Last Saturday was the last day for the Maryland shotgun season. Justin and I had made plans the night before to flip flop hunting and filming. Justin was up to bat for the morning hunt. We was suppose to meet at 5:15 am but Justin was running a few min behind. Around 5:30 Justin was pulling in to pick me up and we were on our way to a honey hole he has. After almost hitting about 10 deer in our short 15 min drive, we arrived safely at our morning destination. This spot has an excellent pinch point so Justin was going to take his bow along with his muzzle loader. After getting his bow ready to go he pulls out his Thompson Center and starts to load it. He first dumps the three pellets down the barrel and then follows it up with the sabot. Then there was a load snap. Looking at each other we soon realized that he had just broke his ram rod after only getting the sabot half way down the barrel. Needless to say there goes the muzzle loader. He grabs his bow and we are off to our set about 300 yards away. With a full moon there was no need for a flash light. We get to the stand and got every thing set up and it wasn't long before the sun was coming up. Around 8 we looked at each other in disbelief. We hadn't seen a single deer yet, this was very unusual for this spot. Then out of the corner of my eye I caught movement of a good buck. Getting the camera on him and starting to film him Justin says "I don't have my grunt call". I reached down grabbed mine and hit it. The buck stops, turns and runs from about 100 yards to 60 yards then to 40 yards. He slowly walks into 30 yards still not offering a shot. He starts to make his way off when he seen some does moving down the hill below him. Hitting the grunt call one more time in desperation didn't work either. The buck turns and walks down to the the does. Not 15 min later, BOOM, in the same direction they had walked in. After not seeing any more deer we rolled out, got breakfast and came up with a game plan for the evening.
We had decided to meet around 1 pm knowing that we needed to get to one of my spots as early as we could. On the way in we seen some deer and turkey already in the field. We slowly made our way to the blind step by step. After reaching the blind and only bumping the turkeys off the field we set up the camera gear and was ready for the evening hunt to unfold. Around 2:30 pm I caught movement of a good buck on the neighboring property. He had came out and checked just about every doe in the field. As quick as he appeared he disappeared. Now there was about 5 or 6 deer on our side of the property line. After several cars stopping on the road to look at the deer and the neighbors dog barking the deer on the neighboring property had had enough and cleared the field leaving the 5 or 6 deer on our property. With all of the commotion the deer were very nervous and spooky. Not 45 min after the field had cleared deer started to make their way back onto the cut corn field. After glassing a bunch of deer I noticed a big body standing 50 yards off our property line. The deer then picks his head up and all I can see is what looks like a nice buck, but I couldn't tell much about him. Telling Justin there was a good buck coming he gets the camera ready. The buck slowly walks into the field to eat and check out the does. We confirmed that the buck was at least a 4 1/2 yr old buck and was indeed a shooter. I slowly get Dons Thompson Center ready and out the window. YES I said Dons Thompson Center, Its a long story. The buck slowly walks out of the corner and I settle the cross hairs behind the shoulder and squeeze the trigger. The big 9 pointer runs 75 yards and stands there. At first I thought I had missed but when he jumped the fence I noticed a dark red spot behind his shoulder. The buck takes a few more steps and falls over. Justin and I celebrate, make a few phone calls and then finally head down to him. When we get down to him I realize who he is, I have a bunch of Moultire trail camera pics of him. He is a good old buck and one that I am extremely happy with. I would like to thank Justin for being there to video everything and Don for letting me use his gun. All in all it was a good evening and the deer were moving good, even with a FULL MOON.