KY Muzzleloader Hunt

SuperCore started his 5th season of deer hunting with . . . well, a bang pretty well says it. He nailed a nice doe on Saturday evening about 5:30. He took it from the Jagendehutte, with his Traditions in-line. The shot went about 110 yards, the doe was munching stuff just outside the back door at Broken Corners.

At about the same time, I was trying to bust a cap on a doe at Virginia. She came, I dropped the hammer, but the Winchester cap did nothing. I actually had two doe come in Saturday evening. The first got wise to me when I let my Hawken touch the metal stand. She never busted me, but something told her to take another route. The second came in from the north, right down the mowed trail. I was waiting for her when the conversation erupted on the walkie talkie– Supercore asking for a pickup, Angus asking for details, etc. She did a quick end-around and wound up about 40 yards from my stand, but I never got a clear shot at her after that– too many cedar trees in the way. The sun set, the woods grew dark. You know the rest.

I am kind of telling this all inside out. Saturday morning was the ML Opener. It was warm and wet. The Weather.com was certain that the rain would not start before 11, but at 9 AM it started coming down in earnest. I had a treestand umbrella. In fact, I had two of them that I had snagged on sale from Sportsmansguide.com back in 2011. I hardly ever get a chance to use these. This is not a contraption you would use in a high wind, but it was perfect for Saturday. You screw this long thing into the tree and there is a handle that sticks up, and the end of the umbrella goes onto that. There are long traces that go around the tree that keep it stable.

This is the third such device I’ve had. They vary in price up to $50. This was less than $13 on sale. When I like to use them is on days where I can get out and get the umbrella deployed before the rain starts. $50 is too much, but $13 was just right. It was wide enough to keep the whole buddy stand dry in 2 hours of steady light rain.

I warned before not to use one in a high wind. I actually had one up in a torrential downpour back in 2005. The traces kept it from blowing away, but I was constantly worried about it turning inside out. I was taking 20 MPH gusts and beyond that day, and I stayed in a rain suit, because the rain kept being driven underneath. One other time I’ve used an umbrella was back in 2002. Mooseboy and I were together in the buddy stand on Heartbreak Ridge. It rained all morning. We each got one shoulder wet, but our head and our guns stayed dry. This new umbrella was considerably larger than that one.

I was a might peeved at the Winchester primers I used. I found them at Walmart this past week. I had forgotten to get new primers, and these were all that were out there. The lit up, but it normally took two attempts to get one to fire. The Remington and CCI’s I normally use work fine. The Winchesters cost me a doe, but then I am not all that bitter. It saved me a lot of trouble.

Which brings me back to the original story. SuperCore called that he had a doe down. Angus brought out the truck and they schlepped it back to camp. By the time I got in around 7:30, it was already for the processor. If I had gotten a flash on that doe we might have been out there all night.

Normally, we have been taking our deer to Mike Jett’s Salem Ridge Deer Processing. There has been two changes of management at (what used to be) Myer’s over in Lennoxburg. I have yet to go back over there. Mike was a sure bet. He was always open when I needed him. We got over to Mike’s place after 8 PM and it was all dark. I called Mike, and left voicemail. Mike called back promptly.

Details? Look you are going to have to get those from Mike. Suffice it to say Mike ain’t there no more. I am very sorry for him.

We dug around in the hump of the truck and I had gotten a card from a fellow who was just opening up on Route 22 on the way to Falmouth– B&B. He answered, we told him we were coming. He said to come on along. I will let you know more as things develop. However, we were impressed by his operation– all built into a converted truck trailer. The price was good too.

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