Re: Muzzy Season -- United Hunters of Florida (UHF)

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Date Posted: 10/31/06 8:16:19pm
Author: Great White Hunter (Amazed)
Subject: Re: Muzzy Season
In reply to: AlanK 's message, "Muzzy Season" on 10/30/06 8:33:49am

The story of my 8 pointer as follows:

Friday morning, opening morning of muzzy season. The previous afternoon, I went to Al's house (the other Al)to spend the night and gear up for the morning hunt. On the drive to his house we decided to meet up in the woods to test fire his other .50 cal, since he was letting me use his, and he was to use his sons. Well, he fires off two, the second shot basically hitting bullseye at 35 yards. Then he lets me shoot off one. Now, my rifle experience is close to null, as far as staying calm, focused, following through, etc.. So, I rest the CVA Optima on his truck, and squeeze off.. KAPLOW! I was oh, 10 inches high, but dead center from left to right. Oh well! He says ill do ok when the time comes. Little did i know.

The next morning we gear up and head out.. I stopped at the bank to get cash, which put the other travelers ahead of me. No worries, I drive on into the woods (already decided I will sit my usual spot, the one where I killed my doe, then buck ((unicorn))).. I walk in with my stand and gear, and pick a new tree that is about 50 yards off the private property. Now, this tree is kind of skinny, and I had to set my stand on its tighest position. I make my way up, and get situated right before light breaks. I then realize, im only 25 ft up.. oh well, not going to risk spooking anything, it will have to do..

Now, my stand is set up facing the private property. Many times before, I have seen deer crossing and moving through on the private property, and the openness of the field has allowed me to see them comming into my area, public WMA land.

At around 7:30am, about 300 yards from my stand I see 4 deer walk out in the private property. My heart starts to race and I pick up my muzzy and peer through the straight 4x scope. They are still too far for my untrained eyes to see horns, so Im content with getting acclimated looking through a scope, and keeping the damn thing steady. I revel and enjoy each second, watching what turns out to be mama doe, and her two young bucks rear up on their back legs and play fight. Amazing! They hung around for a few minuetes then slowly move off behind some cover. Then I see another deer pop out from where they came out, and move off rather quickly. Thats my buck I tell myself. 5 minuetes later the family reappear a little closer from the other side of the brush, and move away from me, and on their heels, a four pointer follows. I quickly sight him, and see those magnificient horns moving away from me (all still on private property). I grab my doe-bleat-in-a-can and pop off a call. WaaaaAAAAaaahhhhh and he doesnt stop moving away, although the does got a little skittish, but none look my way, none flag any alarm.. they keep moving away, once more, WaaaAAAAaaahhh I let another call out, to no effect. The does got hoppy, and moved off, onto public land, but 400 yards away, and the buck instead of following them, goes back into the cover in which he came out of. Oh well.

The time looking through the scope had allowed me to settle myself, get used to holding the muzzleloader, moving it around, and keeping my crosshairs sighted and steady. Even though my stand has a rifle rest bar, I found that if I raise up my right leg and rest it up and over on the bar thats at my knees, I can sit even more comfortable and spot stuff through my scope. (Not thinking of what I would need to do if i needed to shoot at anything anywhere other than directly in front of me). So as I sit there daydreaming of a shot, I casually glance over my right shoulder.

I peer far over my right shoulder and low and behold, I see nothing but a massive rack and a stout posture, already headed out of the sand pines. I had absolutly no time to think. Immediatly, I put all pressure on my left leg, and slowly drop my right leg back to the stand bottom. At this point all of my (limited) bowhunting instincts kick in, and I slowly rotate to my right, slightly pausing halfway to look at Mr. Buck. He is by this time halfway through crossing the powerlines and has no notion of stopping, or seeing me. I continue my rotation, and finish by facing the tree trunk. I throw up my trusty .50 cal against the side of the tree and look through the scope. He is so close at 4x!!!!!!! I scope his chest, then open both eyes and see him about to step into the dirt road that follows the large pine edge, look back into the scope to see him step out. This is it, now or never. I whistle "weetweee" no responce, he takes another step, again "weetweeeee" and he stops. I get the impression like he thought he maybe heard something, something not right. My crosshairs directly behind his shoulder blade. Since my bowhunting instinct are going strong, I pull the trigger like i hit my release, in one clean motion. KABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!!! His feet raise up and he drops like a TON of bricks!! I scream in my head "GO DOWN!" and I watch his front legs paw out, turning him 180 degrees.

It's funny, in situations like this, I hear some people scream out, jump for joy, start to tremble, or whatnot. Like the other two kills, I remained oddly calm, concentrated. After his twitching stopped, I reloaded my maganum load, and tried to look for other game (by this time I started smiling) but kept finidng myself putting the scope on him. I waited 15 minuetes and got down, making sure to secure my stand, and collect my stuff. I walked over to him, saw him up close for the first time, and thats when the adrenaline hit. Words can hardly describe it. My shot hit high, but right along the line where the chest meets the shoulder blade. Just like my practice shot. A beautiful kill shot, through his backstrap, left him no chance of running away. He weighed 157 lbs not gutted, at 8 points. One brow tine was broken off, but enough was left to hang a ring on it. The other brow tine is 3.75 inches. Spread was in the 16"-18" range, forgot to measure it. Truley a hunt I will never forget, and every time I replay it in my head, it gets better.

I must give credit where credit is due, and without Al, Al, and Chris, it probably wouldnt have happened (at least not so soon) Although it is public WMA land, it was both Al's spot (debateable), and Als muzzleloader. Though if you ask him the whole forest is his spot ;).. Alan has been a great teacher, and Ive learned so much about scouting, sign, and finding deer.. Many many thanks my blood brother.

Pictures:

Al, Chris, and Alan

Alan and I

Me and Mr. Buck

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