After a morning of missed opportunities, I filled my muzzleloader tag right about noon. A friend of mine took me out to a spot he rifle hunts; a spot which, as it turns out, is not very conducive to muzzeloading. It's totally different from my preferred method of spot and stalk, but when in Rome, hunt like the Romans. There are just so many coulees, small draws and depressions, small CRP pockets, and eyebrows that you can't effectively sit on vantage points and hope to pick each one apart. So we crept around, glassed, and peaked over into each one of those. We spotted 6 bucks in the morning, 2 of them legal. As they went over the ridge into a patch of winter wheat, we made our move. There was an eyebrow in the middle of the field, and as we crept to the edge they the two legal bucks jumped at like 50 yards. As they trotted, I put my bead on the biggest ones front shoulder, squeezed and CLICK. My back safety on my Knight turned on just enough for it not to go off. They ran over the next hill, so we followed hoping to watch where they were headed. They disappeared, until about fifteen minutes passed and they were headed right back at me. He stopped at 170 and wasn't getting any closer, so I shot and hit right under him. After that we hunted all over hell, seeing only 2pts and does. About noon we slipped through this flat up to the edge of a steep draw. Peeked over, glassed the only shade patch about 30 yards away, nothing. Brandon told me to go check over the next bump. After walking about 4 steps from him, I looked back at the shade spot and saw antlers. I sat down, picked out 3pts through the grass. So I beared down on where I thought his shoulder would be when he stood. We whistled for a while, and he didn't move. I was confident, so I put it below his ear and fired. I thought I saw his head disapper, but when the smoke cleared a buck was running away. I glessed him, but he was in full velvet. Not the buck I shot at. Both bucks had dug out pits to bed in so they would be fully in the shade. He is 21 inches wide, and I'm happy with him.
