Got 2 does today - muzzleloader season

Westcliffe01 · #1 12-11-2011, 09:13 PM

The landlord of my coyote hunting land and his wife have a very young family and have had a very challenging financial time the past couple of years to say the least. So when I discovered that their family and friends had only managed to bag 1 deer all firearm season, I offered to try to get a few for them this weekend. I got my blind positioned yesterday and all afternoon didn't see a deer. There are several hundred acres of cornfields to the east and west with standing corn, so it is hard to compete.

Today, I was in the blind before dawn. At about 9:45 about 20-30 does showed up, crossing from east to west. They were at the very limit of my range (just over 100yds) but the range was limited since it was a slope and the only part visible was from the belly upwards. They also made no pause, just kept going at a fast walk. I held a bead on 1 doe and fired. I was aiming right on the shoulder. With the slowness of the bullet and the motion of the deer, the bullet impacted in the hindquarters, but as it turned out, it severed several mayor arteries and the doe didn't make it more than 10 feet and was down. Clearly I am going to have to do some math to have a better idea how to hold over on moving deer.

I thought that would be it for the day and went out to recover the doe. I got the landowner to bring his flatbed truck and we loaded her up. It went back to the barn to get gutted and hung to allow the flesh to cool and bleed out. I took the gut pile back and set it out about 75 yards off the blind in the hope that I could draw out a coyote. So I'm sitting watching the bait and the next thing I see another pair of does to my west. They were looking straight at the blind and I had to re-position myself and open the window to the west for a shot. That was a pretty nerve racking business. At this point, the does were about 100 yards to my west. The shot was at a really awkward angle from the blind. They were moving off and would soon be obscured by brush. I let the larger of the 2 does have it. I saw no reaction to indicate a hit, then both of them were off, running south.

There was no sign of a hit in the area where the does had been standing. I thought they headed into a thicket and searched that area for quite a while. Then I just followed a wide trail to the south and after about 200 yds found the first sign of blood. There was a gap in the barb wire fence with blood on a small tree where the doe had stumbled and a few yards further there she was. She really went an amazing distance for a double lung shot.

I stayed in the blind the rest of the afternoon, but the wind was blowing hard from the south east and the deer were not moving around in the open. No coyotes either!! I think the gutpile was frozen in a few hours since the temperature was below freezing with quite a bit of wind chill. So that was it for my deer season. I'm hoping that I will be out with my varmint rifle next weekend to kill some of those coyotes.

Wyobuckaroo · #2 12-12-2011, 01:14 AM

OUTSTANDING

Really makes you appreciate what the pioneers went through. All they had were muzzle loaders to work with. No in lines, no jacketed bullets in sabots, no powder pellets, etc.

Experience from running elk hunting camp tells me.........
When the shooting is done, then the work starts.

Glad the meat will go to someone who appreciates it.

Enjoy

Westcliffe01 · #3 12-21-2011, 10:00 PM

Well, I got the 2 hides this last Sunday. Due to the freaky "winter" he kept them in the freezer for me until I could pick them up. Once I got them they started defrosting, so I had to bite the bullet and get them fleshed out and salted ASAP. I don't have any tools to do this, so it took a really long time.. I need to get myself a buck made to drape the skin over and a fleshing blade. If I have any success with the coyotes, then I will have my work cut out, and there is still a bit of late doe season left....

It has been quite the year. I almost became a human, was allowed firearm ownership again, the first time since I got on the Swiss air flight to Germany in September 2000. Had to make a series of choices on rifles and pistols after being out of the game for 10 years. Had to learn to shoot again. Had to "upgrade" my ar15 and Remington 700 when they turned out not to be much good from the factory (the DPMS wasn't even useable !!). Set up a reloading bench. Started loading the 8x57 and then 222, then 7.62x39 and finally 223.

Had a heck of a time picking a concealed carry pistol, after finding that every SA/DA pistol I picked was sold out and had waiting lists. I detest the DAO (double action only) pistols like the glock and clones. Finally at the end of the year, I lucked into a 44mag desert eagle for a price I could not let it pass on. And right now I am waiting for a call to pick up my "Michigan Pistol" which is a Galil clone in 223 with a folding stock which complies with the under 30" law which will sunset on Jan 1 2012. So I will have at least 1 "rifle" which may be lawfully carried in conceal carry mode, which basically interprets to being carried loaded in or on a vehicle or out in the field at times the DNR has decreed that rifles are prohibited.

So there it is. Things will calm down some from this point, since all I'm really short are some rimfire rifles, a true long range rifle, for which there is not yet an urgent need and a few "sentimental" purchases, like a nice quality SKS or FAL. I will probably end up building a FAL from one of the Sarco kits, although I may have to move on that depending on what happens in the elections.

It is pretty scary what has happened economically in the last 8 years and things are not looking up for the future. For the moment I still have a pretty good job, despite all the political corporate BS so I will have to keep at it. I have not been back to Colorado to keep tabs on the land out there, but it seems prices remain depressed.. As long as prices out west don't start climbing before they do here in MI I might be allright...