Ok, as I reported earlier, I had this guy at 24.5 yds a couple weeks ago while bow hunting. He was chasing a doe but it was too dark to take a good shot at him. Then I saw him a few mornings later a little over 200 yds away as he crossed the hayfield and ducked into the woods. Well last night I got lucky. Right around 5:25p I caugt a glimpse of a doe a tad better than 350 yds out along the edge of the woods and the hayfield s/e of where I was set up. I watched her through my binos for about 10 mins. I could barley see her with my naked eyes. Then I saw a dark shape appear in the same spot but it's head was down. I adjusted my 'Extinguisher' grunt call to the 'Doe' setting and let out a loud Doe bawl. The deer raised it's head and I could see the rack. I let out a second call and he started walking towards my direction. I was in my 60x60 pop-up blind in the hedgerow as he kept slowly walking in my direction. The sun was dropping fast as I ranged him again with my Leupold range finder, this time at 178 yds. A couple weeks ago I checked the zero on my Pro Hunter muzzle loader. I had it shooting 2" high at 100 yds using 2 T7 Magnum Pellets and a TC (Hornady) 250 gr Shockwave sabot/bullet, so I thought I had a good chance of getting off a decent shot at him. Right at 178 yds I let out a verbal grunt and he stopped, slightly quartering towards me. I put the cross hairs (Leupold VX-III 3.5-10x40) high on his right shoulder and squeezed off the shot. I saw nothing but flames and white smoke, and the smoke just stayed right there! I couldn't see squat past the smoke for about 45 seconds. No wind and thick air. In fact, 10 mins later the smoke cloud was still in the middle of the hayfield. It was getting pretty dark by now so I reloaded, gathered my stuff and exited my blind. I walked out to where I figuired he was but it was too dark to see much, even in an open field and using my little Sure-Fire light. I took the 6 min walk back home and spent the night comtemplating my shot. I knew I had to hit him somewhere in the kill zone. I went back out this morning (in the fog) and there he was, laying dead not 40 yds from where I shot him. Got him home and field dressed him. The bullet broke his right shoulder, whet clear through his heart, and totally destroyed just about everything else inside. No exit wound. He has a broken off brow tine on the left side, and weighed 170lbs. I was pretty impressed with the internal ballistics that this bullet/load caused. So that's about it. A doe with my bow and this guy with my muzzle loader. I'm taking a break from hunting for a week or two.
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Originally Posted by Good Ole Boy
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