2009 Public Lands Muzzleloader Deer Hunt3 tags to fill

Monday (opening day) - windy and rainy - only opportunities were a couple of

yearlings.... I passed hoping for better weather the next

day.

Tuesday

Good location to snipe - about 150 feet above unsuspecting

deer

Very rugged terrain - undulating hills and valleys only provided

quick glimpses of passing wildlife below my vantage point

Cliffs to the east and the river to the west provided a 200 yard

bottleneck

River

Shot taken from here at 1030 am - laid on edge of cliff all morning with

only my gun barrel visible from below

Deer came into view but head

was obscured by cottonwood tree

- saw some antlers so

decided to take the shot before

he passed out of the shooting

lane - quartering away downslope, about 100 feet vertically below me - only about a 90 yard shot

It took me about 45 minutes to find the deer as the grass was tall, very rugged terrain, and the cliffs all looked the same from below so it was

hard to tell where I shot from.

Shot hit perfectly - entered high and behind the lungs but exited near the heart. Deer only traveled about 20 yards before expiring. He is a 10

pointer and looks to be a 2 1/2 year old. Nothing special but a

nice deer and an awesome hunt!

Exit wound

This is on public land so no

vehicles were allowed but I

wouldn’t have been able to

even get an atv in there

anyways. This was a 30 foot cliff that was

nearly vertical. Not a fun drag.

This was a 20 foot cliff that

was completely vertical. I had a

couple of blisters after

pulling him up this one.

Nearly to the top of the hill now - I

had to stop about every 10

yards. The picture doesn’t

exactly show just how steep the

hill is.

About 2 hours after I pulled the trigger I finally had him to the top of the hill. Only another

1/4 mile to the nearest road.

Public land almost to the horizon - a rarity in

Kansas. My favorite place to hunt.

Wednesday

Slept in the next morning and got to a ground blind at about 1015. Harvested this

doe at about 1130 quartering toward me

at 10 yards with 6 other does/yearlings. Just about filled up my whole 6.5x20 - 50mm scope at that range.

Entrance

wound

Exit wound

Only about a mile drag and

not near as steep this time.

The soccermommobile - take out the seats and it’s a

pretty good hunting

machine.

The public campgrounds make a pretty

good deer cleaning station

Running water to

clean up the meat

Got the deer meat on ice and

made it back out to the same ground blind by

5:30 pm.

View from ground blind. Filled my last

tag at 7:30 pm.

From the deer’s point of view. I

harvested both does on the same day

sitting at this location.

Harvested 2nd doe at 25 yards at 730 pm. Got her to the van at

1230 am...long story...flashlight

batteries dead...alot of thick brush, thistles, and buttonbush....

ended up going into town for batteries and

ice before returning and finishing the drag. It

was a long night, but a great deer season.