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Two Brothers Go After Fall Muzzleloader Deer
On
Thursday afternoon, October 23rd, my brother Billy and I
traveled up to camp for the last two days of the
week-long fall muzzleloader season for antlerless deer.
Unlike the winter flintlock season, fall muzzleloader
allows for the use of in-line muzzle-loading rifles,
which are much simpler to shoot than antique flash-pan
weapons. Billy and arrived in the early evening, shot
our guns for last-minute practice, cleaned and prepped
our gear, and measured up some speed-loads for the
possibles bag. Then we went deer-spotting and saw 15
does and fawns and a red fox, all in one hour.
Friday morning we got up at 5:30 and had coffee and
bagels, then set out for the forest near camp. We hiked
a half-mile south to Hague Run and started climbing a
fire trail that angles far up the mountainside to the
plateau on top, where 10 acres of blow-down logs and
standing white pines form a large deer bedding area.
When we were halfway up the hill, we noticed the sunrise
behind us to the east – mellow gray skies painted with
magical streams and swirls of hot pink and lavender –
and we stopped on the trail and just stared. Then we
proceeded to the top, where I veered off to the east
along the edge of the pine woods and Billy headed south
to post along the ridge-top above Magee Run Hollow. I
reached my posting spot at 7:30 and stood there for a
half hour watching red squirrels prance and chirp before
I conducted a slow drive toward Billy’s location. From
9:00 until 10:30, we hunted out parallel to each other
down the east-facing front of the mountainside. We did
not spot a deer all morning.
Nor did we see a deer in the afternoon, when Billy
posted on his buck-hunting rock at the top of Thompson
Run Hollow, and I did a four-mile hike down the fire
trail to the west and then back up and east along the
ridge toward Billy. This was quite unusual to not see
any deer all day, but we accepted the fact of occasional
hunter’s bad luck and made plans to hunt hard again on
Saturday. Alas, a cold front poured in Friday night and
pelted our game lands with hard frigid rain all night
and all day, so we gave up on our last-day hunt. We
enjoyed our Friday morning and afternoon hikes on the
mountainsides, though, and agreed that a hunt with
little success is far better than staying home.
Good luck out there. And have a great week outdoors.
~ Don Feigert, 10-27-08
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