First Flinter deer, Buck down!
Dec 17, 2017 9:07:22 GMT -5
Woody Williams, squirrelhunter, and 19 more like this
Post by HighCotton on Dec 17, 2017 9:07:22 GMT -5
Some on here may remember the days when I used to blood track deer with Duke (the German Wirehaired Pointer) now in the great care of jack ryan! One of the successful tracks was with a fine fellow from Shelbyville who generously blessed me with some Cabela's gift cards and I used those to purchase a Davide Pedersoli Hawken Flintlock. I believe it is now 4 years of trying to take a deer with that Flinter, all unsuccessful. The reason being I'm just too confident with my Encore as it has taken a deer 20 years in a row to date. It seems that the baton may have been handed off the Hawken for a year!
I wondered if I would even have a chance since I had only seen 2 deer, one on each of 2 hunts out of the last 10 hunts!
5 of those were in LaPorte and the other 5 near Bridgeton! As you all know, that can be some tough hunting!
Yesterday afternoon, all broke loose near Bridgeton! Those that hunt with a flintlock know the deal. The hunt is fine. The pain is in the time of prep and cleaning with the ole gun. Another reason I opt for the Encore more often. About 4:30 I saw movement in our east woods and within minutes, I had 4 small bucks pop into the cut bean field at ~160 yards. A little sparring and some grazing and I was left with a spike buck and the dude I eventually shot moving slowly toward me. I had a clear window at 80-100 yards which I had ranged earlier in the morning. Slowly they inched closer to the window until the bigger buck gave me a good broadside shot. He was practically standing on a weird clump of dirt I ranged at 80 yards. Solidly rested on the shooting rail, I felt very confident aiming for what I imagined was a lung and slowly touched off the flint!
A little spark! KA...BOOM! A lot of smoke! I saw the 2 deer bolt into the north woods which was some 30 yards away! I gave it maybe 20 minutes and figured I would at least go check for blood! Near the shot impact, I found a fist size clump of blood/lung chunks and that was a great feeling.
The trail was easy to follow with blood spraying out both sides!
Of course he decided to run down a saddle and jump into our deepest ravine to the creek bottom, where he piled up:
Man I was so jacked up! Hunting by myself, this turned into quite a night! But it was so worth it!
The roundball went in:
And here is where it came out!
I am simply amazed at the accuracy! It turned out to be a perfect shot! I loaded a Hornady .490 roundball (177gr) with a .015 lubed patch over 70 grains of Goex FFF powder!
I wondered if I would even have a chance since I had only seen 2 deer, one on each of 2 hunts out of the last 10 hunts!
5 of those were in LaPorte and the other 5 near Bridgeton! As you all know, that can be some tough hunting!
Yesterday afternoon, all broke loose near Bridgeton! Those that hunt with a flintlock know the deal. The hunt is fine. The pain is in the time of prep and cleaning with the ole gun. Another reason I opt for the Encore more often. About 4:30 I saw movement in our east woods and within minutes, I had 4 small bucks pop into the cut bean field at ~160 yards. A little sparring and some grazing and I was left with a spike buck and the dude I eventually shot moving slowly toward me. I had a clear window at 80-100 yards which I had ranged earlier in the morning. Slowly they inched closer to the window until the bigger buck gave me a good broadside shot. He was practically standing on a weird clump of dirt I ranged at 80 yards. Solidly rested on the shooting rail, I felt very confident aiming for what I imagined was a lung and slowly touched off the flint!
A little spark! KA...BOOM! A lot of smoke! I saw the 2 deer bolt into the north woods which was some 30 yards away! I gave it maybe 20 minutes and figured I would at least go check for blood! Near the shot impact, I found a fist size clump of blood/lung chunks and that was a great feeling.
The trail was easy to follow with blood spraying out both sides!
Of course he decided to run down a saddle and jump into our deepest ravine to the creek bottom, where he piled up:
Man I was so jacked up! Hunting by myself, this turned into quite a night! But it was so worth it!
The roundball went in:
And here is where it came out!
I am simply amazed at the accuracy! It turned out to be a perfect shot! I loaded a Hornady .490 roundball (177gr) with a .015 lubed patch over 70 grains of Goex FFF powder!
