Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting I got lucky

On Saturday I finally filled my Iowa Late Muzzleloader tag after more than 20 hours of sitting in a blind or walking public ground. (Centerfire Pistols are legal for use in the Iowa late muzzleloader season). I hunt in the Muscatine area and the place I have the blind is a bedding area, so deer come in very late. Saturday was overcast and starting to mist and about 28 degrees. I'm hunting in fairly dense woods along the Mississippi river bottom, so after the sun goes down it gets late very quickly. Shooting time ended at 5:22 p.m. At 5:19 I scanned the trail junctions I was watching and saw a larger patch of brown than normal and then could see the white patch of a deer nose. It's almost dark. I lost track of the deer for about 30 seconds when it went behind some trees and then I spotted it on a trail I hadn't expected it to take, directly across a gulley from me, thankfully silhouetted on the snow about 50 yards away, slowly walking. All I could tell is that it was an adult deer, which is my criteria for filling tags. I touched off at 5:21 and saw the deer donkey kick, then hunch up and slowly lope over the hill out of sight. I got to where it was standing when I shot, found a little blood in the flashlight, then started getting more blood that was about 2 feet away from the hoofprints - a good sign. About 40 yards from impact I found him piled up. I had no idea that it was even a buck because it was so dim that I could only see the silhouette and barely could see crosshairs.
I use a T/C Encore with an MGM 18" .357 Max barrel. 30 gr. of AA1680 behind a 180 gr. Speer, ignited by a Remington 7 1/2 primer. This load stays on a 20 oz. bottle at 200 yards if I'm using a good rest setup in the blind. This is my second year using this bullet - I normally use a cast and checked bullet from my Ranch Dog 359-190-RFGC mold and 27 gr. AA1680. I may go back to that load, as I've always had full exit penetration with it and I did not on this deer or either of the two deer we killed with the Speer 180 gr. spire point last year, but they definitely got the job done. But I'm pleased as punch with this 4x4. He measures 19.5" inside spread, which makes it the widest whitetail I've ever killed. Not bad for having no idea it had antlers when I pulled the trigger.