11th hour muzzleloader buck

[jjohnsonElknewbie]

My daughter was blessed to shoot her 5th Iowa whitetail last night- a gorgeous, mature, and super healthy 8 point. Season closes today and this was her 6th (and warmest-lol!) sit this season.

Shot placement was perfect- behind the shoulder slightly quartering away at 138 yards. Took both lungs and broke far shoulder upon exit. Did not recover the bullet. Buck went about 50 yards before collapsing in view. Fantastic hunt and I couldn’t be prouder.

CVA Accura v2 thumbhole with 90 grains of Blackhorn, Winchester 209 shotgun primer, and 250 grain Hornady SST.

 

[Glendon Mullins]

awesome job!

 

[jjohnsonElknewbie]

awesome job!

Thank you sir and it's great when it all comes together. She passed several immature bucks and does while enduring multiple below zero windchill sits on the ground. She's a tough cookie and a dead eye with that CVA. Her marksmanship with it is a credit to the time we spend on the range behind the .22 first every fall followed by actual shooting of the muzzleloader. We practice shooting prone, kneeling, from our seat, etc..., so that when the time comes she is prepared for as many scenarios as possible. As ya'll know, shooting skills and marksmanship are perishable and practice is critical no matter one's experience or skill level.

 

[Chromeslayer]

Nice one

 

[long hunter]

Congrats young lady, you are a trooper.

 

[Superprime]

She's awesome!!!

 

[jjohnsonElknewbie]

Not to be outdone, her little sister filled her tag in the last hour of the last day of the season last night. They’d both passed this mature and odd looking buck earlier in the season. However, tonight was his night and her 4th whitetail buck.

This was a special deer for her as she hunted long and hard last year and ultimately never filled her tag. She learned a hard lesson about mature deer management and that it’s called hunting for a reason.

This guy walked right into us on the ground and she placed her shot perfectly behind the shoulder. He went about 50 yards before we got to watch him go down.

We used the same load in the same rifle as her sister, and I am impressed with the performance of the Hornady SST. At 40 and 140 it penetrated and expanded equally well. This was our first year using these and we will continue next season.

 

[Hunt4lyf]

Very cool! Congrat's to both your daughters! My daughter just turned 10 and she gets to hunt turkey this year, I showed her these pictures and she's even more excited to hunt.

 

[jjohnsonElknewbie]

Very cool! Congrat's to both your daughters! My daughter just turned 10 and she gets to hunt turkey this year, I showed her these pictures and she's even more excited to hunt.

That’s awesome and best of luck to you both!

 

[elkguide]

SWEET!!!!!
Those smiles tell the real story!

 

[jjohnsonElknewbie]

SWEET!!!!!
Those smiles tell the real story!

That's for sure, and i have a couple videos where they both walked up on their deer and their faces were lit up. Good times for a Dad.

 

[elkguide]

Raising your own BEST hunting buddies is as good as life can get!

 

[jjohnsonElknewbie]

Raising your own BEST hunting buddies is as good as life can get!

 

[monsterbucks]

Congrats that’s great

 

[Farmer9770]

Congratulations!
I’ve been freezing my tail off in Ohio last couple days this late season can be tough. Way to get it done!

 

[long hunter]

Great, those long hunts ending with deer on the ground are sometimes the best hunts, also the SST bullets work fine, been shooting them for a while took a antelope in a remy XCR .308 in 2019 at 300 yards 165 gr.SST bullet worked just fine, my hunting buddy took one at 550 yards on the same hunt running 180 SST in a ruger 300 win. mag. DRT. Tell the girls thats geetting it done with style .