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Thread: Muzzle Loader

  1. #1
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    Muzzle Loader

    This weekend is the end of our muzzle loader season, used to be the bulk of my deer hunting each year, but haven't killed one with a muzzle loader since 2013. It's been Ok, because Kansas implemented a two day antlerless season in early October and I started getting out during archery again, but I wanted to use a muzzle loader again.

    Where I do most of my hunting is on Corps of Engineers property on the north end of Milford Lake. I've had a stand in one tree or another over an old stock tank maybe a half mile in from the lake for about 20 years now, never been a good stand for later season and I've never seen a good buck in there, but I usually see deer in early seasons and it has been a good producer, near a bedding site and in a wooded funnel between a couple of farmed fields they feed in.

    With all the rain we had this year, the lake flooded to nearly twice it's size this year, and this area was under water for a long time. Went out there a couple of days ago to check the stand and it's still awful wet, but a lot of deer sign including quite a few more buck rubs near my stand than usual.

    My primary stand out there is next to the water and is a really good, consistent producer on a real choke point between a heavily used bedding area and feeding areas and I usually see a lot of deer there, including good bucks during the rut and later season. That is a honey hole, but is also hard to get in and out of and is currently under water.

    It occurs to me, the flood may have moved more deer, including reclusive bucks closer to that stand over the stock tank. It's a bad spot for morning sits, would be impossible to get in there in the dark without being busted, but I'm gonna get out there tomorrow evening and sit that one. Not sure why, but I am strangely optimistic. Most years I kill two deer, occasionally three and sometimes I can get one or both of my boys to do so. Last year, I only killed one doe, neither boy was able to hunt and we're all but out of venison. Time to hunt seriously.

    Rifle is going to be a real cheap little CVA with a synthetic stock I bought from a kid who needed money a year or two back. It's a .54, and despite the crude sights and heavy trigger, it shoots the Lee REAL bullet quite well. Max range a shot could be is about 40 yards or so where I'll be. Everybody wish me luck tomorrow.

  2. #2
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    nagantguy's Avatar
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    Good luck!!! Muzzle loaders also accounted for most of my venison for nearly 20 years until the archery and contender bug really took hold! It a nice long muzzle loader season here- I think 17 days this year but mid December is awful cold! Most productive late season stand is on the high side of a large swamp scrub brush and a few oaks a small creek between feeding and bedding areas! My two nicest bucks and 3 of my top five have come out of that swamp; or where going into it!

  3. #3
    Boolit Master
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    Good luck!! Let us know how it goes!

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  4. #4
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    Rich it seems you need a canoe or jonboat to come in from timber creek public area...deer wont expect a quiet water approach from that direction, could get you in there for am sitdown. Just a thought...
    An old Cherokee was teaching his grandson about life. "Inside me two wolves fight," he told the boy.
    "One is evil - he is anger, envy, greed, arrogance, self-pity, resentment, lies, false pride, and ego. The other is good - he is joy, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, generosity, truth and faith. The same fight is inside you - and every other person, too."
    The grandson thought for a minute and asked,"Which wolf will win?"
    The old Cherokee replied, "The one you feed."

  5. #5
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    Rich, It sounds like you are going to have a fantastic time with that .54 cal muzzleloader. Your hunting area does sound like a honey hole. I expect a positive report soon on your hunt. I agree with the water approach. I have a bow hunting buddy who uses that approach where he hunts and he is successful at it. Not only that but it sounds like it would be a lot of fun as well. We are waiting for the results. No pressure of course.
    Mark 5:34 And He said to her (Jesus speaking), "Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed of your affliction."

  6. #6
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    Good luck!
    You guys are silly, all the big deer are close to the houses. lol I don't get out hunting much but when I do I usually park within 50ft of my stand. (My assigned area. I drive about 200 yards into the woods) I saw this guy coming out from the backyard of the neighboring house while I was standing at the back of my SUV eating a sandwich parked in the open in the woods about 10am. I saw him through the windshield. I blew the shot at 30yards as I rushed because he was headed right at me. Another member didn't miss 2 days later, it was his first season hunting.

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by RoyEllis View Post
    Rich it seems you need a canoe or jonboat to come in from timber creek public area...deer wont expect a quiet water approach from that direction, could get you in there for am sitdown. Just a thought...
    I have considered this and actually went out and put a little 8' fiberglass rowboat I have in the water where the road runs into Timber Creek and rowed in to my stand which was still out in the water, but not as far as now. I had a lot of fun, but with the flooding, it made the route very un-defined and there was so much floating debris and other stuff that I decided it would be foolish and dangerous for me to try to negotiate that in the dark. Normally, that honey hole stand I can get into quietly from land in the pre-dawn hours and that's the best time. If the lake ever goes back to normal, I will plan weekend hunts where I can bring the boat in the afternoon before, stash it close to the stand and walk back out, then back in before morning.

    The main reason would be that recovering a kill back to the truck would be much easier via water even though it's farther.

  8. #8
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    That sounds like fun. Wish I could sit in a stand that long. I get bad pain after 30-45 minutes. Good luck and let us know how you made out.

  9. #9
    Boolit Buddy
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    My son got a medium sized buck last weekend with my old TC New Englander shooting Lee REAL homecast over triple 7. I had pictures of a couple nice bucks a week earlier, but this was the only buck he saw. I think the bigger ones only moved through when the corn on the east and south sides of the property was being picked.

  10. #10
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    Get yourself a piroque boat and good luck to you.

  11. #11
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    Flooding …...get you some big hooks and go trolling for deer
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  12. #12
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    Well, nothing to show for it, but it was good to be out. Rained pretty good this afternoon and everything was wet, so I got wet and sat in the wind, got chilly. Gotta come up with a plan for tomorrow, I'd really rather get it done with a muzzle loader than deal with the cross bow this year.

  13. #13
    Boolit Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by richhodg66 View Post
    Well, nothing to show for it, but it was good to be out. Rained pretty good this afternoon and everything was wet, so I got wet and sat in the wind, got chilly. Gotta come up with a plan for tomorrow, I'd really rather get it done with a muzzle loader than deal with the cross bow this year.
    Blast, was thinking about this hunt today and hoped you'd bring home the backstrap. Good luck tomorrow

    Sent from my Moto G Play using Tapatalk

  14. #14
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    Yes I also gave your hunt some thought today. Like you, I just knew that everything was lined up and today was to be the day. I think someone forgot to inform the deer. Oh well as you said tomorrow is another day to enjoy the great outdoors. I hope you get to unload that front loader into a nice buck tomorrow.
    Mark 5:34 And He said to her (Jesus speaking), "Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed of your affliction."

  15. #15
    Boolit Master WRideout's Avatar
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    When I was in college, more than a few years ago, I was duck hunting with friends along the Sacramento River. The river was really high, and all the critters were pushed into the bushes along the edges. We saw a lot of skunks that day. A couple of the guys decided to walk farther downstream, and pushed a very fat buck out of the woods. He ran past us across a plowed field in the open, tongue hanging out. We just stood there looking, holding shotguns with duck loads. He might have been ten or twenty yards away.

    It seems I see deer during any open season except legal buck season.
    Wayne
    Last edited by WRideout; 10-13-2019 at 10:19 PM.
    What doesn't kill you makes you stronger - or else it gives you a bad rash.
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