Hey guys, this is my first game report thread...I enjoy the forum, just joined a while back.
I decided to try muzzy hunting for the first time for a couple reasons, I like trying new things and I have access to about 700 acres in 382 where there is a late general muzzy season. I thought it might be fun to hunt the rut and maybe even hunt in snow, something I had always wanted to do. I normally hunt archery and spend lots of time swatting bees off me.
Well the big fire out that way had my landowner nervous so I didn't hunt the early season at all. Not a problem, because I drew the second deer tag for that late time period and thought I would just make one trip of it.
I borrowed a Thompson Northwest Explorer .50 cal and started to get familiar with it. First time shooting it I couldn't hit paper at 100 yards and we only had the few rounds that the guy had included in the gear he loaned. I headed off to the store to get what I needed. Interestingly, I have never seen a method of hunting that has such a variety of opinions on what is the "right way to do it" Just about everyone has a different loading, hunting and equipment idea that they swear is the best. I learned it takes lots of experimentation to find out what works for you.
Next time at the range I start at 50, work back to 25 and finally am shooting bulls at 25 when I break the jag off and screw up the ramrod. This is the day before I am going hunting (late I know). I head out to Goldendale unsure of my weapon's accuracy beyond 25 yards. This has me VERY uncomfortable. I decide to hunt the morning and try to fill the doe tag and to treat it like my bow, I won't shoot past 50 yards and if it is dead on at 25, how much can it be off at 50?
The morning is perfect, cold and 6 inches of fresh dry powder snow. Cutting fresh tracks is fun! I find two does bedded down, they stand up when I get to 40 yards. BOOM! No deer. Find another doe, 37 yards. BOOM. no deer. Find a third doe 45 yards. BOOM. no deer. This is ridiculous.
The nice thing about fresh powder snow is you can be absolutely sure have missed. I decide that hunting like this is pointless and making me uncomfortable ethically. I string up a 10 x 10 tarp with paper in the middle so it will make figuring out where I am hitting easier. Still dead on 25, 3 FT HIGH at 50.
Well, I'm not sure how to deal with it, but I get it on paper and head back out.
Next doe is 65 yards. BOOM! Clearly hit, but I don't like the way she runs off. We head over to where she was when I shot her and I find some guts in with the blood. I decide to give her two hours.
We come back and track her in the snow. Find her very much alive but not wanting to move. I finish her off and celebrate my first muzzy kill and am happy that I didn't lose a deer.
These pics make her look smaller than she is, but she wasn't huge. I don't care, meat in the freezer and I'm less frustrated than I was earlier. One thing is bugging me...in all the sighting in I had many hang fires and the BOOM when it came, was always delayed...pop...boom... When I pull the trigger i am praying it goes off.
My dad and I drive through the big field up to what I call the orchard (all small oaks, they love the acorns). I drag her out and we are both standing there talking when I hear a deer bleat. I look up and see a big buck coming in on a rope...wow, so this is what they do in the rut? He bleats, I reload...he hears me on the ramrod but doesn't seem to care...Is he charging us? At 20 yards I finish reloading, he scurries to the right and stops broadside at 35 yards. He is a big tall 3x3 with decent mass and good eye guards. One of two deer I had seen that I was hoping to get.
I pull the trigger. pop. no boom. I try another cap, he jumped out to 45 yards. pop. no boom. He has had enough and hightails it out of there. I decide I can't deal with this gun and head home. I'll come back when its working.
