Well it was a crisp winter morning just this last Saturday, my brother and I decided to brave the near negative temps to take advantage of Ohios muzzleloader season. My family and I own a woods outside of Roundhead Ohio and had a built a hunting shanty in it some years ago, so armed with historically accurate Buddy Heaters and Hot Hands body heating pads away we went...
We got their just before sunrise..unfroze the Windows to our shanty and opened them ever so slightly.We then proceeded to fire up our heaters, of course one worked... One didn't, I was warm anyhow even with just one heater working. As the sun came up and birds and squirrels started moving about, I Didn't see any deer sign from the evening before ( we had a about an inch of snow on the ground) so my hopes stated to diminish. Finally about 830 am we heard some crunching through the snow and leaves, after looking around for a second, my eyes zeroed in on the noisemaker.... A coyote! These critters are fair game around here, year around. So I instantly grabbed my rifle and waited patiently for a shot, the dog must have sensed us, smelled us or saw us cause it wouldn't come in any closer that 60 yards... And through the brush that's a tough shot. Anyhow I picked my shooting lane, although it was a poor lane at best, I decided that was the best I had. The yote, after looking around for a bit, decided to walk into my shooting lane... I took a deep breath, let it out and about half way through... Squeezed the trigger, taking my only shot. I looked through the smoke and seen the yote fall to the ground, only to clamber back to his feet and run away with his tail between his legs. I'm sure I killed him.. Well it was reloading time, when it came time to start the ball down the barrel, it seemed a little hard... but it went, then grabbing my wooden ramrod and choking up on it, I applied the normal amount of pressure that it took to push the ball down the barrel... Well it wouldn't budge. It seems my patch lube, which was homemade by the way, didn't like sub zero temps..after struggling trying to load it for a bit, I took a much needed breather. 10 minutes later I was back at it, this time determined to seat the ball. Well not sure how it happen, but I broke my ram rod with the ball about 3/4 from the muzzle end of the barrel.. My hunt, for that day, was done. I went home and made another ram rod and am now ready for Monday to come... Oh and I also changed up my lube, for cold temps I am now using bore butter. One last thing, I will be making or buying a composite ram rod in the near future, as I dodged a rather sharp bullet and quite possibly a trip to the E.R. Wooden ram rods make for some nice medical bills for sure.
Sorry this was so long, but I wanted to share this with you fellas.
We got their just before sunrise..unfroze the Windows to our shanty and opened them ever so slightly.We then proceeded to fire up our heaters, of course one worked... One didn't, I was warm anyhow even with just one heater working. As the sun came up and birds and squirrels started moving about, I Didn't see any deer sign from the evening before ( we had a about an inch of snow on the ground) so my hopes stated to diminish. Finally about 830 am we heard some crunching through the snow and leaves, after looking around for a second, my eyes zeroed in on the noisemaker.... A coyote! These critters are fair game around here, year around. So I instantly grabbed my rifle and waited patiently for a shot, the dog must have sensed us, smelled us or saw us cause it wouldn't come in any closer that 60 yards... And through the brush that's a tough shot. Anyhow I picked my shooting lane, although it was a poor lane at best, I decided that was the best I had. The yote, after looking around for a bit, decided to walk into my shooting lane... I took a deep breath, let it out and about half way through... Squeezed the trigger, taking my only shot. I looked through the smoke and seen the yote fall to the ground, only to clamber back to his feet and run away with his tail between his legs. I'm sure I killed him.. Well it was reloading time, when it came time to start the ball down the barrel, it seemed a little hard... but it went, then grabbing my wooden ramrod and choking up on it, I applied the normal amount of pressure that it took to push the ball down the barrel... Well it wouldn't budge. It seems my patch lube, which was homemade by the way, didn't like sub zero temps..after struggling trying to load it for a bit, I took a much needed breather. 10 minutes later I was back at it, this time determined to seat the ball. Well not sure how it happen, but I broke my ram rod with the ball about 3/4 from the muzzle end of the barrel.. My hunt, for that day, was done. I went home and made another ram rod and am now ready for Monday to come... Oh and I also changed up my lube, for cold temps I am now using bore butter. One last thing, I will be making or buying a composite ram rod in the near future, as I dodged a rather sharp bullet and quite possibly a trip to the E.R. Wooden ram rods make for some nice medical bills for sure.
Sorry this was so long, but I wanted to share this with you fellas.