Story - Hog Hunt(ish)

You never know what you are going to see when you are out in the wild. We all split up for a morning muzzleloader hunt. I climbed a tree by an old pond and waited for the sun to come up. After not seeing anything for a couple hours, I spotted what I thought was a deer running down a trail towards me. I threw the gun up and when I got the crosshairs on it I realized it was a little brown calf. All the cows were supposed to have been moved from this property, but I guess a couple got left behind. I hunted a little while longer before deciding to come down. I decided to cut up a ridge through a higher field on my way back to camp and when I got to the field edge I saw what I thought was a bear run off into the woods. I checked out the trails and found a spot to sit for next time. We went back to camp and hung out for a while. Robert and Amy doubled, so they weren't even going to hunt that evening. I just took the fourwheeler to the top of the hill, backed it into some briars, and sat there on it enjoying the scenery. About an hour later I saw something black out of the corner of my eye about 20 yards away. I thought it was a lab or wild dog at first, but when I got a good look at it I realized it was a hog. I threw up my gun and shot all in one motion before it went off into the briar thicket. After about 10 minutes I hopped off the fourwheeler and went to see if I could find the blood trail. I followed blood into some pretty thick woods, but when I realized I was crawling around on my hands and knees tracking a wounded hog I decided I should go get some backup. I raced the fourwheeler back to camp, hit the brakes sliding the back end around, yelled "I shot a hog! Bring a gun!", and took off without the wheels ever stopping. Robert and I ditched the muzzleloaders and headed into the brush with the pistols. About 80 yards into the tracking, we heard the hog running in the thicket with us. We decided to leave my hat as a marker and get back out to where it was more open. Before splitting up, Robert got his lip hung on a little shop of horrors briar and I had to come to the rescue. We got up to the edge of the field about 80 yards apart and I heard Robert start shooting as the briars and buck brush were splitting about 30 yards in front of him. I ran back to get the fourwheeler so I could drive around the briars and look down in them. I found the hog and he wasn't moving.
Robert: Shoot him!
Me: He's already dead!
Robert: Shoot him anyways!
Me: *POP* He's still dead!

 

 

Story - 2012 Late Season Buck

We went out real quick one warmer afternoon before bow season came to an end. I sat with the sun directly in my face the entire afternoon. I saw a few deer heading towards Andrew, so I sent him a text. He said later that he was sleeping and woke up just as they went out of sight. Finally as the sun went over the horizon, I could see more of what was going on around me. I heard something rustling in the leave about 30 yards from me for about 10 minutes behind a group of cedars. After a while I had just assumed that it was squirrels and came down off alert. Eventually I saw a buck and a doe feeding towards me. I got the buck in my crosshairs and waited for a clear shot. Finally he slowed down enough in an opening and I let one go. I saw the white fletching of the arrow sticking out of him as he ran off. Not much later it was dark, so we all got down to see what was going on. When I went to see where the deer was standing when I shot, I noticed the arrow sticking out of the ground. I couldn't figure it out since I had seen the arrow sticking out of him as he ran off. We trailed him for about 100 yards and found him. What I thought was fletching was a patch of hair missing from when he bumped a tree on his way out. As we dragged him back, his hair was falling out all over the place. I had not seen anything like it before. 

 

 

 

Muzzleloader Acorn

One day when we were sighting in our muzzleloaders I noticed that an acorn was about the same size as my .44 round ball. I wanted to shoot it to see what would happen. The load would be 20 grains of powder with a 10 grain projectile. How cool would it be to kill a squirrel with an acorn?

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.

 



 

 

 

Quick Morning Projects - Phone Stand and Belt Sander Angle Jigs

Since I am getting into the blogging a little heavier, I needed a way to make some quick videos. I have a camera on my phone, but it is difficult to get good angles with it unless someone is holding it. I got the chop saw out and cut a groove at 90 and 95 degrees. One lets me shoot horizontal and the other lets me slightly up or down.

I also got a belt sander to sharpen the knives with, but my fine grit belt and leather belt have not come in yet. The only thing I have right now is an 80 grit belt. I made a few jigs at 15, 20, 25, and 30 degrees to hold the proper angle. After using them though, I think that it would be best to learn to freehand at the correct angles except with the greater angles like 30 degrees. I tested a junk fillet knife on the 15 degree angle and it sucked the knife down between the belt and jig. The chisel on the 30 degree angle worked good though.

 

 

 

 

 

11/14/14 - 35 Whelen Deer

Robert shot these. I wasn't there.

Story - 2011 Muzzleloader

I went out muzzleloading one night and as I was driving out, I spotted a big buck heading towards the area I had been hunting. I told Robert about it the next day at work and we decided that we needed to go back and get him that evening. We went out and climbed up a couple different trees. About an hour into it I saw a doe come by about 30 yards, but I had decided that I was going to wait for the big one. As I watched her go off into the bushes, I noticed something moving to the right of me. I turned to look and it was a buck trailing her. I only saw two points on the one side before it went into the bushes. I radioed Robert and said "There's a forkhorn coming down the ridge, but I don't think he's legal."  About 5 seconds later I heard the boom. As we waited a bit to give the deer some time, I noticed that another little buck was coming up the field towards Robert. I radioed him again and said that he needed to shoot him when he gets there. Robert was out of the tree and standing on the ground with an unloaded gun by the time the deer got to him. He was whistling and waving his arms with orange on trying to spook the deer back towards me. Finally he had enough, loaded the gun, and shot the deer dead. I got down at this point and we met where he thought the deer had been standing. I had never seen so much blood. We followed a short trail of what seemed like five gallons of blood and found the big buck. He was not a forkhorn, but a solid six. When we were dressing him, there was some mayonnaise type substance pouring out of his neck. Disgusting. That was one of the toughest short drags also. This was before we had our ropes and harnesses and had no way to get the truck in there. Dragging with a hand grip is the worst way to accomplish the task. Your fingers get tired way before your legs and lungs do. Also in the pics below was our original hanging station at the house until someone stole my pulley out of the tree.