Prepared for battle!
I set off October 11th for Raleigh to hunt the NC Eastern Zone with my muzzleloader. I got a taste of it when I hunted the morning of the 9th in the Western Zone up at South Mountains Gamelands in Rutherford County and was ready to get to a more familiar place with a better deer population. I had made up my mind the night before that I would hunt where I shot a 9 point on Butner-Falls of Nuese Gamelands back in 2009 so when I saw a small buck laying in the ditch not far from the parking area I knew they had been moving and felt good about my chances.
After getting changed, stand on my back and forgetting about how hilly it was those first 300 yards from the parking area, I ended up setting up in hardwoods that butted up against tall, cleared pines with thick understory. I also had a small pine thicket across the creek drainage and up the hill around 200 yards from me. The oaks where dropping acorns like crazy and I felt good about my chances of seeing a deer. And see deer I did. Right after getting the stand positioned where I wanted it, I had a doe come in some 20 yards from me while messing with my video camera arm and base; my gun was on the hanger I had screwed in the tree and there was no chance at a shot, but she wasn't spooked and had no idea I was even there. After that I said screw the camera for a while, grabbed my gun and sat down. About 10 minutes later, if that, I saw movement down where the doe had gone. Out pops a head with another one right behind it. As they got closer I could tell it's two small spikes and decided to let them go. They worked their way up past me and feed on acorns to the right of me for a good 30 minutes before I finally got tired of being thirsty and not having my camera up and running; while I was getting a drink of water and setting up the camera they eased on off down into the upper end of the creek drainage. All that happened in the first 30 minutes of being setup so I thought I'd see movement well before the end of legal shooting time.
I didn't see anything else besides squirrels however until 6:45 when I heard a deer walking directly behind me - I thought it was going to go right under my stand. It changed course and as it walked off to my left I eased my head around the tree and saw a big doe throwing her head up and around trying to catch wind of something - she never did. As she walked down the hill, following the same trail as the first doe of the day, I could hear another deer behind her so I decided to wait. Out pops another, smaller doe, and I had to wait to move the camera and gun until I felt safe doing so without getting my movement being seen. Unfortunately I was going to have to shoot left-handed and couldn't get my gun up in time before they decided to turn directly away from me with no good shot opportunity. It made for decent video (especially if not for the stupid limb I had cut that decided it would move my camera arm once I got the deer into the frame) and made me feel good about my chances for Friday.
I didn't see anything else besides squirrels however until 6:45 when I heard a deer walking directly behind me - I thought it was going to go right under my stand. It changed course and as it walked off to my left I eased my head around the tree and saw a big doe throwing her head up and around trying to catch wind of something - she never did. As she walked down the hill, following the same trail as the first doe of the day, I could hear another deer behind her so I decided to wait. Out pops another, smaller doe, and I had to wait to move the camera and gun until I felt safe doing so without getting my movement being seen. Unfortunately I was going to have to shoot left-handed and couldn't get my gun up in time before they decided to turn directly away from me with no good shot opportunity. It made for decent video (especially if not for the stupid limb I had cut that decided it would move my camera arm once I got the deer into the frame) and made me feel good about my chances for Friday.
Fast forward to Friday the 12th. I decided to sleep-in and go into the woods around 9 a.m. to hunt all day. My first stop was an area that's been good to me in the past and where I saw 3 does back in mid-September while bow hunting one evening. As luck would have it, someone was already at the parking spot so I decided to just head over to where I had hunted the evening before and pick a different spot a little closer to the truck. Again, someone was there so I went to plan C, which was a spot I had never hunted before but had looked at Thursday night before bed via Google Maps. It was in the same big block of woods that I had hunted the night before but around a half to three-quarters of a mile as the crow flies from it. Luckily no one was parked there so I got my things ready and headed off down the roadbed that bordered the state park land. As I was easing along near the end of the road bed, I noticed hardwoods that butted up to open pines with a thick understory and headed straight there since that same terrain and habitat had been good to me the evening before. After finding good feeding sign and a semi-fresh scrape I decided to climb a small white oak at the top of the ridge where the open oaks divided two sections of open pines and thicket; it was 10:15 a.m. Then I waited. And waited. And waited some more. The squirrels were active and the birds kept me entertained as well as on my toes as one almost flew into my face and another decided to land right next to my leg on a limb I had put on my tree stand's foot piece. I looked down at it, it looked up at me, we both gave each other a confused look and then he flew up next to my head and proceeded to scold me with chirping. Fast forward to 6:40 p.m.
I had been sitting in the same spot going on 8.5 hours and I had just 30 more minutes to close the deal and head back to Charlotte with meat. I knew as it kept getting later that if I saw a deer it was probably going to be a buck coming out of one of the two thickets. It couldn't have been 5 minutes after thinking that when I heard something walking in the thicket off to behind me off to my left. I slowly turned my head in that direction and immediately saw legs, then a body and I pulled back the hammer on my CVA Optima. Once I saw it was a buck I knew it was a shooter for me. He stayed on a straight path that lead directly behind me at less than 10 yards. With no chance of getting up and turned around to shoot my normal right-handed way, I got my gun up and shouldered left-handed as he went behind the tree I was in. He stopped for a split second and I was able to get the cross-hairs settled when he began his walk again. A quick grunt with my mouth stopped him, the cross-hairs stopped behind his shoulder and I took the quartering away shot at a mere 10 yards, if not less. As the smoke cleared I thought I had made a good shot as I could see him running down the hill and hear him stumbling along the way. I heard a final crash at the bottom of the hill but I still needed to get down ASAP to pick-up the blood trail while I still had a little light. A long 10 minutes later, I found him piled up in a dry creek bed and then the work began getting him back to the road bed I walked in on. Even though it took over an hour to get him back to the truck and I didn't get back to Charlotte til 2:30 on that Saturday morning after getting him quartered and in the cooler I wouldn't trade that for anything in the world. Below are the pics, not my biggest but my best with a muzzleloader.
-C.B.
I had been sitting in the same spot going on 8.5 hours and I had just 30 more minutes to close the deal and head back to Charlotte with meat. I knew as it kept getting later that if I saw a deer it was probably going to be a buck coming out of one of the two thickets. It couldn't have been 5 minutes after thinking that when I heard something walking in the thicket off to behind me off to my left. I slowly turned my head in that direction and immediately saw legs, then a body and I pulled back the hammer on my CVA Optima. Once I saw it was a buck I knew it was a shooter for me. He stayed on a straight path that lead directly behind me at less than 10 yards. With no chance of getting up and turned around to shoot my normal right-handed way, I got my gun up and shouldered left-handed as he went behind the tree I was in. He stopped for a split second and I was able to get the cross-hairs settled when he began his walk again. A quick grunt with my mouth stopped him, the cross-hairs stopped behind his shoulder and I took the quartering away shot at a mere 10 yards, if not less. As the smoke cleared I thought I had made a good shot as I could see him running down the hill and hear him stumbling along the way. I heard a final crash at the bottom of the hill but I still needed to get down ASAP to pick-up the blood trail while I still had a little light. A long 10 minutes later, I found him piled up in a dry creek bed and then the work began getting him back to the road bed I walked in on. Even though it took over an hour to get him back to the truck and I didn't get back to Charlotte til 2:30 on that Saturday morning after getting him quartered and in the cooler I wouldn't trade that for anything in the world. Below are the pics, not my biggest but my best with a muzzleloader.
-C.B.
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