I was hunting out of a box stand nestled on the edge of a oak bottom facing a field with a small section that had just been planted with oats. A strip of oak trees ran the length of the field separating it from the cutover on my right side. I had hunted the same stand that morning and had seen a buck dogging a doe but too far off to get a good look. That evening I had been giving a series of grunts during the last hour of light when I caught a glimpse through holes in the oaks of a couple of deer running through the cut over going from left to right. A little while later I caught a glimpse of a bigger bodied deer going from right to left. After 20 or so minutes a doe poked her head through the oak strip and then back in again then came out of the trees and was heading down the oats quickly toward me. Then two more deer popped out and headed toward me. By the time I figured out I needed to shoot the lead doe, she was concealed by some branches right next to the stand. I then decided to shoot one of the younger does because I was aiming on getting a good start on filling the freezer. Light was fading fast and as I was lining up on one of the does another deer busted out of the oaks and I could tell by the body it was a buck. I quickly shifted the crosshairs to his shoulder and squeezed the trigger. After the smoked cleared, I heard some crashing and then silence. The other three deer were still there as I reloaded and I hoped to shoot another one but as I closed my rifle, they took off. I got down and went to look for signs of a hit. I went to where I thought he was when I shot and started walking down the fence line toward the stand and there he was, my first muzzleloader deer. I have owned four muzzle loading rifles and this was the first deer I had ever shot at with one over approx. 15 years. Glad it was with the Huntsman!
