Every year I look forward to the late season Muzzleloader season in one of the areas I hunt. The rifle season is only two weeks in that area and ends prior to the heat of the rut but, that late one week mler season catches the tail end of the rut. It’s definitely the time to be there. I had the last 4 days of the muzzleloader season to try for some good bucks this past weekend and it surely did turn into a great hunt.

Friday morning as soon as I settled in the blind I spotted some deer in one of my shooting lanes. I glassed them but, the light was too dim to tell what they were. The closest of the three got to within 60 yards and I could finally see that it was a small 6pter. The other two disappeared into the brush. After 15 min a nice little 1.5 year old buck sporting around a 90†rack came out and sniffed around for a bit in the same area the other deer had traveled. All this action within about 20 mins of the first morning, I was definitely pumped and ready for the rest of the weekend.

Friday afternoon it was rather warm and the mosquitoes were buzzing a bit. At around 4:30pm I heard crashing in the brush over on the neighbors property and all of the sudden a big buck busted out of the brush and crossed into the property wide open. He was headed in my direction but staying in the trees. That buck ran by within 50 yards and I believe I must have bumped everything in that blind as I poked my Mler out each window as he passed by. I tried bleating loud but, he wasn’t slacking up and there was just too much brush in the way for a shot at a deer on the move. I was sitting there wondering why he was so spooked and then I heard footsteps in the same direction. As I readied my rifle out popped a fluffy white house dog. I was angry at first but then I calmed down because I probably never would have seen the big buck had the dog not ran him by and I was quite glad to get to see such a nice buck. The dog began to circle around as if he’d lost the track and sure enough he’d lost the trail in some standing water near by. The dog headed back home and I began to think that just maybe that big buck would realize ole’ fluffy wasn’t on his tail any longer and start to ease back toward his home territory and possibly into one of my shooting lanes in the direction he ran.

As luck would have it around 30 mins after the buck ran by he stepped out into one of my shooting lanes headed back toward where the dog had ran him from. He posed broad side at 150 yards, I settled my rifle for the shot, and fired. At the shot he hunched and made a mad dash for the brush. I quickly reloaded my rifle and climbed out of the blind to go take a look for sign. As I neared the area he entered the brush I could see him laying there stone dead. A great buck for the area and not to shabby for the ole’ Muzzle Loader.

He was a nice 8pter w/ a couple of broken tips from fighting. He scored 134-3/8†and weighed in at 195lbs.

Here’s a couple of pics of the buck:





I still had 3 more days of season and a front was on the way so I wasn’t giving up just yet. Saturday morning the storms hit and it rained nearly all day long. The rain was severe that morning so I decided to stay at the camp. At 2:30 the rain had slacked off a bit so I headed for the woods. When I arrived the water was too deep for my knee boots and as bad as I hate ridding my atv in, it was my only choice other than getting soaking wet. I rode in about ½ way to the blind and walked or shall I say waded the rest of the way. When I arrived at the blind there was a doe standing in my shooting lane and we sort of played cat and mouse for a bit. She finally spooked and I climbed into the blind. The rain began again but, it was just light and steady. About an hour before dark two doe came by. As darkness neared there was about 20 min of shooting time left when I started hearing foot steps in the water. I saw a deer enter my shooting lane and start walking straight toward me. I shouldered my rifle and zoomed in on the deer with my scope. I could tell it was a buck but it was too dark to get a good view and I wasn’t sure if he was a shooter. When he made it to around 130 yards down the lane he turned his head to the side and gave me a good view at his rack. There was no mistake, he was a shooter so I settled the hairs and fired off a shot. He dropped at the shot.

He was a nice 9pter w/ a 127†rack. He turned out to be a buck that the neighbor had taken pictures of with his leaf river trail cam back in September. We had guessed him to be about a 135†buck because of his long times but, his mass wasn’t as good as we’d thought. Another good buck for the ole’ Muzzle Loader and one heck of a way to end the year with a Bang!..Bang!

Here’s a couple pics of the 9pt:




Hope You all had a a good season as well.

Happy New year

Reloader

Great Job!! - That is a pretty fair weekend of hunting which might be tough to top next year.

cwilson,

That weekend will probably be tough to beat from now on.

I never would have dreamed I'd come home two days early w/ two bruisers in the truck! Doesn't get much better than that.

Have a Good One

Reloader

Reloader: Congratulations on the great "ending" to the "Hunting year"! Dandy pair of Bucks you harvested!
Good for you!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Wow, great end of the season hunt for two Cajun whitetail!

Hey Reloader, Congratulations on some great hunting and fine kills.

When I see antlers with broken tips, it seems to give them a bit more character than the pristine unscared racks. Always makes me wonder how big the Deer was they tangled with.

When there's Skeeters in the air, there's a good chance the Deer will be easing around. You were hunting in the weather I like the very best - during and just after a rain. Very few Nimrods about and plenty of Deer shaking the kinks out.

Is that your Savage ML? What size Bullet was used?

quote:

Is that your Savage ML? What size Bullet was used?

Yep, Savage ML10II shooting 250 Grain Hdy SSTs. Both bullets hit bone(shoulder on one and backbone on the other) and both still exited. Same repeat performance they've given me since they hit the market a few years back. I haven't found a better Mler bullet and intend on staying with this one. They are flat, accurate, and plain deadly.

Reloader

Congrats!

you've had a heck of a season for sure!

I can still hunt until the middle of Feb here in south MS, but the wife is already getting a little pi****.