A Muzzleloading hunt to Remember

Today was the opening day for the 2009 Connecticut Muzzleloader season and it just happen to be the first significant snow storm of the year. Last night I had left work early to get some extra sleep and I had taken today off so I could possibly hunt all day no matter what the weather was going to dish out. I awoke at 4:30 AM to approximately 4" of snow and it still was snowing. I grabbed my gear and loaded the car and headed out.

I got to where I was hunting and suited up, the whole time wondering if this was the right thing to do. The reason why I don't normally hunt when the weather is this foul outside but something told me to be out there. I am pretty far in so it took a bit to get where I had a spot cleared (being state land I didn't want to leave a tree stand out) for a ground position. I set up my tripod stool and put a primer on my CVA Wolf 50 caliber which was loaded with 100 grains of Triple Seven pellets and a 240 grain Hornady HP/XTP.

I had sat for a good hour and the snow was piling up on the ground and me. Thinking I was dressed pretty good for the weather I periodically would just lightly shake and the snow would just slide right off my rain gear.

At 7:00 AM I slowly looked around and didn't see anything so I took my estrous doe can call and flipped it 3 times. It couldn't have been more than a couple minutes and I saw movement directly out in front of me. Oh my god I thought to myself it was a deer and they are coming straight at me. I flipped the scope covers and turned to my right slightly and as I brought the scope up I noticed it was an adult doe with another behind it. They started to pick up the pace and I didn't want to take a moving shot so when they got broadside I bleated with my mouth and the first doe which happened to be the biggest stopped. I quickly place the crosshairs right behind her shoulder and squeezed off the shot. Through the smoke I saw her hind legs kick up like a mule and knew I had a good shot.

I quickly reloaded and waited a minute while I caught my composer. Because it was snowing really hard by then I didn't want to wait to long and knowing I had a good hit i slowly started to pick up the track.

I found where she had stopped and ran off immediately starting to see some blood although it wasn't as much as I was hoping for I started following the tracks.

I didn't go more than say 40 yards when I saw her laying on the other side of a stonewall. I cautiously crept up and check her by poking the backside of her and she was confirmed down.

I immediately called Heidi to tell her the good news and she woke up my older son Adam. I left to pick Adam up and went back taking my deer cart with me.

While field dressing the doe I had looked and found the heart which happened to have a nice hole in it. Normally I wouldn't make a big deal out of it but I usually get lung shots so getting a heart shot was a first for me.

Speaking of firsts this was the first deer I got on opening day of muzzleloader season, the first time I got to use my new deer cart which I feel paid for itself this morning, the first deer I shot in a snow storm, the first time I got to used a new pelvic saw made by Gerber.

It took a couple of hours to get her out (that includes stopping to takes numerous brakes) and in the car (trunk) then once I got home and Heidi took a few pictures Adam and I rinsed her out good and got her hung. Wouldn't you know it we had to shovel snow after that which ended up being about 8".

This has been a day to remember. A lot of firsts and I could not be any more excited and exhausted than I am right now.

Oh ya, not good at guessing but my son and I figure she dressed between 160 - 180