Late muzzlelaoder season is here and after some unseasonably warm weather, I finally made it a point to get out no matter what. I have two doe tags and a buck tag and had made up my mind that I was going to go out and shoot the first doe that I had an opportunity at. Armed with my Colt SAA in 44 special stoked with Speer factory ammo, 200 gr. Gold Dot HPs, I had set my limit to 50 yards. (Legal in Iowa to hunt MZL season with a handgun)

I spotted two does bedded in a terrace from about half mile away with no bucks visible, so the stalk was on. Well, the best laid plans don't always work out quite as we hoped. I was able to get to within about 150 yards playing the wind when I look up and see an unusual corn stalk that wasn't there a little while ago. Sure enough, the buck appeared out of nowhere. Now what?

The does were still my main goal and there's about 350 yards between the does and the buck, so I take off after the does. Well, a blown chance at 26 yards, no shot and a humbled ego, and the does are gone. But, due to my lack of ability on the does, they busted lightly, just wandering off, and the buck stayed put. Game back on.

I was able to get underneath him out of sight in about 15 minutes and closed to 43 yards, the distance from one terrace to another. I had him marked pretty good on his terrace, so I peaked through the grass, and there he was, locked on me. I took the shot and he bolted up to the top of the terrace and stopped. I thumbed it one more time and put a second shot into him, this one better than the first. The second shot was quartering away and went in front of the diaphram and lodged just under the hide. The buck ran about 50 yards and piled up.

I'm going to do my best to post a picture so hopefully it works. Thanks to everybody for all the posts that I've read and gotten answers to all my silly questions. Mostly though for the fire to do this with a handgun again, its been a while.




pythonhunter

Excellent....And to top it off you used a classic handgun loaded with what would be the last choice of ammo for some hunters. That was as classic a handgun hunt as they get, Congratulations.
PS-forgot to mention thats a damm nice buck....

Congratulations on the awesome buck!!

Congratulations. Very nice buck

Open sighted 44 Special, and stalking a mature whitetail, closing the deal...

Simply awesome! Congratulations!!!

Agreed 110%!! Wow!

Way to GO Man!! Great Buck! Congrats

Congrats on a fine buck. Good job!

Good show! Yet another example of how you do not need to push the velocity envelope to kill big deer. Congrat's on a great hunt.

Very Cool!

Thanks for sharing!!

Outstanding - that's a great buck and you have a great hunting memory to go along with him.

Very nice buck and a good stalk with a revolver!

Congratulations!

Nice buck with a Nice gun!

Good shooting! Nice buck.

Excellent! Congratulations!

I have to agree with everybody else... WOW! great buck, especially with the old 44 special with open sights!

I did not know that you could hunt the muzzleloader season in Iowa with a handgun... that's cool

Congrats, nice buck!

Great buck. Didn't know you could do it with handguns in IA. Sign me up!!

Outstanding!!!!

Very nice accomplishment! Congrats!

Thanks to everybody for the nice comments. I was and still am on a natural high that is next to impossible to match. When I can, I will get pictures of the recovered bullet and the skull mount, shouldn't be too long. Thanks again to everybody.

PH

Congrats, nice buck and story!

Very nice buck and great shooting,congratulations.

great buck and story!

That's awesome, congrats.

very nice trophy!

Congrats!!!

Congrats on a fine buck and thanks for sharing pics with us. Those big bucks like to hide in cover that one would not expect to flush a pheasant out of. I have flushed more than one big buck out of the middle of a picked corn field.

Thanks for all the comments.

PH

beautiful buck, beautiful gun and beautiful shooting.

I've never shot a whitetail, only muledeer and antelope so far, but I would sure love to shoot one especially like that and with a handgun! Great Job!!!

Nice Buck...and good shooting!! Congrats

Great shooting. Very nice buck and like James said a classic revolver. Perfect!

I'm late but, nice buck and very nice side arm there.
Steve