We got back from our deer hunting excursion yesterday. Out of the four days of the muzzle loader season here in Ohio our group of 4 only killed one deer. But that can be attributed to a few things. It was our first time deer hunting the property, it was a different kind of hunting than we are used to, and I think the placed got pounded during the gun season. I think if we go again next year we should probably kill more deer. The hunt was a success for many reasons. We got to spend time outdoors, I got to better my still hunting skills, and my friend Henry killed his first deer!!! and it was a buck too, a small six point.
I almost got a doe on two occasions but on the first one the deer didn't cooperate and on the second one only my cap went off on my percussion style muzzle loader. But I won't get into details, I'll tell the story where Henry killed his deer because it's pretty cool. Sorry for it being kinda long. It was on the third day of the season and all of us were getting pretty discouraged because we weren't seeing many deer. So I decided to take a .17 HMR and get a few of the many gray squirrels that roamed around. Henry and I went out together and he took his black powder gun in case we saw a deer. We were sitting over a ravine at the bottom of a big hill which was to our left. I shot at a squirrel but i missed. Don't ask me how because I had him dead to rights. We had been there about an hour when my older brother came by still hunting about 30 yards above us on the hill. So we went and sat with him. Him and Henry sat together behind a big stump and I sat about 10 yards in front of them and was in the very top part of the ravine. I sat to their right a little bit to keep me from being directly in front of them even though they could only see my head. We had been their about an hour or so when my other friend jumped some deer while still hunting and they came down the hill right towards us, but they weren't moving too fast. We figured they knew they had to get away from something but they were far enough ahead they didn't have to run. Well, they walked right by us on the other side of the ravine, it was only about 10 yards wide. When I saw them I froze because they were about 15 yards from me and to my left a little. Then i heard the cap on my brother's Kentucky Long Rifle go off, which stopped the deer, and about a second later I heard the shot. The bullet hit the deer right into the shoulder. The deer jumped in the air with all four legs leaving the ground as it took off and we saw a blood spot on the deer. At first i thought my brother had had a hang fire but had still shot his first buck. But actually Henry had shot and I was equally excited since he had never killed a deer before. We all talked about what we saw while Henry reloaded and had a cigarette. Then we got on the blood trail. We only waited about 3 minutes to start tracking I wanted to wait about 10 but it was an excellent hit and Henry was getting antsy. The blood trail was just about as good as it could have been, blood everywhere. Henry and I got on the blood trail while my brother waited on our other friend to make it down the hill. When we were about 25 yards from the deer I saw it on the ground and Henry's face lit up like a 5 year old on Christmas! The deer had made it about 100 yards When a myself and my buddy were dragging it to flat spot to gut it out one of the antlers popped off. We figure it was getting ready to shed. Henry was a little upset but decided he'd super glue it or screw it back on some how.
Upon gutting it there was something a little strange though. There wasn't an exit wound but when we looked for the bullet we couldn't find it. It wasn't in the offside ribs or hide. So I rooted through the gut pile and the onside lung and heart were a mangled mess, but that's as far as the bullet went. It didn't go past the heart. I didn't find any fragments or the bullet. It had to be in there somewhere though. His inline is a .45 caliber and he was shooting 200 grain Hornady SSTs with 100 grains of Pyrodex. While the bullet did its job there still should have been more penetration. Would switching to heavier grain bullet help? All in all it was a good experience and we found a great place to go turkey hunting in the spring!!
