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2011 late muzz buck

SouthernIowa

PMA Member
Posted this in the PMA fisrt but i figured id share it with everyone now.
Well I got out of college for Christmas break on the 16th and couldn’t wait to get home and scout for late muzzleloader that opened on Monday. I drove three hours and didn’t even stop by my house before I drove around to check on the farms I can hunt back home. The second place I checked was the farm we own and man was I pumped when I hit the jack-pot. It was 4:45 when I pulled down the lane of the farm, I went and sat on some hay bales overlooking a large corn field and knew this was where I was going to be hunting on opening day. There were three large bucks that caught my attention right away, one being a monster 8 I missed on thanksgiving morning, (worst day of my 5 year long bow hunting career). The other two bucks in the field was a very big mainframe 10 with some junk on him and a nice sized clean 8.
I made sure to note where the bucks were and how I thought they were entering the field and came up with a game plan. There was already a bale pile to the north for a South wind another old bale pile on the East end for a West wind and around noon on Saturday I set a blind up towards the South end of the field for a North wind. So with a plan set up I just glassed the field till Monday.
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(blind I set up)
(Im going to keep this part short because I am still licking my wounds) I sat in the blind on Monday night and the big 10 came out as planned. I shot him and he dropped in his tracks. I was busy patting myself on the back when he started to get up. By now I’m freaking out trying to reload as fast as possible but when I finally got the scope on him he was running off just fine. Called a couple guys and they all said the same thing, I had hit him high in no man’s land just close enough to stun his spine for awhile but not a kill shot. Looked for blood Tuesday morning but just found a few drops and some hair right where he dropped, absolutely NO BLOOD TRAIL. I checked the thick draw he was running towards and a few other likely places around the farm and nothing.
I wanted to give the corn field a break so I hunted different farms Tuesday and Wednesday night but Thursday I was back in the blind in the corn field. I had high hopes but they were fading fast because I hadn’t seen a single deer by 4:30. Every other night there was usually some does in the field by 4:00. But sure enough about 4:50 a group of bucks jumped the fence and came into the corn field. I was bummed I didn’t see the 10 or the huge 8 I missed during bow season but the other clean 8 was in the group. I made sure to aim a little lower and let the TC bark. I saw the buck drop in his tracks but didn’t look at him again till I was reloaded and ready to shoot again if necessary. Thankfully this one wasn’t going anywhere.
Little bit of ground shrinkage on him but he is still a good deer. He actually turned out to be a 9 pointer with a G4 just barely an inch long on his left side. I had passed this buck last year and I’m ALMOST positive I have a few sheds to him. It’s always nice to get your hands on a buck you have some history with. I’m not too disappointed I didn’t get a crack at the huge 8 because I really want to harvest him with my bow and I’m really hoping the big 10 is alive and well so I can stick him with an arrow also.
All in all it’s been a great season, I shot a really nice buck on the 14th and I’m happy with this buck. I still have my land owner bow tag so I’ll be out every night after one of those two other bucks.
Good luck to everyone that still has tags!!! :way:
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well lots of people are talking about the ground shrinkage lol im very proud of this deer and i wasnt trying to take anything away from him i was just saying i thought he had a tad more mass on him and the other 8 really is a stud. He is by far the biggest 8 i have seen hunting. And the 10 I hit is prolly 10 to 15 inches bigger than the one i shot. Im a bow hunter at heart and i dont know why but if i would have taken one of the bigger deer with my muzz i would have been a little disappointed. i have nothing against people that do mainly hunt with guns at all its just my personal preference i guess. Ive never really had two or three deer of that caliber on the farm we own. Probably because dad took out all the dang cows this year lol.
 
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