Here is the story of our muzzleloader hunt. I will get some better pictures tomorrow. I taped his 8 point at 140.5 gross. This deer looks very old, and I will get the tax man to age it for us.
The morning hunt was pretty much uneventful. We did see two young bucks and a few does, but not really much to talk about. We came out mid day for a break and went back in around 2:00 PM. The wind started picking up and we had a constant 15 mph wind with gusts up to 25. I told my son that some wind was good, but those gusts didn't appeal to me much. Finally it settled a little and about an hour or so before dark, deer started coming out at different places.
We saw three young bucks and one of them was really beautiful. He will be a dandy if he makes it two more years. He was working a scrape and licking branch that I didn't even know was there. Finally, about 20 minutes before dark I saw commotion break loose in some tall grass. Two does come busting through like bats out of Hades. Right behind them was this big sucker. He looked like a tank busting through the grass. He came by us two times a little past 100 yards in a plot, but was moving so fast we couldn't even get the gun in place to shoot.
Finally everything just died down and all we saw was a few deer feeding at different places in my mini plots that are scattered about. Then suddenly here he came out of the tall grass about 120 yards away, walking the edge of one of my plots toward a mock scrape I made last week. He was broad side to us and just walking slowly. My son got the new muzzleloader up, got on him and dropped him in his tracks.
This was a special hunt for us. His birthday is in 3 days, and the first thing I said when he pulled the trigger was "happy birthday. I'm going to mount that deer for your birthday present this year." Some good father and son bonding right there for sure.
Edit - added some pictures
