JN
Well-Known Member
Last year I did a camping/hunting/trout fishing trip in Carter Co and had a blast trying out new land and just getting to be outdoors. I had planned on doing the same thing again this year and planned on camping Thursday-Sunday. Well, plans changed on Monday and I completely canceled that trip to hunt closer to home in Unicoi on a section of private land that goes into public land. I had groused hunted this area last year and had marked several locations I found trails, rubs, and spots I thought would make a good place to hunt.
At the back of the private land there is what appears to be an old hiking trail that goes up to an old logging road that goes up the mountain. I planned on hiking to the logging road the first morning and hunting the lower portion in the morning then head to higher elevation for the evening. As I get to the road that morning I start finding several scrapes and figured that was good a spot as any. I get set up and at daylight I can hear a deer grunting and running through the woods left to right. I can't ever see it just hear all the crashing and running from what I guess is a buck chasing a doe. Then shortly later I hear a deer walking to my left. I am never able to see it but can tell it is walking up the ridge in front of me. I eventually able to catch a glimpse of small buck in an opening above. I never see him again but can hear him just walking in the rhododendron but the ridge. I figured that was a good start to the morning but did not see any other deer that morning. I came down at about 11:30 and went back to the house to eat lunch, get my muzzleloader, and rest of my gear to head up the mountain. The area I was headed to was a saddle at the top of the mountain that had a trail coming along the side of the saddle on to a spur heading down the mountain. My plan was to make it to this trail where it transitioned from the saddle onto the spur. It was about a 1.25 mile hike in going from about 1900' elevation to 3500'.
I begin my hike in trying to not work up to much of a sweat. The good thing with most of the walk being on the old logging road is it is not as steep as the terrain you are walking through. There are sections where it is steep but for the most part is just a gradual climb. The worst part is having to cross the logs that have fallen across the road and the slippery rocks under the leaves. As I am making my way up the mountain I am finding several deer scrapes where I almost decided to stop and hunt the road but most of it is so thick with mountain laurel and rhododendron that you can't see anything other than the opening of the road. I continue on up to the end of the road which now leaves me about a 300 yard walk up to the ridgeline. As I am taking a breather and I hear a deer blow up toward the top and see one flag and go up over the ridge on the skyline in the 2nd picture above. I wait around for a few min glassing the top trying to see if there are any more deer and if the one I saw did continue over the top since that is where I was wanting to set up at. The trail I was wanting to get on runs across the other side of the ridge then down the spur in the 3rd picture. I don't see any other movement so I start my trek up the rest of the way. I am about 40 yards or so up the ridge when I got this feeling I shouldn't continue on. I was worried I would spoke the deer I saw again and cause her to blow out the backside of the ridge and the wind was also not blowing the direction it should be blowing. I also new that once the wind died down the thermals would start going down the mountain so I turned and went back to where the road ended and decided to set up looking up the ridge. From when I reached the end of the road till when I decided to set up at the end of the road took almost an hour. I was being indecisive because I really wanted to hunt the other side but ended up with going with my gut feeling of staying put and I also knew I was running out of time.
It is now pushing 3:45 by the time I am set up in my tree and starting to watch the ridge directly in front of me and 15 min later I see movement and a deer is coming down the mountain directly towards me. I take a look through my binoculars and see that he is a buck. I made the decision pretty quickly that he was one I wanted to shoot. For the most part he was coming straight towards me and would stop every so often and make a scrape. I was worried he might get on the deer trail that lead off to the right so when I got a shot opening at about 100 yards I put it on his front shoulder and shot and my muzzleloader goes pooofff with a huge cloud of smoke. Now I have not used my muzzleloader since 2019 have been archery hunting only for the last several years and I am guessing maybe one of the quick loads over time might have gotten moisture in the powder I don't know just that the muzzleloader fired like it didn't have much powder in it or maybe it was wet. So after the shot I never heard him run off. I can't find him either because of all the smoke so instead of reloading I just stand there looking. I catch antler movement and find him in a thick area just looking around probably thinking what the crap was that. Now that I have found him I move to where the tree is blocking me from his view. I lean so I can still watch him but start the reload process behind the tree. He starts walking down the mountain again doesn't seem to be really alarmed and goes back to his scrape making. I keep telling myself just take your time and down drop anything. I get everything reloaded and now he is about 60 yards away. I lean the gun against the tree, use my tethrd rope as a rest, settle in on his lower front shoulder (since he is quartering towards me and is above me), and pulled the trigger then BOOOM she fire correctly that time. He ran about 40 yards and piled up directly in front of me.
I almost couldn't believe this all happened and the way it did and then to see one so quick after getting settled down. After taking pictures and calling my Dad to tell him the good news I started dragging him out. I would have usually packed him out and that is what I had planned on doing if I had made it to the spot I wanted to hunt. Since he was almost beside the logging road and it was mostly down hill I figured I could drag him out and boy was that the wrong decision. I guess I am to stubborn and should have accepted defeat and took my pack back to the truck then went back with a sled to drag him the rest of the way. Losing momentum in the drainage berms and having to pull him over trees fallen across the road was a motivation killer every time you had to stop or slow down for one of them. All in all it took about 2.5 hours to drag him out. Looking back on it I def should have taken my pack back to the truck just the reduction of 50-60 pounds of weight would have made the drag easier. That night my whole body was sore from pulling and dragging him but come the next morning I was back in the woods.
Part 2 to come tomorrow...
At the back of the private land there is what appears to be an old hiking trail that goes up to an old logging road that goes up the mountain. I planned on hiking to the logging road the first morning and hunting the lower portion in the morning then head to higher elevation for the evening. As I get to the road that morning I start finding several scrapes and figured that was good a spot as any. I get set up and at daylight I can hear a deer grunting and running through the woods left to right. I can't ever see it just hear all the crashing and running from what I guess is a buck chasing a doe. Then shortly later I hear a deer walking to my left. I am never able to see it but can tell it is walking up the ridge in front of me. I eventually able to catch a glimpse of small buck in an opening above. I never see him again but can hear him just walking in the rhododendron but the ridge. I figured that was a good start to the morning but did not see any other deer that morning. I came down at about 11:30 and went back to the house to eat lunch, get my muzzleloader, and rest of my gear to head up the mountain. The area I was headed to was a saddle at the top of the mountain that had a trail coming along the side of the saddle on to a spur heading down the mountain. My plan was to make it to this trail where it transitioned from the saddle onto the spur. It was about a 1.25 mile hike in going from about 1900' elevation to 3500'.
I begin my hike in trying to not work up to much of a sweat. The good thing with most of the walk being on the old logging road is it is not as steep as the terrain you are walking through. There are sections where it is steep but for the most part is just a gradual climb. The worst part is having to cross the logs that have fallen across the road and the slippery rocks under the leaves. As I am making my way up the mountain I am finding several deer scrapes where I almost decided to stop and hunt the road but most of it is so thick with mountain laurel and rhododendron that you can't see anything other than the opening of the road. I continue on up to the end of the road which now leaves me about a 300 yard walk up to the ridgeline. As I am taking a breather and I hear a deer blow up toward the top and see one flag and go up over the ridge on the skyline in the 2nd picture above. I wait around for a few min glassing the top trying to see if there are any more deer and if the one I saw did continue over the top since that is where I was wanting to set up at. The trail I was wanting to get on runs across the other side of the ridge then down the spur in the 3rd picture. I don't see any other movement so I start my trek up the rest of the way. I am about 40 yards or so up the ridge when I got this feeling I shouldn't continue on. I was worried I would spoke the deer I saw again and cause her to blow out the backside of the ridge and the wind was also not blowing the direction it should be blowing. I also new that once the wind died down the thermals would start going down the mountain so I turned and went back to where the road ended and decided to set up looking up the ridge. From when I reached the end of the road till when I decided to set up at the end of the road took almost an hour. I was being indecisive because I really wanted to hunt the other side but ended up with going with my gut feeling of staying put and I also knew I was running out of time.
It is now pushing 3:45 by the time I am set up in my tree and starting to watch the ridge directly in front of me and 15 min later I see movement and a deer is coming down the mountain directly towards me. I take a look through my binoculars and see that he is a buck. I made the decision pretty quickly that he was one I wanted to shoot. For the most part he was coming straight towards me and would stop every so often and make a scrape. I was worried he might get on the deer trail that lead off to the right so when I got a shot opening at about 100 yards I put it on his front shoulder and shot and my muzzleloader goes pooofff with a huge cloud of smoke. Now I have not used my muzzleloader since 2019 have been archery hunting only for the last several years and I am guessing maybe one of the quick loads over time might have gotten moisture in the powder I don't know just that the muzzleloader fired like it didn't have much powder in it or maybe it was wet. So after the shot I never heard him run off. I can't find him either because of all the smoke so instead of reloading I just stand there looking. I catch antler movement and find him in a thick area just looking around probably thinking what the crap was that. Now that I have found him I move to where the tree is blocking me from his view. I lean so I can still watch him but start the reload process behind the tree. He starts walking down the mountain again doesn't seem to be really alarmed and goes back to his scrape making. I keep telling myself just take your time and down drop anything. I get everything reloaded and now he is about 60 yards away. I lean the gun against the tree, use my tethrd rope as a rest, settle in on his lower front shoulder (since he is quartering towards me and is above me), and pulled the trigger then BOOOM she fire correctly that time. He ran about 40 yards and piled up directly in front of me.
I almost couldn't believe this all happened and the way it did and then to see one so quick after getting settled down. After taking pictures and calling my Dad to tell him the good news I started dragging him out. I would have usually packed him out and that is what I had planned on doing if I had made it to the spot I wanted to hunt. Since he was almost beside the logging road and it was mostly down hill I figured I could drag him out and boy was that the wrong decision. I guess I am to stubborn and should have accepted defeat and took my pack back to the truck then went back with a sled to drag him the rest of the way. Losing momentum in the drainage berms and having to pull him over trees fallen across the road was a motivation killer every time you had to stop or slow down for one of them. All in all it took about 2.5 hours to drag him out. Looking back on it I def should have taken my pack back to the truck just the reduction of 50-60 pounds of weight would have made the drag easier. That night my whole body was sore from pulling and dragging him but come the next morning I was back in the woods.
Part 2 to come tomorrow...
