I took me a while, but I finally managed to put some meat in the freezer!!! 
ickle:
I was less than a 1/2 mile from my house last night when I noticed 11 deer, all slick heads, in the field behind the neighbors house. When I pulled in to the driveway, two small does were heading out of the thicket we attempted to drive on Monday. I hopped out of the truck and ran in to the garage to grab the muzzleloader, it was time to redeem myself for the two misses on Monday!!!
After grabbing the gun, I headed out to the back deck to find a good rest and waited for a clean shot on the biggest doe in the group. (At this point, all 7 does were out of the thicket and milling around in the field next to the house.) I found the biggest doe in the group and squeezed off a shot... only to hear just a loud "click". WTF? I break open the CVA and see I grabbed a spent primer that somehow made it back in to muzzleloading supplies. What a dumbass!!! So I slipped back in to the house and grabbed a new primer and headed back out in hopes of seeing the big doe again. Sure enough, the entire group was still in the field despite the commotion from the idiot Redneck next door!!! :smiley_blackeye:
The does were in a hurry to reach the wood line where they stage before feeding in the bottom field below. As the biggest doe neared the wood line, I tried to pick a lane through the brush and touched off what I thought was a good shot. After the smoke cleared, I saw one doe heading back in to the thicket while the rest ran directly away from me. I was still in my work clothes, so I headed back inside and threw on the Carharts in preparation for a gut job. Arriving at the shot location, I could not locate any sign of a hit. "How in the hell did I miss a huge doe broadside at 75 yards with a deadnuts muzzleloader?" I spent 25 minutes looking for any sign of a hit before determining I had clipped a branch halfway between the two of us, deflecting the bullet well short of the doe. "Nice work fool! That's three misses in two days!!!" :smiley_blackeye:
I was still licking the wounds of my recent lack of excellence when I noticed what appeared to be a deer laying 175 yards away on the hillside behind our house, right where I had shot at the doe the day prior. Making my way closer to the hillside, it was quickly apparent it was actually a dead deer. When I grabbed her leg to check the shot, I realized this deer had been dead for a while and was not the deer I had just shot at. Realizing this, I made one more effort to locate the deer I had shot at minutes earlier at which time, I made the final determination I had cleanly missed her. Heading back to the downed doe on the hillside, I was able to determine this was the doe I had "missed" the day before. I ranged the spot where I was sitting when I took the shot at 160 yards away and now here she laid less than 15 yards from the impact site. There is no possible way we missed her while searching for blood, so she had made it through the night and came back to that area to bed up.
I left for work at 7AM yesterday morning and noticed a lone doe acting funny as she worked her way towards the area where this doe was bedded. Looking back, I think it was this doe. Even after the gut job at 6PM, she was steaming on the side and had not been dead all that long. I hate that she made it over night and died a long death, but I am very happy to have found her rather than have her go to waste. The shot was 1" TOO low, hitting the brisket dead center, breaking it clean in two. The Remington Copper Solid fragmented enough to pierce the heart, but it didn't destroy it. I figure having her heart rub against the broken brisket did not help either. I took a measurement from the base of the brisket to her hide and it was 4". At 145 pounds dressed, I have killed slightly larger does, but never one with as thick a chest as this doe. Had the shot been 1" higher, I would have destroyed the heart and we would have found her shortly after the shot. As it was, there was very little trauma and the amount of fat kept her from bleeding much externally.
After I ranged the shot, I realized how much the back wood line curves away from the front wood line. I can shoot 100 yards in the back yard and had sighted this gun it at that distance. However, I guessed her to be 25 yards behind my target when she was all of 35-40 yards behind it. That no doubt made the difference in the final outcome. So while I am not proud of how she died, I am happy to have killed a huge doe for the freezer and to know that while I did misjudged the yardage, I actually made a pretty good shot all things considered.
One final insult to injury is that I do not have pictures to share. I took one shitty cell phone picture of her in the truck and I do not want to share that. My camera was at work, the wife was in Akron with hers and my parents were not home. So I let my teammates down on that front! The good news is I saw 20 does within 1/4 mile of my house yesterday and I plan on killing at least one more before the season is out, so I'll get redemption and at least 5 points for the team!!!
ickle: I was less than a 1/2 mile from my house last night when I noticed 11 deer, all slick heads, in the field behind the neighbors house. When I pulled in to the driveway, two small does were heading out of the thicket we attempted to drive on Monday. I hopped out of the truck and ran in to the garage to grab the muzzleloader, it was time to redeem myself for the two misses on Monday!!!
After grabbing the gun, I headed out to the back deck to find a good rest and waited for a clean shot on the biggest doe in the group. (At this point, all 7 does were out of the thicket and milling around in the field next to the house.) I found the biggest doe in the group and squeezed off a shot... only to hear just a loud "click". WTF? I break open the CVA and see I grabbed a spent primer that somehow made it back in to muzzleloading supplies. What a dumbass!!! So I slipped back in to the house and grabbed a new primer and headed back out in hopes of seeing the big doe again. Sure enough, the entire group was still in the field despite the commotion from the idiot Redneck next door!!! :smiley_blackeye:
The does were in a hurry to reach the wood line where they stage before feeding in the bottom field below. As the biggest doe neared the wood line, I tried to pick a lane through the brush and touched off what I thought was a good shot. After the smoke cleared, I saw one doe heading back in to the thicket while the rest ran directly away from me. I was still in my work clothes, so I headed back inside and threw on the Carharts in preparation for a gut job. Arriving at the shot location, I could not locate any sign of a hit. "How in the hell did I miss a huge doe broadside at 75 yards with a deadnuts muzzleloader?" I spent 25 minutes looking for any sign of a hit before determining I had clipped a branch halfway between the two of us, deflecting the bullet well short of the doe. "Nice work fool! That's three misses in two days!!!" :smiley_blackeye:
I was still licking the wounds of my recent lack of excellence when I noticed what appeared to be a deer laying 175 yards away on the hillside behind our house, right where I had shot at the doe the day prior. Making my way closer to the hillside, it was quickly apparent it was actually a dead deer. When I grabbed her leg to check the shot, I realized this deer had been dead for a while and was not the deer I had just shot at. Realizing this, I made one more effort to locate the deer I had shot at minutes earlier at which time, I made the final determination I had cleanly missed her. Heading back to the downed doe on the hillside, I was able to determine this was the doe I had "missed" the day before. I ranged the spot where I was sitting when I took the shot at 160 yards away and now here she laid less than 15 yards from the impact site. There is no possible way we missed her while searching for blood, so she had made it through the night and came back to that area to bed up.
I left for work at 7AM yesterday morning and noticed a lone doe acting funny as she worked her way towards the area where this doe was bedded. Looking back, I think it was this doe. Even after the gut job at 6PM, she was steaming on the side and had not been dead all that long. I hate that she made it over night and died a long death, but I am very happy to have found her rather than have her go to waste. The shot was 1" TOO low, hitting the brisket dead center, breaking it clean in two. The Remington Copper Solid fragmented enough to pierce the heart, but it didn't destroy it. I figure having her heart rub against the broken brisket did not help either. I took a measurement from the base of the brisket to her hide and it was 4". At 145 pounds dressed, I have killed slightly larger does, but never one with as thick a chest as this doe. Had the shot been 1" higher, I would have destroyed the heart and we would have found her shortly after the shot. As it was, there was very little trauma and the amount of fat kept her from bleeding much externally.
After I ranged the shot, I realized how much the back wood line curves away from the front wood line. I can shoot 100 yards in the back yard and had sighted this gun it at that distance. However, I guessed her to be 25 yards behind my target when she was all of 35-40 yards behind it. That no doubt made the difference in the final outcome. So while I am not proud of how she died, I am happy to have killed a huge doe for the freezer and to know that while I did misjudged the yardage, I actually made a pretty good shot all things considered.
One final insult to injury is that I do not have pictures to share. I took one shitty cell phone picture of her in the truck and I do not want to share that. My camera was at work, the wife was in Akron with hers and my parents were not home. So I let my teammates down on that front! The good news is I saw 20 does within 1/4 mile of my house yesterday and I plan on killing at least one more before the season is out, so I'll get redemption and at least 5 points for the team!!!
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