Hunting Report

[Sugarmaker]

hholt,
That is a awesome buck. Love the dog tugging on it!

Our crew has hunted hard since Christmas (7 days) and we finally got a small doe up close to one of the guys and he was real happy with the muzzleloader performance.
I nicked one that I hope is recovering. Hate to draw blood and not find the deer. This one was moving very well after the 75 yard shot, hope it was just a little bit of skin.

We have one more week of muzzle loader still looking for horns.

Regards,
Chris

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Hholt,

Tremendous deer and congrats. They sure grow them big in the midwest and IL. It appears you took it during the second shotgun/muzzleloader season??

[hholt]

Yes WV, I shot him 2nd shotgun season, on the Saturday after the ice storm, which was really bad here in Madison County, about an hour northeast of St. Louis. We were very fortunate and only lost power for a couple of hours. The hunting after the storm was really good with the deer heading to food sources early and most other hunters indoors. I had babysitting duty that evening and had a blast taking Little Henry out to help drag (he shined a flashlight for me). He was very brave!!!!

I just finished fire bricking my arch this past weekend but with cool temps I think it will take a while to fully cure. It seemed to set up ok though. I wish I had one of those little plug in ceramic heaters I could stick in there.

Good luck Chris and others that are still hunting!!!!

[Fred Henderson]

A couple of heat lamps will do a lot for you.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Or a small fire with some newspapers a couple of times will help it cure also.