Danceswithdeer and his '05 black powder buck

It started snowing right at dusk and I hoped it would get heavy enough over night to have a tracking snow the next morning. Winds were forecast 15-20mph and from the WSW, a direction which really kills hunting on our property. I tossed around where to go all evening as I worked on canning and making jerky out of the doe I had shot a week before. When I finally went to bed at midnight there was a good bit of white stuff on the ground, enough for tracking, it had cleared off and the temperatures were dropping. I decided I would wait and go hunting later in the morning in case other folks might be out, so I could avoid infringing on them or vice versa. I set the alarm for 6:30.

When the alarm went off I got the coffee started, woke up my daughter and did my regular non-hunting season routine. Got the kid off to school, fed and watered the critters and by 8:30 I was just about to start getting ready to hunt. I still couldn’t decide where to go so I figured I’d just drive around checking spots till I found one that pulled my strings. I called my brother to be sure he would be able to help me get a deer out if I should happen to see one I liked. I fouled the bore on my White 97 .410 with a couple of shots, started putting on the layers of clothing trying to be smart cause I was gonna be walking mostly. Checked my possible bag, measured out one charge and slipped a Mose 400gr gas check in the charger and dumped the powder, I was ready for my backup if I needed it. Grabbed my hunting coat, lucky hat I’d just found finally and loaded my gear in the truck. I was on the road at 10:30.

The first couple of spots I visited had fresh vehicle tracks in the parking lots and I checked dirt lanes for deer tracks that had been made since the precipitation and found very few, nothing worth my attention. I was driving by another area access and could see the dirt road was not traveled recently. It was an area I hadn’t been in before so what the heck, I’ll learn some ground today anyway so I backed up and turned down the dirt road. There were quite a few fresh tracks on the lane and a couple really big sets caught my eye. I pulled into the parking lot, loaded up my gun with 73gr of pyrodex P and one of Mose’s beauties, slipped on my coat, checked all my gear and headed off down the service road. It was 11:15.

I had a ways to go to get the wind right and the first 1/2mile was wide open so I used that first little bit to get my senses in tune and slow myself down to still-hunting speed. I actually went all the way to the lakeshore and started working my way N keeping inside the timber about 10yds. I started seeing fresh sign as soon as I dropped in the ditch that took me to the lake. I slipped along quiet as could be and the wind in my advantage for ¾ of a mile. Stopping occasionally to watch one of the oak flats that were out of the wind for a few minutes in hopes of catching a buck checking out the few doe’s I would see from time to time. Several times I would see bucks, most were under the 4pt restrictions and a couple would be really nice if given a few more years. Considering where I was at and the access, it was gonna take a pretty good deer to get me to shoot. Since I had left my binoculars at the house, I never really got a real close look at their racks, but what I was looking for would be pretty obvious from the get go and there would be no speculation with a clear view inside 100yds.

About 1½ miles into my fun I entered a valley just loaded with very fresh buck sign. Scrapes had been worked, trees ripped to shreds, and lots of red oak acorns that the deer were feeding on. I went on full alert, I covered maybe another 10yds and I popped a twig. That was enough to cause some concern for a doe I had been watching as she slept in her bed 40yds away on a hillside. She decided to move. Shortly I see a pretty good buck follow her up the hill and into a cedar thicket. I work on up the next ridge and gain a vantage point to watch both hillsides and the valley. I gave it an hour to let them bed down and get settled in again because they weren’t spooked, just unsure.

Lots of ducks worked over during my wait making me question whether I’d chosen the right quarry for today. The squirrels went about their business, whatever that is, and a flock of at least 1000 geese decided to call the arm of the lake I was on home for the afternoon. After 45 minutes I started to feel a chill and I worked off the ridge, dropped down into the ditch and worked my way through the cedar thicket they had been in. Nothing but a tree full of squirrels yelling at me and tons of fresh deer sign. I start up the next ridge following a firebreak and came to a long narrow opening that had been worked and sowed with legumes and WSG this past summer. On the opposite side was a cedar thicket that had been burned sometime in the previous year and you could see rather well because the lower branches had been burned off. Then I saw it, a glint of a small ray of sun off antlers next to a scrub oak tree on the opposite edge of the field 40 yards away.

Not having my binoculars I had to get closer so I backed down the ridge and quietly made my way to the N end of the field. I made my way very-very-very slowly along the edge of the wide open field. I had to get close to see his horns and being under that tree was only gonna make it tougher to see them. I started making my way down the field just 5 yards out from the edge. At 12 yards away from him my boot caught on a ground cherry plant and made a scraping noise. I immediately dropped to one knee and shouldered my gun. The buck raised his head and looked right at me with his hair all bristled up. At this point I was thinking two things, he was either sick or was gonna whoop me. Gradually his head started to bounce and he put it back down and now I was really convinced he was sick, but I still couldn’t tell if he was legal. I raised up some and take two more steps closer, again I make just a whisper of a noise and he raises his head up. At this point I can see a browtine on the typical side so I know he’s legal. I squat down and he turns his head toward me and I see a point coming out of the base curling around his eye and other stickers protruding from the base of the NT side. Amazingly his head starts that nodding like the old farts after Thanksgiving dinner and he begins to lower it, I decide to shoot cause this deer just has to be sick so I tucked the sight behind the shoulder facing me and squeezed away. At the shot he came up out of his bed and turned to face me, then crumpled, the Mose Boolet caught him in the 4th rib quartering away, exited in front of the off shoulder and had done quick work, it’s 3:30.

I got over to him and instead of shrinking this one got a tad bigger. Has a very heavy beam and points on the typical side and very unique features on the NT, ending up with 12pts of an inch or greater. I’m elated and start checking for another bullet hole, injury, something that would show a reason for his scraggly look prior to me shooting him. I find nothing, and his coat looks perfect now except for one spot where another deer had taken a bite out of his hair on the rump and the battle wounds and scars around his face and neck. I finally come to the conclusion he was just getting bristled up thinking some other buck was infringing on his nap. His horns are slicked up and he is very lean from the rut. Looks to be an older deer by the teeth and body traits, I decided one of them rank ones that sticks his nose into everything and that’s why he was so tired. I field dress him, attach my transportation tag and start the drag. I get 300yds over a couple ridges to the edge of a wheat field where I can find him easily, right at dark. I whizz in a circle around him to ward off the yotes, put a jacket on top of him and head for the truck that’s another ¾ of a mile away with a newfound spring in my step.

I got home told the kid to get dressed for a walk, call my brother tell him the news and set up my Nite Lite Pro Pam just got a month earlier for my X-Mas present. We meet my brother at the dirt lane at 6:30 and make the walk back to him. They both think he’s pretty cool looking too! We get the pole lashed to his horns and start dragging rotating turns so we don’t get worn out and are back to the truck with him loaded and us leaving at 7:30.

Reflecting back on yesterday, I think it was one of the most enjoyable hunts I’ve had by myself in some time. I wasn’t in a hurry, had no cares and could hunt as long as I wanted. There was no one else in the area so I could go wherever and not worry about infringing on others. Topped it off with a perfect stalk on what turned out to be a very nice and unique deer, and got my family involved in the end. I’m beginning to think this late season hunting is more my speed. I’ll probably concentrate more on others success during the gun season and make sure I save some time for myself during BP in the future.