Muzzleloader Season - Buck Down

Joan and I went on a Disney cruise after Christmas and we were on our way home as the M/L season happened this year.  We had planned to spend a few days at our daughter Amy's house but that plan got derailed with a positive Covid test.  Anyway, in our absence, our friend Creigh headed out to hunt and his Dad, Bruce, joined him for the weekend.  Creigh did a great job on keeping me informed so that I would be able to blog whatever happened.

On the Saturday morning opener, Creigh went to the main stand and Bruce hit the pond stand.  Creigh had barely gotten in stand when he caught a glimpse of a buck in the pines.  It wasn't long before he got another glimpse and shot this photo.

The time stamp on that photo said 7:45am and Creigh took a shot shortly after the photo was snapped. After the M/L cloud cleared he could see the buck bounding down into the trees into a steep area of the property.  Later measurements indicated that the shot was only 51 yards at a broadside target but Creigh saw no evidence of a hit and was uncertain about what happened.

So he took some time to let his heartbeat recover, sent some texts, and snapped the above shot of the sunrise.  It was a brisk 24 degree morning and that's a heavy frost on the ground.  After giving him lots of time to expire if hit, he got down to track and found no blood - a cause for concern.

But he and Bruce found the skid marks from each leap as the buck made his escape.

They marked this track with orange tape until they ran out of clear sign - still no blood.  At that point, he and Bruce started the expanding circle search until they found this.

There he was tangled up in a grapevine.

The shot turned out to be perfect but he still made it almost 200 yards before collapsing.

The Hollywood shot/

Now the hard part begins.  He was on a steep hillside but not too far from an atv trail.  Here's Bruce making a graceful descent to the trail

After a sidehill drag, they got him into the Ranger.

The tail of the tape.  About 180 pounds on the hoof.  They can shed up to 25% of their bodyweight during the rut so he was probably 220 in October.

This was Creigh's first solo gut job.  He's witnessed or assisted on a few before.  But it took a few phone consults to get thru the process.

Looks like 145 pounds field dressed.

Meanwhile, Bruce went to the driveway stand and had a crowd come it.  Only two small bucks though.  Here's a video of the action.  Bruce's Driveway Sit

Happy hunters at the end of the first day.

Celebrating with a bourbon and a cigar.

More of the tail of the tape.  16" outside spread.

10" G-3's

A couple more views of the rack.

He was a buck that we had been seeing on camera all season.

Here he was in October.

Anyway, no additional shots fired before work and family obligations ended the hunt.  Congratulations Creigh - need to start thinking about a trophy room addition.