Private land, late blackpowder season south of GR with one week of season to go.
My son in law took a big buck in Alpena area during rifle season, but I had not seen anything that wasn't running full tilt thru the woods.
There were three of us on a small plot sitting on either end of a small hill in a valley of sorts. As dusk approached, I noted a large doe come out of the woods in front of me. I couldn't get a shot thru the brush so had to stand up. By the time I was fully upright she had turned directly toward me and I no longer had a good shot but there was another doe behind her that was broadside to me. I took the shot and she ran forward 20-30 feet and stopped to look around. The first deer just stood there looking around. As I had a second tag, I quickly dropped down to reload. My son in law and his brother came up to check on me (they thought I had a chain fire with my .44 Colt as they heard a dble fire) I stood up and shot a second time at the first deer and obviously missed (about 80yrds) so dropped to reload again. by this time there was a third deer standing with the group. My son in law shot and missed, but the deer just stood looking around. We both reloaded (his brother couldn't see through his scope so never shot) and shot again taking both remaining deer. The first deer had lain down by that time.
Overall, we took three deer in about 8 minutes of high excitement. We figure that, being down in a bowl valley, there were echos coming from all around and the deer didn't know which way to run so they just stood there. Filled the freezers with some good, corn fed venison and ended the season successfully.
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