Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire I had a really good day

I had a really good day hunting for mule deer in Utah. One thing that made it special is at age 57 I'm still able to git 'er done.

All my hunting buddies had left so once again I was on my own. I took the long way in, hiked up a mountain (a big hill), shot a buck with my muzzleloader, and dragged it down ... by myself.

I know that some of you may not think of this a great accomplishment but it makes this old fart happy. It was day five of the hunt so I settled for a forked horn. I'd been holding out for a bigger buck, passed on a 3x0 (it was missing one half) on the first day and it was time to bring home some meat. That and I figured if I was going to drag one off the hill this was the perfect size.

I shot it at the top of the ridge on the grassy knoll from the same rock I took another buck three years ago.


Tender tasty vittlles

cool !

Congrats!! Looks like ya center punched him
Im going to be 52 in December and I hear what your sayin about getting old.

Uh-oh......

And I've got news for you, 57 is not even close to old fart age, you've gotta be "Ingwe-old" to be an old fart.......

Congrats on your success. Nice when the plan
works out. Good shootin'.

well dang! Good on ya, fish face.

And we all thought you'd taken off to finally get that sex change operation you've been saving for....

Well done Fish.!

Getting older does give new meaning to the term "shot placement".

Q: Where's the best place to shoot a deer or an elk?

A: Near the truck!

Congratulations, that's a fine deer. I've drug'em uphill and downhill, and downhill is always better.

Pretty good for a young whipper snapper.

KC

I'd say you had a great day! Good shooting, too.

Ed

The spot where I took the pic of the ridge is where I usually sit in the morning. I've cut branches from a dead tree to open up a shooting lane and made a ground blind from tufts of grass and piled rocks behind me to block my profile. It's a great spot to sit and the first buck I shot there was only 40 yards away.

I'd seen several groups of does move up and out of the area through a saddle behind the knoll so I hiked up to the rock and settled in. It wasn't long before a group of five does and yearlings with a forked horn following walked by at 30 yards. I stood up and shot but I had the first hangfire I've ever had with my Omega. When I squeezed the trigger it went fffft-boom. The rifle recoiled at the fffft and through the shot off. All the deer just stood there while I reloaded and while I was stuffing the bullet down the tube they walked off.

I went over to where the buck was, followed the tracks, and there was no sign of blood. I remember seeing oak branches at second recoil (the boom) so it was a clean miss.

I went back to the rock, sat down, and a couple of minutes later here comes another group of does with a forky following. I don't know for sure if it was the same group of deer but I figured fate was giving me a second chance. I laid the rifle on the rock, put the crosshairs behind the shoulder ... boom ... bang flop. It was a 54 yard easy chip shot.

Nice job Fish head.