Opening day of muzzle loading

[mdhunter]

Did Anyone have any luck opening day? Just curious.

[Rommel]

I saw 2 yearlings on Sat. 3pm, That was all we saw between 3 of us. On the next property to the east a guy shot at a huge buck at about 10 am. He never found hair or blood but said it looked like the deer was stuggling to get away. They looked for five hours yesterday and the 3 of us looked with them this morning for an hour and a half and didn't find anything. He estimated this buck to have a 28-30" spead. He must have missed completely and the deer just didn't know which way to run and appeared to be staggering, or at least thats what I think. His shot was the only one that I heard all day.

[bowbender]

i got a nice eight. pics under thread "2nd brute of the year".
Rommel, when i shot this deer i found no blood or anything but is was because i buried inside him so all his bleeding was inside. most entrance wounds don't bleed. mine only run 50 yards and never one bit of blood. i would keep trying to look with a lot of people and just start walking.

[Rommel]

Yea, Iv'e had them not bleed much on shots that hit high. We had 6 people this morning and did a grid search for about a quarter mile in the direction the deer was last seen running and never found any blood or deer. The guy that took the shot at this buck shot his gun at a target last night and said it was shooting about 4" high at 65yds. which was the distance he shot at the deer in the morning. He was also shooting a 50 cal. sabot (44 cal. bullet size) so if he did hit the deer he must not have hit him through the lungs or we would have found him in the grid search. The no blood thing I'm used to with the smaller bullets from muzzleloaders, but the fact that with 6 of us looking and found no deer in the area tells me that if this deer was hit he has a good chance of surviving his wound or at least I would like to think so because this buck was headed in to our property when he last saw it. I'm hopeing to catch a photo of him on one of our game cameras to ease this guys pain a bit. Oh yea, congradulations on the 2 bucks this year, sounds like your dedicated to these whitetails just like me.

[jlwade]

my brother in law shot a huge 10 point 2 years ago hit him high with a 3 inch sabot out of his shotgun deer ran for about 1/4 mile with no blood he stopped before he ran across a dirt road and left a puddle of blood and collapsed on the other side of the road about 10 yards into the woods and we looked for about 10 hours the first day came back the next and i spotted the blood just by chance walking down the road to go get picked up at the end of the property, sometimes i guess its just luck finding the big ones after theyve buried thereselves in a thicket. My 9 point this year was in a stream about 1 and a half foot deep but he left a good blood trail. And ive lost one this year that ran into a swamp and we think onto a small island that we later checked out with a jon boat, or went under water. I hate losing them

[prostreetcamaro]

I bet he shot it with a powerbelt POS bullet? If thats the case it doesnt surprise me it didnt bleed and he didnt find it. I learned my lesson last year with the powershit bullets. My gun shoots them good and I liked the concept and the fact it was so easy to load.

Well last year I had the worst luck ever and its due to the powerbelts. I had 2 deer walk right up to me about 30 yards away. Both were big does so I decided to take one. BOOM and both deer ran off. I get down and reload and start looking for blood because there is no way I missed. I never found any blood or deer. Frustrated I happened to look to my right and there stood a big doe about 50 yards away in the wide open. BOOM she ran and again no way did I miss her. Looked and no blood and no deer yet again. I was about to wrap my gun around a tree when suddenly I hear a loud shot so I get ready in case it comes my way. 10 minutes later here come another bigggg doe walking right up to me. BOOM another 40 yard shot and she runs and again I didnt find any blood or the deer. At this point I thought my scope got messed up because I would never ever miss shots like that. I stood back 50 yards from a nice big round tree and picked out a small spot and fired. When the smoke cleared I had blown that spot to peices so it wasnt the gun and I know damn well it wasnt me.

After doing some research and talking to my local gun shop I found out that ALOT of people were haveing this same problem and it turns out the powershits arent expanding at all. Instead they are blowing right through deer only leaving a very small hole while the deer run off like nothing ever happened just to later die slowly. It didnt happen to just me either. My father had the same thing happen on a doe 30 yards away. We never found her.

Thats when the gun shop told us to try out the Thompson center shockwave sabots. 3 days later my dad had a nice 6 point run up to 50 yards from him and he took him. There was snow on the ground and it looked like somebody painted the woods. The buck ran 10 yards and droped dead. Never agin will I use those POS powershit bullets.

Sorry about the random rant but I feel everybody should know our experiance with them and the gun shops experiance.

[bowbender]

There are alot of people don't know there is a small area between the vitals and the spine where if you hit it right it will not do nothing just break a rib or to. I know a guy that shot a deer in thats spot with a bow at 15 yards and was jump 2 or 3 yards, turn and look around then go right back to feeding.

Also alot of people i have talk to have said that with all the newer muzzleloaders and loads that alot of there deer have not bleed for 30 to 40 yards.

[davep]

Didn't get out until 4:45.
Had 2 does and two yearlings come in late,just far enough apart that I was SURE the next one was a buck.
Then I heard a 5th one coming down from a thicket.
Even smaller yearling!

Oh well,least I'm seeing them now.
Little scouting for beaver this afternoon and saw a HUGE set of tracks near one of my stands.
Plus,came back thru Charles and into St MArys this evening and deer in most evry field.BEFORE DARK!

[bowbender]

you seen them in the fields before dark because of the moon phase.

[THE DEER HUNTER]

Thanks. I have been using Hornady sabots for a couple of years now with no problems. If I ever decide to switch, I'll remember the story you just told.

[captwahoo]

I have been using the hornady 300gr hollow points. I have killed several deer with them. I learned my lesson with the first buck I killed, a couple of years ago. I shot a nice 10pt about 75 yards up the hill from me. Broadside, and standing still. This was my first kill with a blackpowder, so I figured, if I hit him, it would blow a great big exit hole. After I shot, and the smoke cleared, I did not see which way he ran, but I did hear him thrash off. I marked the spot, and looked for blood, or hair, or any sign of a hit. Nothing. I did my little 5 yard circle's and was sure I had missed? I searched a 25 yard circle for over an hour, cursed a little and went back to hunting. After the morning hunt, before I went to eat lunch, I marked my spot again, and started a larger search up the hill. Layed 35 yards from the spot, I found him along side a dead fall. Once I found him, I looked for the direction he got there from, and found no blood at all. My shot was true, and I could not believe the small entrance wound, and no exit. When I gutted him I had expoloded his heart, and his cavity was full of blood. Later that week when I skinned him, I found the sabot lodged under the skin in his neck. It had bounced off his front shoulder and ended up in his neck. Learned a very valueable lesson that day, if you think you hit it, you probably did. I have killed several since that have not bled.

[cduke69]

The first day of muzzle loader season I shot what I Thought would be the biggest buck ever taken on our farm. I took the shot at thirty yards broadside right behind the shoulder, I was using my CVA 50 cal. with those piece of sh.... Power belt sabots. I know i hit him because Found two large puddles of bright red blood about forty yards away. I searched for days looking for him and for the life of me could not find him. To this day I still look for him on Sundays. I now use the Hornady sabots and have taken many deer this year (2-8s/ 1-9) and many does. the gun was right on at a hundred yards. My father shot a small buck about 2 weeks ago at 45 yards, he was using the Power suck sabots. The deer never flinched at all, come to find out he did hit him, we found him in the beans about 20 yards from where he shot him. It was getting dark when he shot and with the smoke he sometimes will lose sight of where the deer might run off too. Anyway your comment just reinforce what i have always thought about Power belt sabots. Can you imagine all the deer that have been shot across the country with those things and never recovered.