John Busts One with his Muzzleloader!

I got off work yesterday on time and knew if I hurried up I could slip on the edge of a standing soy bean field. It is one of the very few standing soy bean fields around, the rest have already been harvested! I only had 30 minutes of daylight and I definitely couldn’t make it back to my stand on the back end of the field so I when I got to the property I jumped out of the truck, muzzleloader in hand and slipped just around the edge of the field. Busted! I heard 3 or 4 deer in the small head of woods take a few leaps back into the draw. Nothing after that though. No blowing, no stomping, they hadn’t made me. I just dropped to my knees and shuffled closer to the cedars on the edge of the woods. Now, I am not in the woods… I’m on my knees at the edge of the field! I sat there for a second and thought to myself “You really don’t think this is going to work do you?” I sat there on my knees for about 10 minutes facing the direction I heard the deer bolt off. I figured that they didn’t spook so they would step back out in a few minutes. Well, while I was waiting out the deer in front of me I heard some soy beans being kicked around. I slowly turned my head to see 4 deer in the soy bean field 60-70 yards behind me! They were in the far side of the field so I knew they were not the same deer I was waiting on to return to the field. Now I was in a predicament! I was facing the oppopsite way with my muzzleloader on my shoulder. I slowly starting turning around, pivoting on one knee and they never saw me. I started to shoot a few times but I was in such an awkward postion, I couldn’t get the crosshairs steady on the biggest doe. Finally I adjusted my knee and got a little better rest going on. KA-BOOOM! I saw smoke first then soy beans and dirt fly… I missed! The 2 biggest does just walked over to the edge of the field and got behind some cover. Not real spooked but knew they didn’t want to stay in the open field until they figured out what just happened. As I pouted I noticed the other smaller does did’t move. They kept looking in the opposite direction thinking the loud noise came from there. “No way… are they going to let me re-load this thing?” I started to ease another load into my muzzleloader, slipped a cap in place and shouldered the ‘ol smokepole once again. At this point I was standing and had my stance like I like it. Sure enough the does started eating soy beans again! I steadied the crosshairs on the doe that was broadside… KA-BOOOOM! Never saw where she went because as the smoke cleared, so did the deer. I heard her hit the soybeans and plow threw them though. I knew I had made a good shot on her but I walked to the truck to get another load for my fire stick and get a good flashlight.

I walked to where I marked 2 points where the deer were at the time I shot. No blood. Not a drop. I walked up and down the rows of soybean and nothing. I knew I hit her so I wasn’t planning on giving up anytime soon. I walked into the old over grown CRP field and followed a few trails for 20-30 yards each looking for blood or signs of crashing. Nothing. I kept thinking to myself “I know I hit that deer good.” I kept at it. No blood, no signs of the deer crashing. This is nuts! Finally after checking 30-40 yards down each trail exiting the field I found her! Perfect shot. Guess she jumped and lunged forward a couple times, she didn’t drop a single spec of blood until I was on top of her.

This by no means is a huge deer, not the matriarch doe I attempted to shoot first but it was a great hunt! I guess I can put this in the category of a semi-stalk hunt. I knew I would have a chance hunting that soybean field but never would have thought I would get a chance at one just sitting on my knees at the edge of the field. Nevermind the fact that I was able to re-load my muzzleloader and shoot again! This was a fun hunt. I held that smile for quite some time last night…