Whenever sportscasters spew off statistics about certain team rivalries and how two teams have stacked up over the years, it makes me think they don’t have anything better to talk about. It all means nothing, because the current teams have evolved through coaching and personnel changes – any one of which alters the team’s personality, potential, and character. An impending game, therefore, is sure to become a new adventure. So, too it is with hunting.
Each day afield holds the promise of a new experience unlike any before. It doesn’t matter if a hunter has walked the same trail each season for a decade; the next walk in the wild has the potential to produce a wallhanger, even if it never has before. It is a new day with new variables.
Preparation for this current muzzleloader season began to develop when I started thinking that more magnification on my .50-caliber Knight Revolution front loader could be an advantage. So, I installed a Leupold Vari X III, 3.5 x 10-power telescopic sight, thus increasing my high-end magnification from 6-power. Hunting late-season hot spots from a distance, where most shots would fall into the 100 to 200-yard range, the higher magnification and light-gathering ability of a huge 50-millimeter objective lens would afford better target acquisition.
The smokepole had been made new again.
Additionally, having numerous hunting stands can allow a hunter to hunt into the wind on any given day. With that in mind, I began to build a permanent blind to be placed at the eastern end of a food plot destination field. The project remains incomplete, however.
As a temporary measure, a chair blind was set out several weeks ago to cover the same location. The one-man blind was tucked inconspicuously into a stand of young spruce trees. The hideout became virtually invisible and was left untested until opening day of muzzleloader season.
With the season’s first snowfall still present from two days earlier, the brassica plot took on an entirely different look. And, with my upgraded rifle and brand new hideout, I was already taking part in a new experience, even though I had hunted the same field so many times before.
Much like a cheap inflatable raft I had used in place of a real fishing boat years ago, the portable blind provided an opportunity for me to hunt comfortably and discretely, while overlooking a field now covered in nature’s natural frosting.
The prospect of deer hunting in a late-season snow had been the only reason I had practiced so much self-control over the past two months of whitetail hunting. I hadn’t been concerned about putting deer in the freezer; I was hoping for a chance in the snow.
The setting was perfect: An accurate firearm with quality optics, a first-time stand, and a snowfall covering that couldn’t have been more timely, if it had been special-ordered.
The hungry deer moved early and often. There was no good reason for me to wait any longer for the perfect conditions. And, just like that rubber raft that allowed me to haul in fish like those in a $40,000 bass boat, the fabric ground blind was all the cover I needed to fill an antlerless tag on the first day of the season.
Barnes 250-Grain TMZ Recovered Weight: 248 Grains
Yes, the plan had come together and all it took was a new perspective.
As a final note, the shot was a quartering-to the shoulder. The bullet penetrated the entire length of the body without exiting. The recovered weight was 248 grains, which includes a few grains of deer matter under the bent-back, pure copper petals. The Barnes can always be counted on to deliver exceptional energy transfer and penetration.
