cedar bark buck

I’ve been tinkering with historic or primitive wadding in my Jacky Brown Carolina smoothbore with some success. I worked up both shot and ball loads with shredded cedar bark wadding which seemed useful, and have taken a few squirrels and one rabbit using the shot load. Today I stepped it up a level and collected this fat 6-pointer. Load was 85 gr. Goex FFFg, shredded cedar bark over powder, home-cast .600’’ ball loaded bare, sprue up, then a smaller overshot wad of cedar bark. Sitting at the base of a tree, the shot was 40 yards and I hit him in the heart, a pass-thru. He left in a hurry and looking healthy, but only made it 50 yards into the trash before going down.



Spence

Thats the way to do it Spence! Congrats! :thumbsup:

Sweet!!! and nice looking gun as well. I hope to have one sometime.
Macon

Nice buck and nice gear, way to go!!

Very Nice. Could you please show me what a shredded bark looks like? Never heard of it. I have to applaud your efforts.

Really great buck!!

Spence, that's just outstanding, congratulations on a good deer, and a good method !!

:hatsoff:

Good goin' Spence. :hatsoff:
The old ways still work.

...nice ! :thumbsup: :hatsoff:

gmww said:

Could you please show me what a shredded bark looks like?

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It's a species of juniper locally called red cedar. It grows over most of the eastern US, I think. The bark naturally loosens and can be easily stripped off by hand.

On the tree:



Off the tree:



You can shred it by simply rubbing it in your hands:



An overpowder wad:



I've been using it for years as an excellent tinder for starting fires. The only problem I've had using it for wadding is that it's too tender. If you need to pull a load it breaks so easily that can be difficult to do. I usually just shoot it out.

I decided to try it as a substitute for flax tow, which is hard to get and expensive. Free is good.

I won't be using it as my regular wadding, but it was a fun experiment. Maybe I'll try for a turkey.

Spence

Thanks for posting it. Do you put it raw or is it treated with some lube. I'm wondering about possible burning embers starting a fire.

That is flat out neat Spence. I am tickled for you.

Spence,
Thanks for sharing your great adventure. I really appreciate it.

Pat Cameron

This was a fun hunt, sort of a final exam in flintlock shooting.

I've been trying to go with the basics, no modern improvements. My homemade hickory ramrod is all wood, no fittings, no attachments. The small end is carved with screw threads to accept a simple wire corkscrew worm, the large end expanded to 1/2" for ramming.

The load couldn't be more basic, powder, ball and scrounged natural wadding. And first try at a deer using a fairly radical wadding system added some excitement, even though I had, of course, proved it on paper.

It was a bit of a rainy day, today. I was out in it for 5 hours, had to use my cow's knee for about half that time, the rest was misty-foggy.

I learned long ago that good quality BP won't absorb enough water from the air to prevent its igniting quickly and reliably, so I never change my prime if I don't let liquid water get to it. I didn't today, even when I took a couple of hours at the car at mid-day. The humidity was 100% all day, liquid water was falling on the cow's knee half the time, yet I shot the buck at 2:45 PM using the prime I put in at 7:00 AM.

Shooting a flintlock is a learning game from beginning to end, and it feels good to know I can make it work in less than perfect conditions using the old gear and methods.

Spence

gmww said:

Do you put it raw or is it treated with some lube. I'm wondering about possible burning embers starting a fire.

Click to expand...

I use it raw, but anyone shooting it would have to keep that in mind, of course.

Spence

Like I said it's pretty cool. Thanks for sharing.

:thumbsup: Good shot! Great Gear!Congratulations

Congrats, Way to go! :thumbsup:

Congrats!!

Very nice !!