Cell Phone Photo of doe
Eastern Muzzle Loader season opened on a warm humid day on Saturday. it was already in the 70’s by the time the first rays of daylight hit the woods I was hunting in Johnston County. I was sitting in a blind with my new Thompson Center Omega with anticipation of what the season would bring.
As the woods woke up around me birds and squirrels were about all I was seeing. I could hear that volley of shots as duck hunters in a nearby swamp greeted the day. The acorns were falling like rain and occasionally making me jump as they hit the roof of the blind. About an hour into the hunt I was beginning to think the warm humid weather was going to keep the deer from moving around much. Not long after that I saw movement in the thick brush off to the right of the blind and then I heard them coming up the hill from the swamp.
The first deer I could make out was a small one most likely one of this past springs fawn. A second deer appeared and I could see it was a good size doe. I picked up the muzzleloader and watched them feeding on the acorns as they worked their way towards me. The brush was thick and while they were about 40 or 50 yards from me I needed them to step into one of my shooting lanes if I was going to get a shot. The smaller deer had stepped through and stood in some of my shooting lanes a number of times before the doe stepped in to one of the lanes. As I eased the hammer back the smaller deer stepped between the doe and my blind blocking my opportunity.
What seemed like an eternity but in reality was just a few minutes the doe gave me the shot opportunity I was looking for. As the smoke cleared I could only see the smaller deer running through the brush back the way they came. I got out of the blind and went to the spot where the doe was standing and I found some blood. I went back to the blind and reloaded my gun and waited for 30 minutes so I wouldn’t push her.
I got on the blood trail and it went straight down the hill towards the swamp. I had to fight my way through some thick brush but I was rewarded with a nice doe about 100 yards downhill from the blind. The trail crossed an old trail from a hunt a number of years ago but I knew it was close to a clear path. I got the deer out and with the heat I knew I wanted to get it quartered and on ice quickly.
Registering my deer was a bit complicated because my Blackberry phone does not have letters on the numbers like a typical phone. So when NCWRC prints their number as 1-800 I Got One without the numbers it makes it difficult to call it in. Luckily a call to my wife and she help decipher the number 1-800 446-8663. So there’s a good tip for you if you got a blackberry save a copy of the numbers and the letters they correspond with so you can use the phone in check system. It’s not enough to just have the phone number because you got to also type the county in as well. I was able to guess but it took a couple of tries.
Once registered I quickly got it cut up and on ice. I’ll age it in the cooler and finish processing it this week. A great start to the deer season.
