About ten years ago this hunting trip happened. I was having terrible luck that year. It was our modern gun season. Even though I could use a centerfire rifle, I refused to hunt with one. I always used a black powder rifle.
I was hunting hard and careful but due to an influx of timber wolves and trespassers in the area and other hunting pressures I was unable to find a deer on my farms.
A friend of mine and I were talking that evening about the deer hunting so far. His complaint was, every day at his stand all he ever saw were does. As he claimed they came in all day long. I laughed and told him I should be that unlucky because I had two doe tags and a buck tag to fill. He then offered to take me along with him to his section of the forest he hunted. I of course agreed and thanked him for the chance. He told me to be ready at first light, and we would hike back into the forest.
First light, I was ready when he arrived. We drove a short distance and exited the trucks. As we uncased our weapons we were talking about what to be expected on the hunt.
As I pulled the rifle from the case, I could see my friend staring at me. I had brought my .54 caliber T/C Renegade. It had a peep sight and was tuned with 90 grains of Pyrodex and a roundball. He then began to tease me, joking about having all these tags to fill and bringing a single shot rifle that probably would not even go off. He actually seemed upset with my choice of weapon and mentioned it was modern season. I just laughed it off and told him I would be fine.
We hiked through the deep snow for what seemed like for ever. Finally we came down a steep hill and at the bottom of the hill was a very well made ground blind. He pointed to it and said, sit there. He then pointed out the different deer trails and advised me which direction the deer came through. He laughed about my rifle again, but wished me luck. He told me he would be over the hill in the next valley if I needed him. I told him I would be fine.
As he walked back up the hill I hunkered down in the blind and got myself situated. Just a minute later, when I thought all was getting quiet, I heard something walking through the woods behind me. My first thought was my friend was returning to tell me something. I even smiled thinking he was sneaking up on me because of the way the sound was walking.
I then heard the walking, circle the blind and looked out at the trails he had pointed out. Finally. way out in front of me I could see a large deer. I pulled the binoculars from my coat pocket and looked at it. It was a nice forked buck. I watched him sneaking his way through the woods towards my location. He was coming through a lot of hazel brush and alder but would soon come into the clearing. I continued to watch him through the binoculars. I was satisfied he was a shooter. He would soon be in the open, so I took my eyes off him, lowered my head, and put the glasses away in my coat pocket.
As I cocked the rifle and hit the set trigger I kind of snickered because my friend had hardly managed to walk back out of the valley and here I was with a shot. I brought the rifle up and rested the rifle putting the deer in the peep. He was about 80 yards away standing broadside. I took my time wanting to make sure the shot was good. Happy with the sight picture, I touched the front trigger and the Renegade roared.
The buck dropped where he stood. It was then I noticed a second deer on the ground behind him. There were two deer down. I had never seen the second deer. I had no idea where it came from. I could only guess that while putting the binoculars away and taking great pains to cock the rifle without a sound it must have walked up behind the first one.
I reloaded and quickly went to where they lay. The first one was grave yard dead. The second one, a small doe, was hit in the spine and could not get up. Her back was broken. As I thought about what to do I heard a voice yell out...
"Get One?" I answered back, "Yes!" The voice then yelled, "Buck or Doe?" I answered "Yes!" Again he yelled, "Buck or Doe?" Again I answered, "Yes!" I could see my friend comeing down the hill towards me at a fast pace. He then yelled at me, "There are two deer there." I told him he was correct.
He reached me and asked, "You only shot once?" I told him that was right. He then asked if I was going to shoot the doe again since it was not dead. I told him to hold my rifle and I would cut it's throat instead, which I did.
My friend then asked, what happened? I told him joking, I did not want to waste ball and powder. He just shook his head and laughed. I then told him to fire off the muzzleloader as I did not need it loaded. He refused saying he wanted nothing to do with a gun able to do that... I assurred him it did not kick and he did finally pick out a knob on a stump about 20 yards away, and shot the rifle off. The ball blew the knob right off... He then comment ... that thing is really accurate. (it was the first muzzleloader he ever shot)
He later told our friends in the local tavern that night I did that on purpose because I wanted help dragging the deer out of the woods, and was too cheap to waste a second shot.. They all had a good laugh on my account.
I will say I violated a golden rule of hunting and that is I did not look close enough at what was behind my target. I was only thankful that it worked out as well as it did.
The next year my friend and his son both had brand new CVA Hawkin .50 caliber rifles they were hunting with...
