The early fall muzzleloader season in PA was October 17-24 and is for antlerless deer only (last year I got a button buck, for example). In that season, hunters are allowed to use inline muzzleloaders, rather than the difficult primitive guns—difficult for me mostly because they are so heavy and unbalanced, not so much because of the complicated powder/firing setup, but that’s a pain as well. In the later winter muzzleloader season, you have to use the primitive rifle, made all the harder because the deer are  hyper-aware of hunter presence and really hard to find. Add to that the extreme cold of that season and you can see why I call it difficult.

Anyway, good news. I killed a big doe on Tuesday and it’s already in the freezer. It came out of a thicket near the end of the day, coming straight towards me, and I did what I was there to do. We hadn’t seen anything in the morning, and had come back out after lunch and after changing into some lighter clothes, because it was such a nice, warm day. I’ll still go out in rifle season at Thanksgiving in hopes of getting a legal buck, but there’s venison in the freezer if I don’t see one.