Daniel Smacks His Nicest NC Buck to Date!

Here it is, the second weekend of muzzleloader in Central NC and I am still without a deer.  I’ve been putting in some time and seeing a lot of deer, they are just out of reach with my bow.  Well, I land back in Charlotte from a long week in Canada to find a voice mail from Bunk saying “Daniel, I know you don’t have a muzzleloader cause Lauren won’t let you have one. So… since my Wife”… this were it gets good and he pours a little salt in the wounds…. “has her very OWN muzzleloader and you still have yet to get a muzzleloader we might be able to let you borrow hers.  Now I know Lauren won’t let you get your own but you really need to have one this week.” Hearing this I decide to give him a call and see what we can work out.  After talking with Bunk we call Amanda, his wife, and head to the house.  Amanda proceeds to hand me her pink camo gun case, CVA muzzleloader tucked ever so nicely inside and explain how to load it.  We discuss what it’s sighted in at and several other things then head to the house.
At 430 Saturday morning the alarm goes off and I jump out of bed ready to head into the woods.  As always, I shower down in my Hunters Safety scent away soap and get all geared up.  It’s a perfect morning for a sit, I know the rut is in full swing and hear shots all around.  About 9:30 a big deer comes out of the thicket head down trying to pick up a doe in heat.  Just as quick ad he enters the field he scurries right back into the woods.  I grunted and bleated but he was zoned in.
That evening Lauren decides to come hunt with me.  Now up until this point she has yet to see a deer while hunting.  She also is dead set on shooting one with her bow, which is awesome!  So I take the CVA and she takes her Diamond.  We get into the woods  about to where she proceeds to through a fit in the stand because of spiders!  After 20 minutes of listening to her freak out I am ready to get down.  Anytime I’ve ever made that much noise I’ve never seen anything.  Finally she settles down leaning forward in the seat all night because of the spiders. Anyways, around 5pm I start to hear footsteps heading our way, I look to the left and here comes the 7 right down the scrape line!  At this point Lauren is playing on her phone and it’s too late to get the camera going.  I text her “DEER!!!” and her head pops up like a gophers out of a hole.  I get on it with the muzzleloader and watch as it comes toward us thinking “don’t even go in the woods” knowing if he turns to go back in I’m gonna have to shoot.  Now I am suppose to be the camera man, and she is lookin to shoot her first deer, but wouldn’t ya know it, it turns like its gonna head into the woods.  BOOM!!!  I didn’t even hesitate and once the smoke clears I see him going down.  Excited and pumped up I throw my hands up to look over and see her with a smerk like “I know you just didn’t shoot MY deer?!?”.   Well…I did!  Then in celebration mode I look back to see this deer stand back up and snow plow 5 yards, He goes down again, I quickly reload to watch him get up and do it again.  At this point I don’t know what to think as he falls in behind some small brush.  What seems like an eternity goes by and he’s back on his feet, standing looking around.  I get back on him shaking and look for blood and finally decide to shoot again, BOOM!!!  He goes down again! Surely he’s down for good this time, But because of all the excitement we decide to wait till dark to get down.
2 hours go by and we finally get down and Head to the truck to get some good lights.  We get to the spot of the first shot and find good blood. As we follow the blood I step on a twig which jumps the deer but he doesnt go far and we hear a crash.  Thinking that’s his last hurray we keep on the blood and as we get to we’re it’s open again I see eyes looking back at me.  I stumble not knowing what to do only to see him stand and hobble really slowly away. Again I am stunned and not knowing whether to jump on the deer or back out we finally decide to back out and come back in the morning.
After a sleepless night Lauren and I meet up with Bunk at the property.  We get to the last spot I saw the deer and see where he was laying.  Then as we look up I spot him not even 10 yds from where we jumped him.  After finding him I see I hit exactly where I was aiming on the first shot, which was just a little far back.  I drilled the back of a lung and his liver, he wasn’t going far.
I really would like to thank Ann, the property owner for allowing me to hunt on her property, Lauren for hunting with me and understanding me shooting, my dad for help tracking and Bunk for helping find the biggest buck I’ve shot to date.  Most of all I would like to thank God for allowing me to harvest such a beautiful deer.
Ps.  I still don’t have a muzzleloader but Amanda and Bunk’s sure is sighted in good!

Daniel Gunderman