Camp Wainwright 2017
Thought I'd start the annual thread since no one else has yet.
Just got home and can say we had a great trip. First time with muzzleloader. Saw about 80 deer and 18 moose. Ended up with 1 nice mulie buck and lots of close calls between the 2 of us. We saw 2 whitetail bucks that were 150-160 and 1 that was for sure 160. We only saw 2 nice mulie bucks, one my buddy shot on a push and the other I shot but could not find. I think we would of easily filled all of our tags if the snow conditions were better. Very crunchy in spots and not much in places. Hard to sneak upon anything but some places were better than others. North sides of hills and draws were quieter than more open areas.
Now more about the buck I wounded. Happened with 5 minutes of shooting light left today. We had powered out from walking and pushing bush so we decided to kill the last afternoon checking out some new areas. With about 10 minutes left we spotted a nice mulie buck crossing the line 400 yards ahead of us. We pulled up to the area he crossed and spotted him below us just walking across a clearing at what we thought was 175 yards away. I got out and got set, made a deer bleat to stop him perfectly broadside and touched the shot off. He folded on the spot. I started to reload and told my buddy to be ready in case he got up. Sure enough after about 10 seconds he jumped up, ran about 30 yards and then just walked straight away. Finally he turned and my friend had a misfire. He then just walked into the trees. We got over to where he walked in and found blood right away. Legal light was done now so all we could do was follow for a ways and hope we found him dead. We had no cel phone reception so we could not phone the base and find out what our options were. I was pretty sure that if I did not find him soon they would just thank me for supplying "Mother Nature's Kitchen" as they put it. As luck would have it all I had for a flashlight was my cel phone and it died after about30 minutes of slow tracking. I could not get a hold of the base so I had to get back or have some upset army people at me.
First deer I have not recovered that I shot before. Kept replaying everything over and over in my mind. Normally I could go back in the morning and pick up the track but not in Wainwright on your last day of your 3 days.
Any ideas on where I hit him. Turned out the distance was only about 130 yards instead of the 175 we first thought it was so I was aiming top of back. His back end dropped first followed by the front end. Dark red blood, quite a bit where I dropped him and drops all along as I tracked him. I'm thinking I nicked his backbone to drop him. Will he die from a high shot?
If anyone is heading to Wainwright for Monday's hunt pm me if interested in having a look for him, I can let you know where this happened. He was a really nice buck. I just knew it was a buck and was shooting but my friend had a good look through binos and said it was definitely bigger than his 140-150 incher. I'll see if he'll let me post a pic.
Shedcrazy, have you got the totals for the muzzy hunt?
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