I finally did it after two years of hunting hard and not seeing a single legal deer . I finally was able to put my hands on a beautiful blacktail buck . I let my son take school off last Wednesday to join me on the hunt. I was not feeling very confident about having him go again only to be disappointed to not even see a deer. I had hunted the day before on good sign and put in a solid 12 hour day of hiking, still hunting, rattling, bleating...zero. I knew there were deer in the area and was definitely determined to find one . That morning we headed out going steep and deep to get in areas that seemed to be holding deer. As you all know the temps were in the mid 20s in the mornings last week so it was a chilly one . The dry conditions made it almost impossible to move quietly through the woods. We spent the morning moving calling, rattling, and nothing. I decided to try another area that I had scouted a little lower in elevation so we headed down around 10 am. After getting to the cut we glassed, rattled etc.... nothing. It was getting later and we just weren’t seeing anything the self doubt began to creep in again as it had in the past. I was trying to make the best of it and enjoy the time with my son . We decided to start to head down to the car and hunt on the way back . I had kinda given up for the morning but was already thinking about a different area for a evening hunt . We were being loud and chatting. As we got closer to the gate my son says DAD!!! Buck!!! There was a large buck coming out of the timber and walking down the road !! Right towards us . We froze . He was confident and didn’t seem to care that we were there at first . I couldn’t take a frontal shot so I waited to see if he was turning to head into the cut . Sure enough he started to pick up the pace . I literally ran into the cut , crashing through blackberries and slash. The buck stopped to look at what the noise was. I dropped down and aimed quickly Boom !! Smoke show the muzzle barked and I couldn’t see anything!! The smoke cleared my son was up the hill still I turned to him he yelled I had hit him. I didn’t see the deer at first but he had gone about 20 yards and was laying there. I thought holy smokes I just killed my first deer !! But them he just stood up and started walking away . I knew that he was hit but I couldn’t tell how bad. I quickly reloaded the muzzleloader ( as fast as I could) my hands were shaking pretty bad and I think I got half the powder in . The buck stopped and looked really out of it . I shot again and he just dropped. I just wanted to make sure he was not going to suffer. I waited a few minutes and then walked up to him. I had soooo many different emotions coursing through my mind . I’m still trying to put this into words. My son ran down the hill . He was so excited. I looked at the bullet holes right next to each other behind the shoulder. After getting him gutted which was a task that I had never done either I found the heart was grazed by the bullet! It was unreal !! I want to thank everyone on here that has helped me and responded to all me questions and given me words of encouragement!!
