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- Mar 16, 2007
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I have killed quite a few deer over the years with a .54 halfstock Leman caplock which I built when I first got onto muzzleloaders back in the very early nineties. This year I wanted to deer hunt with a flintlock. Since I have limited stock shaping skills and zero carving skills, I ordered one to get here in time for deer season. It arrived in time to work up a load and do some practice shooting.
I used the gun with high hopes during the nine-day rifle season and saw not a single deer. I was not alone in this as Wisconsin’s kill this season was down almost 30% from last year; last year’s kill was down 20% from the year before. A deer management firestorm is brewing here, but that is a story for another day.
With the muzzleloading season upon me, no good places left to hunt, no vacation time left for hunting and an empty freezer (I’m a meat hunter), my brother-in-law called and invited me to hunt with him on the Sunday (Dec 5) of the season. He is an excellent deer hunter and has access to some very good hunting land; I had to accept the offer.
Dawn found me in a small woods sitting in a tree stand””I dislike tree stands and especially hate them for muzzleloading, but I was a guest and not about to complain. I saw nothing. About 10:00 AM we left our stands and did some driving through small farmland woodlots where he usually sees deer. Again, nothing.
In the afternoon, I took a long walk across two cornfields, across a brushy fenceline and partially through a marsh to a lone oak in the marsh which held another treestand. The marsh was shallow, thick with four-foot-tall marsh grass, and large clumps of six-foot-tall, thick brush. It looked like a great spot, but there would be no way to hunt it other than from an elevated stand.
After sitting about a half hour, I saw movement to my far right. About 100 yards out I could see small antlers and most of a deer’s head above the marsh grass quartering toward me at a trotting speed. I cocked my rifle and raised it to my shoulder””when the deer got to a small clear area about 80 yards out, I put the front sight a bit ahead of the front shoulder and fired. The deer took a hard right turn (now quartering away from me) and continued at a trot, then took a hard left at the fencline and was heading across my line of sight right in front of me. It got to a spot about 80 yards away (again), but this time directly in front of my stand, and stopped. It was broadside to me and looking straight ahead (toward my left). In the tall grass, I could see his head and neck clearly above the grass and bits of his body through the grass. I thought “If I move and load now, he will spook and run. I’ll wait a few seconds until he tips over (dead from my shot), then climb down and reload”. After 20 or 30 seconds, I realized that was not going to happen.
I knew I had to reload and shoot again. I slowly reached into my pocket and got hold of one of the tubes which held a pre-measured powder charge, took the cap off, poured the powder into the barrel, replaced the cap and put the empty into another pocked. I looked up and the deer was still standing like a statue looking straight ahead. My loading block, which is usually hanging from a cord around my neck, was in my pocket in a sandwich bag. I thought I would try to extract it from the bag while still in my pocket, as the pocket would muffle the sound. This is not an easy task with one hand, in a pocket and I made enough noise that the deer heard it and turned its head and looked right at me. After a few seconds the deer tuned and looked directly away from me, to its right. I pulled the block, bag and all out of my pocket and ripped the block out of the bag, the deer turned and looked back at me. I stood still and after a bit the deer turned and looked away. I laid the block on the barrel, got my short starter out of my pocket, and thought “This is a pretty tight ball/ patch, the deer is going to hear me smack it down”. I gave the starter a good rap with my hand and the deer turned a looked right at me again. I stood perfectly still until the deer once again turned away, I pulled the block and starter out of the barrel as a unit and shoved them back in my pocket. That is when I realized the hard part had yet to come””I had to pull the ramrod, ram the ball home, and because (in a treestand) I had no other place to put it, return the rod to its groove in the gun. The deer was looking straight ahead while I did this, and I could not believe it did not bolt as I could clearly see its left eye all the while. I slowly leveled the rifle at my waist, primed the pan, cocked it and raised it to my shoulder.
Part of the deer’s chest was visible through the grass, I aimed for that and squeezed the trigger. At the shot the deer bolted, ran about 50 yards and turned right to cross the fence and disappeared from sight””I found him dead at the fence. The second shot went completely through his chest, including the top third of his heart. There was no evidence the first shot hit him at all (I hate to say “I missed”).
The deer is far from a trophy, but it is the first one I have shot with a flintlock, and it left me with an experience I will never forget. Why it stood there while I reloaded, I will never understand.
I did not have a camera with me on the hunt, so these pictures were taken the next day, in my yard.
I used the gun with high hopes during the nine-day rifle season and saw not a single deer. I was not alone in this as Wisconsin’s kill this season was down almost 30% from last year; last year’s kill was down 20% from the year before. A deer management firestorm is brewing here, but that is a story for another day.
With the muzzleloading season upon me, no good places left to hunt, no vacation time left for hunting and an empty freezer (I’m a meat hunter), my brother-in-law called and invited me to hunt with him on the Sunday (Dec 5) of the season. He is an excellent deer hunter and has access to some very good hunting land; I had to accept the offer.
Dawn found me in a small woods sitting in a tree stand””I dislike tree stands and especially hate them for muzzleloading, but I was a guest and not about to complain. I saw nothing. About 10:00 AM we left our stands and did some driving through small farmland woodlots where he usually sees deer. Again, nothing.
In the afternoon, I took a long walk across two cornfields, across a brushy fenceline and partially through a marsh to a lone oak in the marsh which held another treestand. The marsh was shallow, thick with four-foot-tall marsh grass, and large clumps of six-foot-tall, thick brush. It looked like a great spot, but there would be no way to hunt it other than from an elevated stand.
After sitting about a half hour, I saw movement to my far right. About 100 yards out I could see small antlers and most of a deer’s head above the marsh grass quartering toward me at a trotting speed. I cocked my rifle and raised it to my shoulder””when the deer got to a small clear area about 80 yards out, I put the front sight a bit ahead of the front shoulder and fired. The deer took a hard right turn (now quartering away from me) and continued at a trot, then took a hard left at the fencline and was heading across my line of sight right in front of me. It got to a spot about 80 yards away (again), but this time directly in front of my stand, and stopped. It was broadside to me and looking straight ahead (toward my left). In the tall grass, I could see his head and neck clearly above the grass and bits of his body through the grass. I thought “If I move and load now, he will spook and run. I’ll wait a few seconds until he tips over (dead from my shot), then climb down and reload”. After 20 or 30 seconds, I realized that was not going to happen.
I knew I had to reload and shoot again. I slowly reached into my pocket and got hold of one of the tubes which held a pre-measured powder charge, took the cap off, poured the powder into the barrel, replaced the cap and put the empty into another pocked. I looked up and the deer was still standing like a statue looking straight ahead. My loading block, which is usually hanging from a cord around my neck, was in my pocket in a sandwich bag. I thought I would try to extract it from the bag while still in my pocket, as the pocket would muffle the sound. This is not an easy task with one hand, in a pocket and I made enough noise that the deer heard it and turned its head and looked right at me. After a few seconds the deer tuned and looked directly away from me, to its right. I pulled the block, bag and all out of my pocket and ripped the block out of the bag, the deer turned and looked back at me. I stood still and after a bit the deer turned and looked away. I laid the block on the barrel, got my short starter out of my pocket, and thought “This is a pretty tight ball/ patch, the deer is going to hear me smack it down”. I gave the starter a good rap with my hand and the deer turned a looked right at me again. I stood perfectly still until the deer once again turned away, I pulled the block and starter out of the barrel as a unit and shoved them back in my pocket. That is when I realized the hard part had yet to come””I had to pull the ramrod, ram the ball home, and because (in a treestand) I had no other place to put it, return the rod to its groove in the gun. The deer was looking straight ahead while I did this, and I could not believe it did not bolt as I could clearly see its left eye all the while. I slowly leveled the rifle at my waist, primed the pan, cocked it and raised it to my shoulder.
Part of the deer’s chest was visible through the grass, I aimed for that and squeezed the trigger. At the shot the deer bolted, ran about 50 yards and turned right to cross the fence and disappeared from sight””I found him dead at the fence. The second shot went completely through his chest, including the top third of his heart. There was no evidence the first shot hit him at all (I hate to say “I missed”).
The deer is far from a trophy, but it is the first one I have shot with a flintlock, and it left me with an experience I will never forget. Why it stood there while I reloaded, I will never understand.
I did not have a camera with me on the hunt, so these pictures were taken the next day, in my yard.
