my hands are gonna be really cold after i get done field dressing this doe....
edited... it was a button buck
edited... it was a button buck
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2022 Muzzleloader Season
- Thread starter Wildlife
- Start date
Smawgunner2
Active Member
I’ll bet! It’s brutal out here. The wind is picking up now. Starting to snow in my blind
literally!
Rubber gloves seem too add some protection from the wind and my hands stay warm while gutting
Cardio was done this muzzy season! Flatland my ass!
Sgt Fury
Sgt. Spellchecker
Do I even have to say it again?
Final confirmation of the missed shot on the Sunday afternoon doe, 1/9/2022.
Before I left for today's hunt earlier this morning, I studied the Tactacam video footage of the shot taken on the doe that I missed Sunday afternoon and determined exactly where she was standing and what trees were behind her at that very moment of the shot taken. I cared to do that because I wanted to locate if possible any signs of where exactly my Barnes 290gr bullet ended up at. Well, as you see in the above photos, I found the little Sapling that that got drilled, which to me, it totally confirms that I missed that deer completely.
The winds at the time of the shot had picked up considerably from the West, which may have pushed the projectile to the left of the deer because of the crosswind, missing her to the front rather than being low, and that's based on the height of the pierced hole through the Sapling shown above, which I do believe that I had the right height, just didn't adjust for windage correctly at the time for 125 yards approximately.
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Today I saw only two deer.
One was another real good shooter buck at 4:15 p.m. that was skirting right along the inside of the woods straight across from me, just off the field edge, slowly headed south. As he reached the end of the field, still inside the woods, another deer popped out, which was a rather large bodied antlerless deer. So big in fact, it might have been a shed buck because it certainly looked much bigger than any doe I've seen in the area, but, I couldn't be certain of that either because the deer was approximately 160 yards away at the time. That deer ended up turning back around to the South and traveled back into the wooded area and finally out of sight by 4:30 p.m. I did not see any other deer for the entire day.
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So, out of the 3 1/2 solid days of muzzy hunting for me, I saw a total of 7 deer near my hunting setup. I could have shot a small young button or young small doe yesterday (one set of the twins in the area), but choose not to. They were well within range at 68 yards at 5:10 p.m., both standing broadside for several minutes at a time. Instead, I watched them feed for about 20 minutes, then they traveled back inside the woods headed towards the big pines.
I must say though, there seems to be a big difference with regards to daylight deer activity between last year's muzzy season at this property where I had 7 deer within the first 15 minutes of legal time on January 3rd and I shot a nice doe just before 8:00 a.m., than this year's season where I did not see any deer in the morning hours.
I suppose you can say, I just ain't as lucky this year I guess. I did have my chance though, and I screwed it up. My missed opportunity for this season. oh-well.
Can't really say why the big difference in deer activity when I know the deer numbers are still quite healthy for this property. Perhaps this year's muzzy season starting a week later than last might have made the difference. I do know that, at my home, I had a ton of deer activity within the first week of January 2022 during daylight. I did however, see a couple of good bucks the last two evenings at this property, which is different than last year.
Anyhow, just sharing a small observation/analysis/opinion in comparison of the two muzzy seasons, 21/22, last year and this year's. I still had a bunch of fun though even though the temps were brutal at times. I did stay warm enough however. I will have to go back to the property at a later time to retrieve my blind because it's frozen solid to the ground. Whenever we get a good thaw, I'll go grab it then.
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Finally, I care to complete this thread for me by saying,
Congratulations to all those hunters that successfully harvested a deer this muzzy season of 2022 and thank you very much for sharing your success with all of us!
So. . . The wind blew a 200-300 grain bullet? You sure you didn't just blow thru the deer and get poor/lacking blood trail? Or maybe flinched and missed? Just trying to make sense of the scenario you are trying to make sense of. Not a dig at you. I cannot fathom my muzzle loader round blowing off course in 100-150yds. Maybe an inch? Possibly two inches off? Not enough to miss the vitals if I aimed center mass or even right on the shoulder.
How far behind the deer was the sapling?
How far behind the deer was the sapling?
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Denny, I'm on the same page as Phil, I don't think wind was an issue... We all miss, so it's nothing against you...
10 yards within the woods is the sapling.
I will say I didn't shoot from the greatest position from within the blind. I normally shoot from off my chair utilizing the tri-pod but, for the shot taken on her, I was standing in crouch position, off the chair using the tri-pod, so I could have flinched a little possibly. When I went to check for blood and hair minutes afterwards, that is when I noticed how much windier it had got at that time, with gusts up to 30 mph and I could not tell that when I was in the blind at the time of the shot.
My blind is setup down inside the largest dip within the field of within the wooded finger where the largest riverine begins and the riverine goes straight down to a creek bottom 500 yards away to the North and approximately 250' lower in elevation. The deer was basically at the highest point in elevation within the field SE from me when the shot was taken and there was nothing to stop nor deflect the wind because she was standing well beyond the furthest point of the wooded finger I was within. Nothing but open field and blustering wind when I took the shot. I aimed for the front left shoulder at the time, I now believe I missed her to the front chest area because of the height of the found hit on the sapling.
I missed regardless how it happened. I wanted to know just how I missed and yes, I do believe the wind had a significant impact.
My ballistics program (strelok pro) has my muzzleloader load (Hornady 240 gr xtp mag at about 1970fps) moving >17 inches at 150 yards with a 20mph wind. It's 26+ inches with a 30 mph wind at the same distance.
I never would have imagined such drift. Thanks for sharing Hedge. My apologies to Denny. I'll take statistical data over the "I find it hard to believe" thought going thru my head. With a 40gr bullet I wouldn't have thought twice about drift. Just never thought a ML bullet would move like that.
7 & 11 inches (20 & 30 mph)
I ran it with the data from my 10/22; 9 & 13 inches at 100 yards. 1.9 & 2.9 with my precision AR running a 77 gr 5.56 load. 5 & 7 with my 350 legend.
The slow velocity and not a streamlined bullet is what makes the difference.
Big_Holla
Senior Member
I'm sure the scope is just fine, but I will be doing that later today with the load that is in it currently. Everything is tight and the scope never got bumped during my travels. In fact, I haul my rifle out to my blind while it remains inside my gun case and I only pull the rifle out when I go to take the shot. I checked the zero for 100 the Friday before muzzy opener and it was perfect.
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