I had a very successful deer hunting season in Ohio, as a couple of the stories posted on this forum show from gun season. The Muzzleloader season runs for four days in early January and I had an antlerless tag yet to fill and time to go. Driving down the mud lane to the property in the afternoon allowed me to park near the field edge but out of sight. After making sure all the gear needed was where it needed to be I peeked around the brush toward the block of woods a couple hundred yards to the east. Though I was there about 3 p.m. a doe was already browsing over there on the edge cover. When she fed back into the trees I walked fast to the northwest corner of the woods to begin to slowly still hunt with the breeze in my face.
Spot & Stalk and Still Hunting are my two most favorite methods to hunt, but normally around here that doesn't happen often. Because of the wind direction and that the fellow who usually hunts the woods wouldn't be there the chance was offered, this is what I did. It took about an hour of taking a step, looking through the brush and trees for a while before taking another step to advance about 80 yards into the woods. Suddenly movement caught my eye coming from right to left about 25 yards ahead. When the antlerless deer stepped out from behind a tree into the open I pulled the trigger on the .54 Lyman Great Plains Rifle as the PRB caught it somewhat angling toward me more than I thought it was. In an instant smoke was in the air, floating to my left, the deer bounded NE through the trees and a second deer trailing the first showed itself as it ran off to the right.
The blood spoor showed a solid liver hit, with stomach matter included. Death was assured from the sign, but with liver hits they can run off a piece before succumbing to the lethal wound. I called the the man who owns the land to the north, as the old boundary fence line was in the way of the deer's exit trail. He knows me and gave me permission to access his property to recover the game. Then I called my son, who is excellent in tracking deer sign before I continued to follow up the shot. The blood was pouring out very well down the bank to the drainage, and then it nearly dried up as the terrain leveled out some. By this time my son had arrived and took up the trail while the sun had set and he had the only light between us. All indications was that fat had covered up the boolit hole when the deer ran up the opposite creek bank, allowing very little blood to leak out. I would fan out to check the creek areas deer sometimes go to die in.
The sign was getting hard to decipher and the ambient light was fading fast. I stopped and talked to God, letting Him know that He had given me a wonderful hunt this afternoon, which I appreciated, and that I wanted to find that deer before the coyotes would find it if left overnight. Immediately, with the last of the dim light left I walked due north from where my son was, as it just appeared to be where that deer would have run, about 30 yards. There I noticed a game camera about waist height on a young black walnut tree, then the deer laying about 18" to the right of the base of that tree in the brambles. "Yes!" "I found the deer," I called out to my son.
Muzzleloader BB January 2026.jpg
It turned out to be a button buck, but that was alright. My grandkids will have more meat sticks to snack on, which means it will go to a good cause.
LORD willing, until next season we will eat well and look forward to next fall when we can do this again.
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Originally Posted by 725
