Story - 2012 Muzzleloader

Muzzleloader season was upon us, but our scheduling wouldn't allow all of us to go on opening weekend so we decided to go out the second weekend. We left work early on Friday and got down there early enough to go check out a few spots. Brent and I set up a popup blind on the edge of a field under a cedar tree and brushed it in a little. When they say it is a 2-man blind, they mean two people can fit in it with no equipment. We were sitting in opposite corners from each other basically face to face looking past one another out the windows. It wasn't long before Brent spotted a few does in the field edge about 80 yards from us. He dropped the hammer on them and they disappeared in the smoke. After giving her some time, we saw a buck chasing a doe across the field about 500 yards away, but they weren't coming to us. We decided that Brent should take a radio out the back of the blind into the woods to see if he could sneak up on them. A little while later I heard him shoot and that buck ran back across the field. He stopped just before entering the woods and wagged his tail a bit before proceeding. Within a couple minutes of us calming down, I saw another tall buck coming across the field to where Brent was sitting. I radioed him and told him to hold tight. The field rolls and there was a time where the buck disappeared in the middle of the field. When he popped out on the other side, I radioed Brent and told him that the buck should be right in front of him. I heard a bang and then Brent come on the radio "What did you just say? I just shot a buck." That buck ran across the field into the woods about the same spot as the first one. We agreed that we should probably quit shooting for the day and go try to find some blood. As I was turning around, I saw a doe back behind me in the field. I got the gun up, but the sun was setting directly behind the deer. I could see a fuzzy outline of a deer in the crosshairs at about 90 yards so I squeezed one off. We called it quits for real that time. I got out and looked for blood on my doe, but we couldn't find anything. Brent found his doe right off. We went across the field to look for his bucks. It was dark at this point so we got out the flashlights and found a deer trail where the buck went into the woods. About 40 yards in we found the tall one and drug him out. We went back into the field and looked and looked for blood. We finally had the thought that they might have went into the woods at the same spot so we headed back in to where we found the tall buck. Walked a little further and found more blood. The first big buck had used the exact same trail as the second tall buck. We kept following blood for about 80 yards and found the big one. What a day. This was also the hunt that I lost my good flashlight. May it rest in peace.