Today was my day off so I headed out at first light on my first muzzleloader hunt of the season. My goal was to fill one of my DMAP tags. It was really way to thick to see deer in most of the area due to there being a think under story of buckthorn, which is an invasive alien species that is taking over many areas.

I finally saw two deer at about 9:00 but they saw me first and took off, only to go out of sight and stand there snorting. A while later I picked out a spot on a small pipeline where I could see a little ways and sat down. It didn’t take long until I had a lone doe sneak in behind me. I finally heard her but when I tried to turn see took off snorting too. That made it three wins for the deer and still hadn’t even shouldered my gun.

I watched that area for a while longer then decided that if I was going to get a deer before evening I was going to have to go find them instead of sitting and waiting. I started exploring some new country. I finally came out on another pipeline that is larger and that I was familiar with. I decided to slowly hunt it back toward where I was planning to hunt in the evening where I expected deer to be moving toward some feeding areas. That was about a mile and half away so was going to just take my time.

I’m glad I made that decision because after about a half mile of thick buckthorn I came to an area that had less under story and sure enough there appeared to be a deer standing partly hidden by some brush about a hundred yards away. A look through the scope proved it was antler less but also that it was a juvenile deer. I figured there must be another deer there somewhere so I just dropped down to my knee, waited and watched. Sure enough I finally picked out two more deer feeding nearby. It was a doe and two fawns but the adult was behind a down treetop and wasn’t offering any shots. But all of them were facing toward a nice little open area so I figured if I just waited that old doe would eventually offer a shot. I didn’t have to wait long. In just a few minutes she stepped into the opening. The smoke was so bad I had no idea where the deer went for the first second or so but when I could see I could see all three deer running toward and then into the thick buckthorn.

I went to where the doe had been but couldn’t find any sign of a hit. I couldn’t believe I would have missed, everything felt just too good. I headed out the way they ran and kept zigzagging back and forth looking for any sign of a hit. Awe, finally after about fifty yards I find some blood. It is tough going through the buckthorn but after another hundred yards or so there she is, very much dead. The 295-grain power belt passed through both lungs.

Now for the hard part. Once I had her tagged and field dressed I had a hard time getting her out to the pipeline. I left her there, hiked the mile and a half back to my vehicle. Got the bike and cart and headed back the two miles of roads and pipeline to get her out. It took me almost four hours from the time I shot her (1:20 pm) until I had hiked out and then got back in with the bike and cart and got her back out. Most of the trip on the pipeline I was able ride the bike in but had to push it the whole way back out until I got on a log road then I could ride and pull the cart with the bike.

By the time I had her home, skinned, and quartered and in spare refrigerator I was totally exhausted.







Dick Bodenhorn

Congrats Dick and thanks for sharing the story...

you can not believe how excited I am about Thursday, I almost feel like it is going to be my first hunt again..

harvesting a deer in warmer weather with a rifle and when they are not near as spooky.. CAN'T WAIT !!!!  

--Last edited by Dr Trout on 2009-10-19 22:08:58 --

Congrats nice deer. How well does the cart work with your bike? I have the same cart but mine is about wore out. My next one will have the double wheels. Mine has been used more as a decoy cart than a deer cart.

Good story thanks for sharing.

Quote :

h2ofowlhunter wrote : Congrats nice deer. How well does the cart work with your bike? I have the same cart but mine is about wore out. My next one will have the double wheels. Mine has been used more as a decoy cart than a deer cart.

The cart and bike work well together. I can pull the cart empty almost as thought there was nothing behind me.

Once you have a deer on it the going is not easy but it still beats dragging or even just using the cart. I can get the cart to the deer at lot fasted and easier with the bike, then once I have the deer on it I can at least ride on the level and down hill sections. If the hill is not too steep or long I can pedal my way but on most hills I have to get off and push the bike with the cart still attached. On steep hills I unhook the bike, put it on top of the deer and pull the whole thing until I get to where I can ride again.

It makes those deep woods hunts behind gates possible for us older guys. Back in my forties I could still drag a deer three or four miles if I had too. But, those days are in the past so the bike and cart are the only way I can still hunt some of those good but hard to reach locations.

I think my next cart is going to be one size samller though. I think it will be easier to haul and lighter to work with since I only bring out one deer at a time anyway.

Dick Bodenhorn

Great story RSB.

You deserve a little R&R.....if you want to call it that after all that work. HeHeHe

Nice job.  Congrats!

Sweet!! Great story to boot.