At the ripe old age of 64, last Saturday, October 25, opening day of general deer season (Montana does not have a ML season) I shot my first deer with black powder. Using the TC Hawken .50 my father left me in 1987, with 80 grains of Pryodex RS and a conical a friend casts for me, at 35-50 yards, around 4pm, I got a good shot at what we refer to as a 2 point mule deer. Others would call him a 4 point or 2X2. One shot through the lung area, he went probably 50 yards before he fell. :grin:
Differences between hunting with a modern rifle and BP are you need to get a whole lot closer, you need to rely on one shot and you have to control your desire to run up and see if your animal is down while you calmly reload. :wink:
I noticed the rest of the herd my buck was with, did not seem to identify the direction the shot came from and ran around in circles while I reloaded. Is this common?
I thought maybe I had shot a doe and her fawns were hanging around. I knew he was a buck before I fired, but until I saw him lying on the ground, the remaining deer had me wondering.
I was as excited as when I got my first deer some 50 years ago. :v
Differences between hunting with a modern rifle and BP are you need to get a whole lot closer, you need to rely on one shot and you have to control your desire to run up and see if your animal is down while you calmly reload. :wink:
I noticed the rest of the herd my buck was with, did not seem to identify the direction the shot came from and ran around in circles while I reloaded. Is this common?
I thought maybe I had shot a doe and her fawns were hanging around. I knew he was a buck before I fired, but until I saw him lying on the ground, the remaining deer had me wondering. I was as excited as when I got my first deer some 50 years ago. :v
