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A couple of Tennessee deer from years back.

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Matthew_B

32 Cal
Joined
May 15, 2022
Messages
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Hey everybody.
I’m new to the forum so I figured I’d share a couple deer from my 2015 blackpowder season. This was the last year I lived in my home state and hunted a full season there. I grew up shooting inline blackpowder guns and have taken a whole bunch of deer with them in the years leading up to this season but this was the first time I had made an effort to shoot a “traditional” style muzzleloader. My old man has a TC hawken that was at least 40 years old by his estimate. It remains to be one of the most accurate guns I’ve ever shot with 90 grains of FFG and standard No. 09 caps. I can’t recall what ammo we used to shoot back then since it was a mix of assorted old sabot ammo.
The first deer I took with that gun was a decent bodied 3 point. I was set up on a finger ridge facing a bench on an adjacent ridge that the deer tend to use to access an oak flat on the main ridge system we had permission to hunt. About an hour before dark he came around the bottom of the adjacent hill to about 40 yards. I cocked the hammer, hit the set trigger, and settled the sights right over his elbow. The gun went off without a hitch like it always does and the buck ran about 50 yards onto the hill I was hunting from. He bedded down and by the time I had reloaded the gun he laid over dead. I hit him right over the heart and got both lungs.

The second deer was a 50-60lb dressed doe. I shot her I think 3 days after I had shot the 3 point from the same spot as the 3 point. She came out right after daylight on the adjacent ridge at around 100 yards. I knew I had a clean shot over to her and I just needed to be steady. I knew the gun dropped a few inches at 100 yards so I put the sights right on the top of her back. Same process as before…cock the hammer, hit the set trigger, settle, and send it. At the shot she jumped, landed, ran about 25 yards and that was it. The bullet took her a shade further back than I wanted but still squarely in both lungs.

I’m excited to get back into the world of “traditional” muzzleloading and excited to be apart of this community!
 

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