NOV. 26-27
Craig and I went back down to Hocking Co. for the weeklong Ohio gun season. This was the first time that I hunted this land on opening day of gun season and I was concerned about the hunting pressure since there is public land bordering the private land that we hunt. I brought along both my shotgun and my 50 cal. Hawkins muzzleloader. I planned on using the muzzleloader on the dry days and if the weather got wet and nasty I would use the slug-shooting shotgun. I have never shot anything with the muzzleloader and I thought it would be neat to try. I was after a buck. We stayed in an old house built in 1880. Complete with an outhouse and various critters that go bump in the night.
Early Monday morning before daylight I made my way up the hill to the saddle that I bow hunted earlier in the month. I fastened my tree-seat to a tree at the top of the ridge. As soon as I got settled in I observed another hunter walking down the ridge toward me. I shined my flashlight his way and he finally saw me and turned around and headed somewhere else. I thought to myself that this is not starting out so good, and I wondered how many other gun toting hunters were in the area!
Soon after daylight I heard shooting all over but not in my immediate area. Most of the shooting came from the adjacent public land and I was hoping that the shooting would move the deer my way. About 9:00 a guy in a quad came down the trail and stopped and hunted about 20 feet from it! Soon his buddies showed up and they shot the bull for awhile. All this about 100 yards from me knowing that I was there! Finally they moved on.
About 10:15 a doe and two yearlings came up over the top of the saddle to my right and headed my way. They walked right in front of me and stopped broadside about 12 to 15 yards away. A perfect shot, but I wasn't after a doe so I let them walk.
About a half-hour later, while munching on a snack, I caught movement over my left shoulder. A buck came over the ridge about 80 yards away. I eased to the left and raised my 'smokepole' and cocked back the hammer. The buck heard the metallic sound of the hammer cocking and looked my way. He then turned and I fired. He took off like a bolt of lighting and headed down the ridge. As I quickly reloaded I heard a few shots, then a few more in another direction close by.
I eased my way over to the spot where the buck was standing when I shot and didn't see any signs of a hit. I picked up his trail where the leaves were turned up and followed it a few hundred yards or so until I saw the guy with the quad up down front of me. I went down to talk to him and he said that the buck ran in front of him and he fired a few shots at him. He said that the buck wasn't hit and that it was 'carrying the mail'.
By now I saw a few more hunters close by and they said that one of them shot at another buck that ran on the opposite side of the ridge that mine ran. Apparently there was another buck with the one that I shot at and he took off at the sound of the shot and ran their way. They said that they missed him also!
Well that was all the action for me for the rest of the day. I stayed on the saddle all day but didn't see another deer or hunter for that matter. There was shooting going on around the area occasionally, but nothing moved my way.
When I arrived back at the van Craig was there and he had a buck hanging from a tree! Here is Craig's story:
At 6:30 I headed west from the van and followed the creek, which would lead me to public hunting land (Mead Paper). I planned on hunting the western point of a north-facing hillside. As I was crossing a frost covered clearing I noticed a light coming towards me from the clear-cut ahead. It was another hunter. I decided that I wasn't going to mess up someone else's spot so I backtracked to the eastern point of the hill. (Little did I know that this was lady luck shining down on me!).
I then went up the point on a game trail quietly, if that's possible in size 11 boots, carrying a flashlight, a 12 ga. shotgun, fanny pack, and an old canvas Boy Scout pack, all with a fair share of natural clumsiness. As I approached the top of the hill I heard something just over the ridge. This ridge top is a good bedding area so I decided to sit down right there and wait for the sun to come up. Well as luck would have it, nature called, wonderful, you know the drill.
The sun was just breaking the horizon when a button buck popped its head up over the ridge less than 20 yards in front of me, (that must have been what I heard earlier). It took a couple of steps toward me. I had no intention of shooting. It soon trotted off down the hill. I sat there for another hour as the sun warmed things up and didn't see anything else, although it sounded like a war going on around me.
I then moved west and down the face of the hill, back into the shade, and set up between two trees that had fallen across each other. I was facing down the hill on the first terrace from the top and I had a very good field of view all around.
About 10 minutes later I heard shooting from behind me along the ridge. Soon I heard something heading my way. Then 4 small does and 2 small bucks came running around the point from my right. When they headed down the point I fired quickly once, and missed, and then jacked a second shell into the chamber as the trailing buck stopped behind some trees. I drew a bead on an opening and waited for him to step in the clear. When he did I pulled the trigger. "Click" nothing happened! Off ran the buck. I must not have made the full trip with the slide, which didn't feed another shell into the chamber.
About 30 seconds later I heard something else a lot closer to me coming around the point. It was two bigger deer! One of them stopped just below the deadfall that I was leaning against. In an opening I could see antlers that were not bad size. My gun was already up, with the safety off, when he stepped around the treetop broadside at 20 yards. I aimed behind the shoulder and squeezed the trigger, and down he went right where he stood! I then checked to make sure he was dead and noticed instead of hitting him behind the shoulder he was hit in the throat and between his shoulders in the spine. That was luck!
I filled out the deer tag with shaky hands and hooked it to his ear. He was an 8 pointer with a small brown rack, not quit as wide as his ears. Maybe 2.5 years old and 100-120 lbs. field dressed. This was only my second deer, and my first buck, so I'm pretty excited. I'll have venison to eat this year..Craig
Tuesday morning was warm and rainy. It rained about 2 inches overnight. We stayed in and had a big breakfast and waited for the rain to let up. When it did I headed up the North ridge with my shotgun and planned to walk and stalk to try to jump a buck. Craig said that he would walk around and try to move some deer my way. It was warm, wet and foggy and you could walk quietly on the rain soaked leaves.
As I made my way to the top of the ridge I had to sit down to wait for the fog to lift. After it did I removed my rain jacket and proceeded over the ridge. As I slipped my way down to an old drag road I heard a shot from the ridge across the road and soon heard the neighbors yelling that one of them shot a buck. I thought that this commotion might chase some deer my way and I quickly headed down to a spot where the hillside drops off steeply. I figured that if I made it to this rim I would be able to see down a long way.
When I was about 20 yards from the rim a small buck came up over it! I instinctively raised my shotgun, aimed and fired. He whirled around and disappeared below the rim. I then just stood there, trying to listen to which way he went. I didn't hear anything! I pumped in another shell and walked up to the rim and looked to see if he was lying there. He wasn't. I then just stood there looking back and forth down the hillside to see if I could catch a glimpse of him. The wooded hillside is fairly open with mature trees and very little underbrush. I though I heard something to my right but I didn't see any movement.
After a few minutes Craig showed up at the top of the ridge. I motioned to him to go east towards the point and swing down to me. I then checked out the spot where the buck was standing and found a bunch of white hair but no blood. I thought that I might have hit him low. I tried to find places where the leaves were kicked up but could not find any good indication of a trail. Craig soon met up with me and said that he saw a buck slowly running towards the point.
I then headed up the hillside to find a drag road to follow to the point while Craig planned on walking low on the hill to see if he could jump him up. While walking down the drag road I noticed where the leaves were scuffed and that there were deer tracks in the mud underneath. I followed the tracks for about a hundred yards or so when I noticed movement up ahead of me. There he was! He kicked once or twice, rolled over and died right there on the drag road! I lucked out finding him that quickly without a clue where he went. I hit him in the lungs but he still ran along way. He was a small 7 pointer.
Well that's it for deer hunting this year. We both are tagged out. We have seen a lot of young bucks this year. There still should be plenty around for next year. I hoped your enjoyed my stories. Bring on turkey season!!!..Steve
