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.