Nebraska Teenager Bags First Buck with Old-School Muzzleloader

Young Jaxten Lohmeier shot his first deer, a doe, during Nebraska’s 2025 rifle season, but he still had a buck tag and wanted to try his luck at hunting with his grandfather’s muzzleloader. On Dec. 3, he anchored this outstanding 140-class buck with the old gun. Image courtesy of Sam Lohmeier.

Jaxten Lohmeier has been tagging along with his parents on their hunts for several years. But last spring, he was finally behind the gun and killed his first turkey ever, a large gobbler, after sitting in a blind for several days with his father, Sam. And Jaxten kept the streak going when he killed his first deer ever, a good-sized doe, during Nebraska’s rifle season this past November.

“Jaxten is the first true lefty in our family,” Sam explained. “We got him a left-handed Ruger rifle in 6.5 Creedmoor, and he was shooting it pretty well out to 200 yards before our rifle season opened. On the first Sunday of the season, a doe was standing 43 yards away, and Jaxten kept asking if he could shoot it. He made a great hit, and the doe ran toward us and piled up 18 yards from our blind. He was very happy.”

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The Lohmeiers hunted the rifle season’s remainder but didn’t encounter any good bucks that were close enough for Jaxten to shoot. Upon the rifle season’s closure, the focus immediately shifted to Nebraska’s late muzzleloader season.

The buck had a big body and heavy antlers, making it an exceptional first deer for Jaxten. Image courtesy of Sam Lohmeier.

“Jaxten really wanted to muzzleloader hunt because we knew there were some good bucks in the area,” Sam said. “My dad let us borrow his old Thompson/Center Renegade muzzleloader. My dad had previously shot deer with it, and so had I. He bought it used, and it’s been in the family for about 25-30 years.

“Before muzzleloader season,” Sam continued, “we had Jaxten see if he could put it on cardboard from 50 yards. His windage was good, but he was consistently hitting high. He was aiming using the entire bead, so we had him aim with only half of the bead. We weren’t about to mess around with the sights, because the gun shoots dead-on for my dad and me.”

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The first day the Lohmeiers went muzzleloader hunting, the conditions were warm and the wind direction less than ideal. The following afternoon, a fresh blanket of snow covered the landscape as they ambled half a mile to a blind overlooking a corn-stubble field surrounded by thick tree cover. With deer already in the field, the movement was sure to be great. And within 20 minutes of settling into the box blind, several deer entered the field.

“I saw a buck through the trees about 100 yards away,” Sam said. “It was a deer I had passed up twice while bowhunting. Jaxten was actually with me the first time I passed him up, and he had wanted me to shoot it. But I have some similar bucks on the wall and let it walk so that someone else in the family could have the opportunity to hunt it.”

Jaxten Lohmeier and his father, Sam, were hunting together from tree saddles in early bow season when the 10-pointer came in and worked a scrape. Sam passed up the buck, and he passed it up again while bowhunting at the end of November. Image courtesy of Sam Lohmeier.

Jaxten was unable to see the buck initially when it was in the trees, but then he saw it hop the fence and begin feeding in the corn stubble.

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“I wanted to shoot it right away, but it was in the wrong window, being that I’m left-handed,” Jaxten explained. “The buck moved to where I could shoot and was 55 yards away. I hit it high in the spine. I saw the smoke, and then I saw the buck on the ground right in its tracks.”

After reloading, Jaxten quickly put a follow-up shot into the animal to finish the job.

His awesome Nebraska buck sports a clean, 10-point frame with good mass. The G-2s are slightly shorter than the G-3s, but even so, the buck grossed 143 7/8 inches, making it a fantastic first buck. The fact that Jaxten filled his tag with his grandfather’s old muzzleloader was the icing on the cake.