# Another successful youth hunting day!



## bkr43050 (Apr 5, 2004)

I spent the last weekend taking my boys out for the youth season. On Saturday we were not able to bag a deer. My 14 year-old had no shot opportunity other than a small 4 point that he passed on. My 17 year-old missed on one doe and saw several others but no other shot opportunities. On Sunday morning I took my 11 year-old son out for his first trip hunting yet. I have had him in the field some in the past but I have been spending time with my 14 year-old. I have told him that next year would be the first year that I would be able to get him out with bow. So as mentioned this was the first time with a weapon in hand for him while after the deer. And talk about wasting no time! It was real foggy Sunday morning so we got in the blind and sat for probably 20-30 minutes before we could even see more than 30 yards away. At a bit after 7:00 it was just getting to the point where shooting may be an option. I warned him to keep an eye out all around because in that fog they tend to show up out of nowhere. Maybe two minutes later he says, "There a deer coming in right now!" I positioned myself to see that direction and sure enough a doe was slipping in through the fog and then followed by a yearling. It didn't take long for them to move to about 50 yards away in the cornfield. The doe turned and gave him a good broadside shot and the muzzleloader was ready to go. When he took the shot there was that trademark mysterious few seconds that follow a shot where all you see is smoke and you sit wondering what may be there when it clears. Well as we were able to finally catch a glimpse through the smoke we were able to see two tails headed down the cornfield. His first comment was, "I must have missed!" I told him we really didn't know anything yet. In a few minutes ventured out to the area she was standing and I quickly found some blood, not a lot but it was at least enough to track...for a while anyway. Once she dropped over the hill it was harder to follow. At this point she had only run 50-60 yards so I was hoping that the heavy flow just had not started. So we proceeded to work our way down the field and check the exit areas for sign. I found a fairy decent amount of blood straight away and at the fence where she crossed. I wanted to at least get in the edge of the woods/thicket to see what kind of sign was there. We crossed the fence and were looking at biggest blood spot when we heard some thrashing up ahead in the briars. We held tight for a few minutes as we studied the blood trail. This was the first point in the trail that I was able to determine that it had some corn in it. At that point I thought to myself, "Uh-oh! We may not get this deer." I figured since the shot was not a good heart/lung shot that our best move was to back off for a while so we went back to the blind to sit for another hour or so. Once back there we were able to see what appeared to be the yearling hanging around just above the point that we had left off. That gave me more confidence that she was probably still in there. Once we went back to the trail where we left off I was relieved to be able to follow a better blood trail than what had been prior to that. We only need to go another 30-40 yards to find her from where we had left off the first time. He ended up bagging one of the bigger does that I have seen in a long time. I have not gotten a good weight on the meat yet but I think that we ended up somewhere around 70# of boneless meat. She was a real wide-body. Here is a picture that we will cherish for a long time.


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## Bulldawg (Dec 3, 2007)

Great story Brian , tell your boy I said congrats . That is definitely a huge doe .


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## kprice (May 23, 2009)

That doe is BIG


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## Shortdrift (Apr 5, 2004)

A great day for both of you. Thanks for sharing.


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## bkr43050 (Apr 5, 2004)

Thanks guys! When I saw her walking straight at us her width caught my attention. And in fact my boy even mentioned that after shooting and before going after her. We were sitting there and he said, "She doe looked big!"

An interesting thing that I noted when we found her was that the shot was not a passthrough. He had hit her a bit back and got liver and guts. The location suggested that perhaps it caught very back of lungs but not sure on that. The inside was a mess and we didn't inspect closely enough to answer that one. But the fact that it did not pass through at 50-60 yards seemed odd. The best guess I can make is it stopped on the rib cage on the back side. He was shooting my 50 caliber muzzleloader using 110 grains of Pyrodex and a 240 grain XTP bullet (along with the sabot). I am pretty sure on the 240 bullet, if not 240 then it is 250. I have not bothered shooting anything above 110-120 grains on powder as it seemed to fly very nicely with that.

I had to hurry to get her cut up and in a cooler so in my haste I was not looking for any bullet but when cleaning up that night I found the bullet laying on the garage floor. It was still all in one piece, mushroomed out somewhat. I just bought the gun last winter and this is the second deer taken with it. I took a button buck at 100 yards and had a nice pass-through and quick kill. This combination of bullet and load has performed very well on the targets but this made me at least question my setup. I am not going to change anything on it at this point of the season as I have it zeroed in right now but I am just thinking down the line on buying my next bullets. Does anyone have any suggestions or comments?


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## saugeyesam (Apr 20, 2004)

I wouldn't change a thing. I have been using the XTP's in 240 grn ever since I bought my first in-line back in 1994 I use 2 50 grain Triple 7 pellets (100 grns).
I have taken a lot of deer with my setup and once in a while I'll get one that doesn't pass through but I think one or both of the powder pellets didn't completely burn up properly. Trust me it isn't the bullet.


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## Lundy (Apr 5, 2004)

Nice story and job by both of you Brian.

I can offer a couple suggestions are far as bullet selection at the velocities (1850-1900 ish) you are shooting.

I would strongly suggest you shoot a Barnes all copper in 250 gr. These are also marketed under the Knight Red Hot brand. These are by far the best MZ bullet I've ever killed deer with. They offer a few variations of basically the same bullet. When I used to shoot with my Knight rifles I always used the250 gr. Expander MZ. They now have tipped versions that would work very well for you, that provide an even better BC but still offer that same awesome bullet performance. Shooting the Savage at the velocities I shoot I can't shoot the newer base designs, I shoot the original design, a 195 gr. 40 cal Barnes Expander.

I have killed deer with XTP's, 240, 260 and 300 gr, SST's 250 gr, Barnes Originals 300 gr., Barnes Expanders 250 gr, Precision Rifle Dead Centers 260 gr., custom hard cast 275 gr, Remington HP 300 gr.

They all killed deer, didn't lose any, but if given a choice of what is available today, it is the Barnes MZ bullets by a pretty wide margin for me.

http://www.barnesbullets.com/products/muzzleloader/

They also have a movie on the home page comparing muzzleloader bullet performance

I would also suggest that you not choose a Powerbelt of any weight at any speed.

Congratulations again to your son


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## Lewis (Apr 5, 2004)

Congrats to you and your son Brian!!
Very nice mature doe.


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## bkr43050 (Apr 5, 2004)

Thanks Kim! I knew I could count on you for some very good information on that topic. It sounds like I may be doing a bit of experimenting some time with those.

And thanks again to everyone for the compliments on the hunt!


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## nicklesman (Jun 29, 2006)

nice old doe there congrats


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## Jigging Jim (Apr 3, 2010)

Nice Doe! Congrats to your son.


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## nick99 (Mar 8, 2010)

nice job congrats.


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## TheBiteIsOn (May 12, 2007)

I live to hear the sucess stories of the kids, Nothing better and memories forever. I think you have a hunting buddy for life. good job little buddy, and fellow hunter.


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## ezbite (May 25, 2006)

great job to you and your son on getting the big girl.


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## ErieAngler (Apr 15, 2006)

Very nice, its always exciting. We ended up with 4 deer for the weekend, 2 does, 1 button and 1 really nice 8 - probably low to mid 130s. 2 of the deer were the youths first, so that is always really special. Its probably some of the most enjoyable hunting of the year for me. Congrats to your son.


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## pj4wd (Dec 9, 2009)

Sounds like you showed him a good lesson, to back off for awhile.Great hunt, congrat's.


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