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Back from May Meat Hunt.....

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Joined
Nov 17, 2016
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Last Saturday I received this Flintlock .54 caliber rifle in the mail. It was a barrel, lock and trigger group that was sent off to be finished and placed in a stock. It came out nicely and I went to the range with my standard .54 load: 80 grains Goex FFFg, .018 pillow tick patch cut at muzzle lubed with 7:1 Water/Ballistol, .530 ball. To my surprise the rifle hit at 1 O'clock on the top of the bulleye at 50-yards and held less than 2" groups. I made a minor sight adjustment to move it left and shoot at 12 O'clock. At 100-yards the one group I shot was 3". This years traditional meat hunt was at a large ranch owned by oil and gas company - 10,100 acres. The part I hunted was about 600 of that. Walking slowly and sitting on water-holes and food plots was productive. The winds were strong and intermittent and the temperatures reached 88 degrees. My Thermo-Cell was the one piece of modern technology that was absolutely necessary to keep the mosquitoes from carrying my off. In spite of the wind the "skeeters" were pretty relentless one afternoon. I saw javelina, hog, axis deer and whitetail deer on the first day. The next day I saw some red deer, blackbuck, oryx and one lone Ibex. After a lunch of chicken strips and three berry pie I was heading across a cow pasture to some thick brush. I noticed a lone bull - the bovine kind - by a tree. At the base of the tree was a little red spot. The binoculars showed the red spot to be a nice female meat animal. I set to stalking tree by tree, bush by bush. Suddenly, two horses came into view behind the deer and cow blocking me from shooting the direction I was approaching. I kept on until I was about 30-yards. The wind was helping but the bull saw movement and began to walk behind the tree row and past me. The deer came to her feet, stretched and began to tag along behind the bull. Not wanting to lose the wind, I backtracked to stay in front of them. At the end of the tree-line I shouldered the flintlock and waited. When the bull cleared I pulled back the cock. The loud click stopped the bull and the deer and they both looked hard in my direction. After a half minute the bull found no threat and began to walk on. The deer hesitate much longer but eventually stepped out in the clear at about 65-yards. I quickly put the blade of the front sight on her ribs and pressed the set trigger. A half breath was released and I put pressure on the front trigger. Boom - smoke. The smoke lingered for a second and blocked my view but a wind gust cleared it . The deer was hopping on her back legs in what otherwise might have been a humorous scene. After about 4 or 5 hops she did a back flip and lie still. I reloaded from my pouch that Willfish4fud made with the easy to use tubes holding powder, a ball and a piece of patch material. I used a short started that Stoney1 (Two Feathers) made and the reload was quick, easy and organized. Upon approach of the fallen animal I could see the exit side of body was heavily coated with blood and a large piece of lung tissue was outside the animal. There was no need for the reload so I stuck a pipe cleaner in the touch-hole and used half-cock to make the rifle safer. A friend heard the shot and came with a stick. We tied her to the stick and carried her back to camp where she was cleaned and broken down for the cooler.

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I liked everything about your hunting experience in the story. Fine deer, fine gun and what could top that?
 
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