Late Muzzleloader Whitetail

[Shortbowshot]

Myself and big brother caught a couple days off to head up to northern Missouri to hunt the late season.
We have 4" snow and a sultry -3 temp tonight. A rare combination for us Arkies. Hopefully it'll put the deer on their feet.
We just rolled in and have Monday and Tuesday to hunt. Hopefully the weather, coupled with modest expectations will stir up some action. Pretty much if it's legal it's fair game.

 

[fishing4sanity]

Good luck and looking forward to some updates!

 

[Gellar]

Myself and big brother caught a couple days off to head up to northern Missouri to hunt the late season.
We have 4" snow and a sultry -3 temp tonight. A rare combination for us Arkies. Hopefully it'll put the deer on their feet.
We just rolled in and have Monday and Tuesday to hunt. Hopefully the weather, coupled with modest expectations will stir up some action. Pretty much if it's legal it's fair game.

I’m a sucker for cold weather muzzleloader hunt! Good luck!

 

[Wallydeuce]

It'll be a nice addition to your Utah elk. Good luck!

 

[redwoood]

They were on their feet tonight forsure! Good luck!

 

[Shortbowshot]

We still hunted this morning. It was pretty cold 0 at daylight. Not much was happening until the sun came up. About 8 I caught a buck moving up the opposite hillside about 5-600 yd. He seemed to be heading into a hardwood draw so with a (this'll never work) I headed across trying to drop into the draw above him.
About 20 min later I eased into the timber and sat down. Much to my surprise it worked I caught movement and 3 bucks were walking straight too me.
At about 80-100 yd they disappeared I knew they couldn't have left without me seeing them. I finally picked one out they had bedded. So at the end of another 30 minutes of trying to find a lane through a wicker basket my feet were getting seriously cold. I attempted to rake a bush to get them up. It worked a bit too well. No shots fired .
This evening we changed areas hunting between bedding and feed. My evening was pretty uneventful except for a creek crossing that went south.
My brother had a bit more action with a buck to go along with it. He left his muzzleloader in the truck and carried his Thompson Contender.( MO allows alternative weapons in the late season.)
The guy's as lucky as anyone you've ever met.( Beaver Utah Elk this year with 8 pts) anyway the buck got to 15 yds behind cedars before he knew it was there. Then spooked and ran to 104 yds where he proceeded to make an offhand shot with the pistol.
Until tomorrow.

 

[fishing4sanity]

Congrats to your brother and good luck in the morning.

 

[Gellar]

We still hunted this morning. It was pretty cold 0 at daylight. Not much was happening until the sun came up. About 8 I caught a buck moving up the opposite hillside about 5-600 yd. He seemed to be heading into a hardwood draw so with a (this'll never work) I headed across trying to drop into the draw above him.
About 20 min later I eased into the timber and sat down. Much to my surprise it worked I caught movement and 3 bucks were walking straight too me.
At about 80-100 yd they disappeared I knew they couldn't have left without me seeing them. I finally picked one out they had bedded. So at the end of another 30 minutes of trying to find a lane through a wicker basket my feet were getting seriously cold. I attempted to rake a bush to get them up. It worked a bit too well. No shots fired .
This evening we changed areas hunting between bedding and feed. My evening was pretty uneventful except for a creek crossing that went south.
My brother had a bit more action with a buck to go along with it. He left his muzzleloader in the truck and carried his Thompson Contender.( MO allows alternative weapons in the late season.)
The guy's as lucky as anyone you've ever met.( Beaver Utah Elk this year with 8 pts) anyway the buck got to 15 yds behind cedars before he knew it was there. Then spooked and ran to 104 yds where he proceeded to make an offhand shot with the pistol.
Until tomorrow.

Awesome!! Congratulations to your brother!

 

[Shortbowshot]

Weather was much more tolerable this morning. The plan was to still hunt into a bedding area with not much to lose. About an hour after daylight I found a bachelor group of bucks feeding on the opposite hillside. I watched until they were bedded. I crawled up the backside of a ridge (make that a couple ridges in the snow) and finally relocated them about 80 yds.
I could see the 4 bucks I had previously located so I took the first opportunity that presented itself. When my buck fell turns out there were 7 bucks in the group. Including a couple that were really nice. Patience isn't really my thing.
We had a blast. It's a breath of fresh air to go hunt like we used to where we get a bigger kick out of the hunt than the size of animal we take.
I guess I'm done for the year. Thanks for following along!

 

[fishing4sanity]

Congratulations! The two bucks you guys got look really good to me and if you saw even better ones, I'd say you've got a good thing going.

 

[duckhunt]

Great hunt

 

[Crossbowguy]

Awesome hunt! Congratulations to you both on a great hunt!

 

[Pahoundsman]

Congrats,wish I were as lucky as you two. Nice bucks and kudos for sticking with it.

 

[Shortbowshot]

Congratulations! The two bucks you guys got look really good to me and if you saw even better ones, I'd say you've got a good thing going.

Thanks! They grow some big ones up there.