My favorite spot is the deer's passage between their food source and water source. It's at the edge of Delaware Water Gap national recreational area with some houses on the other side of a small road. And it's about 20 minutes drive from my place.
I arrived at the small dirt parking lot near the top of Michaels Rd, East Stroudsburg right before 7 AM. This is the most promising spot since I encountered 3 deers yesterday morning around 7:30AM and they ran away before I could even get into the ambush spot. So I decided to get there 40 minutes before sunrise today. It's a full moon night and bucks must be actively chasing does during the whole night.
While walking to the ambush spot and loading the 209 primer into my Thompson/Center's Omega muzzle-loader rifle, I heard the foot-step sound like people walking about 50 yards away. The sound was quite different from the noise that squirrels generated on leaves. I couldn't see clearly beyond 50 yards since it's a little foggy in the morning and I thought I was the only hunter in this area since my car was the only one in the parking lot! I hide behind a big tree and waited them coming toward my direction. A moment later, I saw a big deer coming uphill to my hiding spot. I cocked the rifle and aimed at it.... It just passed the tree marked with "no hunting" sign .... Right before I was about to pull the trigger at about 20 yards, I could now see clearly that it's a buck with 6 point antlers! Since this is muzzleloader season for female deers only, I had to let him pass :-( Then the buck saw me too ( a men in orange jacket pointing a gun at him :-( and ran away quickly to the other direction. I noticed there was another deer also running away with him.
What a shame! I haven't been this close to a legal buck in the past 3 years of deer hunting.
I had to carefully uncock the muzzleloader since it's a bit tricky than a modern rifle. I waited there for a few more minutes, then heard noise again from the road side. This time it looks like a doe ! I guess the buck didn't have a chance to tell his girlfriend about the hunter :-( I aim the rifle at her while she is walking closer and closer toward my position. My heart is pounding so hard that I can hardly hold my rifle still. As soon as she turn the broad side to me at about 25 yards, I pull the trigger and big boom sound! I barely see her running away among the big gun smoke ! How could I miss the doe at 25 yards distance! I can't believe my eyes!
Maybe I didn't load the muzzleloader properly this morning since I was in a hurry. I can fell that there was one inch air gap between the gunpowder pellet and sabot bullet. They says the air-gap could destroy the bullet's accuracy completely, and may even cause potentially hazardous "short-start" condition ( barrel blow-up ?).
so I re-loaded the muzzleload with two 100 grain Winchester Triple-Se7en pellets and a 250-grain shockwave sabot projectile from Thompson Center, still can't close the one-inch air gap even after I cleaned up the barrel with the ramrod and a dry cloth. I sit at the ambush spot until 10 AM, only saw lots of busy squirrels around and a few birds. So disappointed I decided to head back home. Before I left, I built a better deer blind next to a big tree using some falling tree twigs with leaves. I hope I will have a better luck tomorrow morning at the same spot since the deer is the animal of habit , just like human beings!
I need to do a complete rifle clean-up and test the accuracy again at the shooting range. This is the basics for deer hunting.
Just when I was close to the road-side parking lot, I saw a black bear walking noiselessly towards my car. Why? maybe it's the food in my car? or the blood from the wounded doe? Apparently it saw me too so it walked away slowly. I don't want to provoke a black bear all by myself since I only have one shot in the muzzleloader. I just wish I took the picture of the black bear before it disappears.
At the parking lot , I decided to discharge the muzzleloader. So I aimed at a big tree trunk at 50 yards away without arm support and back support. It hit in the middle of the tree trunk but two feet below my aiming point. no wonder I missed the doe this morning:-(
One the way home, I collected a handful of wild onion at Hidden lake shore which will be a perfect seasoning to venison steak tomorrow. Also I saw some wild mushrooms but not sure if they are poisonous :-( Wild mushroom are nature's treats that you can't find them in US supermakets :-( Need to get a mushroom field guide in order to identify them with photos if they are one of a dozen edible and tasty types such as Oyster, Puffball, Morels, Chanterelle, King Bolete, Hedgehog, Shaggy Mane, Blewit, Chick of the woods, or Hen of the woods(aka Maitake), etc. These species are easy to identify since they don't look like any poisonous mushroom such as destroying angles, death cap. But for bolete and amanita species , even experts( Mycologist) can hardly tell the difference based on the look :-( I recently read an article on New York Times about people makes a living on collecting wild mushroom for fancy restaurants in NYC!
And Masutake has a very good price in Japan, like sharkfin or truffle.
PS:
I went to the shooting range before sunset which is similar to Dawn's dim-light condition. I managed to shoot 4 times before 6:40PM. At 25 yards, the first two shot are hit almost the same hole, but 2 inch on the right side and one inch below. I guess this is the issue with gun sight. So I made a mental correction for the third shot at 30 yards, and it hit one inch higher and one inch on the right. All these shots are done without arm and back support.
For the fourth shot, I backed to 40 yards and use the parking sign as arm support. I make the same mental correction and hit the bulleye !
So I guess the morning issue was because I shoot downhill. With the one inch air-gap between pellet and projectile, one of the pellet may have a delayed ignition and cause the projectile to go higher due to the muzzle jump. I will have to find a lower spot tomorrow to avoid this situation.
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