By Ed Singleton

December 3, 2016

The first day of muzzleloader season in Virginia came on November 5th this year and I was in my climber stand well before light. I was hunting with my best friend in a hot spot he had already experienced success in earlier in the fall with his bow. It was a good clear sky, frost thick on the ground, brisk cold to get deer moving kind of morning. First light started peeking over the horizon and through the oak stand where was hunting around 7:15. The squirrels started their barking and chasing routines and the birds began to chirp. Nature was waking up and it was an awesome start to the day.

A few short minutes later I caught movement out of the corner of my eye ahead of my stand about 45 yards coming from the field. I saw the buck headed towards me at an angle but moving briskly. He was on a path to his bedding area in a cutover behind me. I had to make a quick decision to shoot left-handed because of the way my treestand was facing. I normally shoot right-handed. I had practiced this position in the summer just in case. The practice was about to pay off. The buck kept moving with intent. I found him in the scope and searched out one of the last shooting lanes I would have before he walked out of sight and into his safe zone. I put the cross hairs just behind his right shoulder and grunted to get his attention. He hesitated as I squeezed off a killing shot. Through the smoke I could see that he was down! The Hornady 250 grain SST-ML sabot had done its job perfectly. It was 7:26am and I had killed the biggest buck of my hunting career on my first muzzleloader hunt! He was a nice mature 8 point deer bringing meat to my family's freezer and my first wall mount.