Spencer_Murphy
36 Cl.
Last week my state's muzzleloader season began and I set out each day with my new Thompson Center Renegade .54 cal to try and put meat in the freezer. Thursday and Friday was a no show. Saturday morning a friend of mine put up a stand on my farm and told me I could hunt it as he wasnt feeling well and wouldnt hunt. The previous night was rain and that morning was a light rain. I walked in the dark to the tree stand and began to climb. I got to the top and I felt the stand move. To my suprise the ratchet straps that my friend put the stand up with (which came in the box with the stand) were broken and with only about 40 seconds to gather up a battle plan I extended my rifle out to my right and fell 10ft to the ground on my left..... Not only was I not hurt (besides a sore head, neck, back, legs and a swollen ear) my rifle wasnt damaged... I then realised the front sight got knocked over to the left. I didnt want to risk wounding or missing a deer so I went back to the house and grabbed my Brown Bess .75 caliber. I have yet the clear the rust from the outside of the barrel but I cleaned the inside, touch hole and pan as well as the lock as best I could and had fired it 10 times the previous weekend. I went back out to the area that the stand had fallen and set up behind and old stump about the size of miniature refrigerator. Luckily I got into the woods 2 hours before first light so I had plenty of time to get situated and load up before light started breaking. I loaded up a military style .715 ball and 120gr of powder paper cartridge which I had made for shooting the previous weekend. I primed the pan and waited. About 15 minutes after shooting time a large doe walked out of the treeline 50 yards ahead. She walked right to me and I waited until she was merely 15 yards away and fired. She went down without a sound and my shoulder already aching from the fall didnt not like that mule kick from the bess. I quickly reloaded as I saw another doe running across the field to my left. The shot startled her and she came my way. She slowed down to a halt at the sight of the doe I just grabbed and then slowly manuevered into the treeline to my right. I was literally shouting at it to get its attention kinda feeling like a fool then suddenly the doe jumped out of the thicket and was coming to me. I readied and fired again this time at 40 yards and the doe spun around and fell without a sound besides the thud. I reloaded the musket for a third time in only about 1 hour and I figured I would end my hunt as it was still raining and I had my lock wrapped up by an old piece of canvas and my muzzle covered by a grocery bag (its all I had on me). I got up got my things I started walking back to the barn so I could get the tractor as I didnt feel like dragging two doe which weighed in at 127lbs and 129lbs dressed and hanging while in quiet a bit of pain at this point not to mention quite soaked. This was all only about an hour and a half after the first deer had been shot and about 2 hours since I had fallen 10 feet out of a treestand. As I was walking away I happened to look off to my right and saw a heard of 7 deer coming towards my direction. I stopped and walked down into a drainage ditch and watched them. For about 10 minutes they kept running snd it turned out to be all Does get chased by a Buck. The Does ran right out in front of me no more than 25 yards and never saw me. There was a nice buck running around chasing them and I decided I was gonna take him out as the deer destroy our crops in the summer. Figure one last buck to mate the does. I blew on my grunt call and he started trotting towards me. I let him get into 10 yards distance and sprang up from the ditch and fired. He ran for about another 10 yards and fell and the 7 Does scattered. The ground all around me was smoking as the heat from the musket turned all the water on the grass into steam. I went over to see if he had ceased and he did. I went and grabbed the tractor and loaded them up. Dressed them, weighed them and began skinning and quartering. All the while cursing the pain I was in ( I eventually stopped and asked my father and uncle to help as I noticed my ear was swelling pretty bad on the side I had fallen to earth on). I am fine as of now and have no more pain besides a couple of discomforting pings every now and then. Couldve been worse and I shouldve shook that stand before climbing. Luckily the stand was okay as it had fallen over onto a large patch of briars which stopped the fall and we put it back up in the tree later that day. I gave the two does (the Buck weighed 141lbs dressed btw) to my elderly relatives on the farm who are in their seventies and eighties and are too old to hunt for themselves and I put the buck in my freezer. Quite an experience to be sure. I will always remember that the first deer I got with a traditional muzzleloader and with a flintlock was the day I fell 10ft and hit my head and thought it wise to trust a smoothbore I had never hunted with (seems like a wise choice looking back). I also normally hunt from the ground anyway and my great grandfather always scorned me for treestand usage so maybe he reached down from above and decided I needed another reminder lol.... anyway thats my rant for the day thought I would share my unexpected turn of events. Also I wish I took pictures of the deer but I wasnt thinking about that at the time just that I was wet my body was sore and I had three deer and a musket to clean. This weekend I am gonna sight back in my T/C Renegade and hopefully use it in the rifle season in November as Muzzleloader ends this weekend and with a high of 83°F I am not gonna hunt deer that arent going to move. My load btw was a 550gr .715 ball, 120gr of FFG Goex Powder wrapped in a paper cartridge made from the cartridge kit from "The Jefferson Arsenal". I also used FFG in the pan for priming.
great story to go with a great hunt.. tree stand hunters take warning, check your stands every time.
