Well muzzle
loader season has come and gone, no meat butchered yet but a couple of interesting stories...
The first weekend of ml we were at camp and faced with high south winds and temperatures hitting the +20 range. Unfortunately Andre was not feeling well Sunday morning so I decided to utilize the box blind that sits down on the waters edge. I cleaned it out of the majority of the bird and animal crap that had built up since Noah had used it two seasons ago. Good enough for me lol...I was in place well before sun up and watching the cut along our fence when after 45 minutes a nice little 3x3 buck walked out at 30 yards.
A very nice legal eating buck, however he was the same size as the last two I had shot. I decided I would leave him to give Andrea a better opportunity to fill her tag...he was just wandering around munching on the odd acorn and having a jolly time on this fine Sunday morning. After 1p minutes or so he had wandered up the cutting to the 120 yd marker I have out, while he was playing around I got out my phone and took some pictures and recorded a video. While I was doing this two does came out on top of the hill at 200 yards. They Stood there watching him and he would look at them but neither party seemed to get excited, eventually he headed east into our property and they continued west into the ducks unlimited property next to us. Made me decide there is not much of a rut going on yet.
The following Friday afternoon seen us heading to camp for the final weekend of ml, still very warm and blowing south...we decided the only viable option for the wind direction was the box blind again, Andrea had stated my cleaning job was not up to her standard so she took a good old fashioned corn whisk broom to the blind while I took a chainsaw to a bunch of trees that had gotten high enough to block any vision out of the East side of the blind I was going to be expected to hunt from putting Andrea in the window
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| West view out of the box blind |
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| East view from my chair in the box blind, 200yds over the water |
The plan was for her to fill her tag while I enjoyed the fun of watching the majority of the property that was either field or patches of brush. the area I was watching from was basically 1/2 way up along the western boundary meaning there was 400 yards to the North over water I did not really need to watch, I could see in a due east direction to the other fence that is 425 yds and the NE corner which is close to 800 yards...There is almost nothing inside 150 yards for me to even look at with muzzle loader. I carried mine as a spare for Andrea in case she experienced a primer failure again, (on this buck no less)
it would be a simple matter to pass her mine...and so as daylight broke I was glassing the field dead out from where I was and guess what - a buck was magically revealed itself to me through the crisp clear lenses of my burris 10X binos - he was 300 yds and moving away on a slight angle, no shot for the muzzle loader but sure fun to watch. He was a very wide spread on his rack but I could not count the tines accurately due to the sun being directly in line with him and my vision. A nice deer to be sure. Andrea and I spent the morning in the box blind and I had glassed the buck and two does in the field when we decided to go get some grub in our empty bellies. One of us does not do well hungry and
trapped in a blind is not the place to be with her when it hits lol...
We had gone about 20 yards up the trail when Andrea spotted a deer in the woods, we froze and although it acted suspicious for a minute it decided we were harmless and a young doe comes picking its way through the woods within 20 feet of us and down toward the blind. As soon as she was well hidden behind some brush we snuck our way towards a bacon and egg brunch. We were back down for an afternoon hunt when I seen the little doe come down to the water, when the property was used for cattle pasture they had put a fair amount of effort into creating a good access point for the cattle. This entailed creating a ten foot high berm on each side of the access where it was dug out, this also created an ideal boat launch for a bird hunting boats like we are going to build - that story will follow this winter.
There is a strip of less than 12 feet where the deer can move from the trees to cover behind the berm, I glimpsed her going in and whispered to Andrea she was back, after drinking she actually came out on the side of the berm where we could watch her, 52 yards to be exact and stayed a long time browsing. As I was watching her I caught another flicker of movement by the water, sure enough it was Andrea's buck. We quietly swapped places and after a couple of minutes decided she was not going to see him so took her seat back...two minutes later out he pops, 92 yards...Laurel and Hardy kicked off their chair swap routine again but now the buck was tired of offering easy shots,,,he played hide and peek while the doe munched away.
Never offered a clean shot again that afternoon...all told we had eight deer sightings Saturday.
Back in the blind Sunday morning, now this was more like it, we actually added a warm fleece layer for this morning hunt, the wind was still blowing from the south but the temperature must have been all the way down to plus 7...I am back in by window glassing, this time I catch mr larger buck coming down his rub line again and decide I would like that shot angle next weekend with a centerfire. I decide to put the range finder on him but I whispered to Andrea first 270 yards. I ranged him and it read 276 and he exploded into a dead run due East. He left the property, crossed the next property and into a little brush filled gulley and was gone. I know he never winded us as the direction was completely in our favour, and he should not have picked up and movement from that distance with us inside a raised box blind. We move around in there with other deer within 30 yards so the only credible option I can think of is the range finder IR beam spooked him. It is reputed to be possible but highly unlikely.
Either way we seen a couple of does the rest of the morning and that was our weekend...muzzle loader season ended with me cutting down another eight trees to open a view point intersecting along the fence line that had kept the cattle out of the woods on the original property.
We are heading back Friday afternoon with a couple of 270's Andrea has a real nice Sako firing 130 grain Nosler partitions and I am playing with another bullet in my 270 WSM I have gone to a 150gr this time..for those wondering what I am referring to - go back a few years to the "explosion" I had with the nosler ballistic tip basically ruining the side of a doe I shot. They came out with an improved version called the ballistic tip hunting that I tried because they are honestly the most accurate easy to load bullet I have ever played with on my reloading bench. I tried the new version in my 260 and first time out doing development had a load that shot <0.25 inch groups that repeated itself over and over. I shot my buck with that load last year and was extremely happy with the performance. Just not sure I want to push it at the increased speeds yet so that is the story I am telling myself as I play with another load bullet combo in the 270 WSM...not enough tags though, I have a new load in my 6.5 Swede using 140gr Sierra Game King that is well under an inch I want to see how it does and a load in my 7mm WSM I want to test.
I guess I could carry a different rifle each day and see what is in hand when I get my chance but I think I will go with the 270 this weekend and the 6.5 next. Even if I fill my tag this weekend we are allowed to party hunt so off we go...
Until later safe hunting...
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