends from work on the archery hunt. I wasn't hunting, but rather showing them some area that they hadn't been to in the La Salles. They were the ones I originally began going there with.
This was more or less a scouting trip for me. The trip was priceless as they all are with Brandon. The first trip down there was the "cactus incident" and the Mason Draw mistake. This time Brandon locked his car keys in his car. Brandon has no patience and takes things immediately to the extreme to fix his current problems. To make a long story short, Brent and I talked Brandon out of smashing in his window to wait until the morning to find some loose fence wire to try to jimmy his door open. It worked and we were able to get in his car without smashing in his window.
While there, I learned some new area that was fruitful during the blackpowder hunt not to mention I saw some deer worthing hiking after.
The muzzle load hunt came and we went down a couple days before the opener. We go early to scout, fish, and play on the ATV's. We scouted nearly two full days before the opener and saw a grand total of 8 deer. Every last one was a doe. I was discouraged and was considering not going to the clearing where I saw a big one on the archery. I decided to go there anyways and I am glad I did. I began seeing bucks right off the bat that morning when there began to be daylight. I am picky so the two 3-points I saw were not even worth looking at. I was slowly making my way over to the base of the upper clearing when I began to see movement in a clearing just below the base of the upper meadow. I saw there was another 3-point buck in there. I watched him for a moment hoping to see more. Some does stepped out and I decided to move them along and pushed them into the upper meadow. Through the tree's I could see there were other deer I was missing so I began a pretty swift hike up to the meadow. As I was about to get into the upper meadow I saw a big buck. I glassed him, and was surprised to find a non-typical heavy horned 3-point frame with a lot of "SH&T" kicking out. Not really wide about 25-26" but very tall and heavy. This was my deer!!! I began a fast pursuit. I had at one point about a 200 yard shot but didn't feel comfortable with it. I decided I would stalk him even though he was moving away. While I was catching my breath, I heard my dads friend on the radio state "theres the big one." I thought they were talking about the freak buck that just went up the mountain. After this thought I looked back to where the deer had been moving and saw a massive 4-point. Looked from where I was to be about 27-29"wide. I was tired and remembered something I heard on a hunting video. If you have time to calm down and relax then do it because it improves your chances of getting the big one. The shot was between 125 and 150 yards. Not a terrible shot, but I have a 1 power scope so not great either. With my trusty shooting stick I aimed at him but couldn't get still. The deer had stopped and was watching me. After probably 5 minutes, the deer was up and looking to move into the trees. I was now calm and smooth. I put the crosshairs on his heart and squoze the trigger. The impact was devastating. It looked as if the deer was knocked out standing. I later found I hit the deer just below the backbone just above his guts. He just stood there for what seemed to be an eternity. Then I went to chamber another round and remembered I had to cram another damn slug in my Thompson. I hit him one more time at a short distance in the heart.
He is a 28.5" 4X5 buck. He isn't real tall, but he is wide, and heavy. I wasn't able to do a full shoulder mount right away so I had a Europian done. I will probably have a shoulder mount done in a couple years. I will just need another cape to do so. This was a fun experience. Come to find out, there was about 11 hunters watching this the whole time but were all to far to take a crack at him.
On a side note, I saw only 8 doe on Monday and Tuesday before the hunt. I saw 26 buck opening day. What a day it was. All of us in our group filled our tags that hunt. Great hunt, 4 for 4....
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