First one

[mikee51848]

Three seasons ago, in PA's flintlock season, I went out with my new .50 rifle that I had built that summer. It had snowed and then sleeted a little over-night so that the ground was a bit crunchy walking in. I set up a little after daylight. A light snow began to fall. Sitting back against a tree, I had just finished off a cup of tea from my thermos when I heard a commotion off to my left. Suddenly, a group of about six deer came through the woods, about 40 - 50 yards off. I pulled back the hammer and set the trigger (remembering to remove the hammerstall). I picked out an opening in which to shoot. One of the does trotted into the opening and I touched the hair trigger. Boom! And a cloud of smoke! After the smoke cleared, I saw that the doe had collapsed in the opening. Quickly I reloaded as I wasn't going to leave anything to chance. After reloading, I saw the deer was still down, and the others were running all around me. I could have shot another, and don't know why I didn't, except maybe to concentrate on the one already down. They all moved off after a minute, and I returned my attention to the one I shot. As I started off towards it, I noticed it was still breathing, so I sat back down to wait a bit longer. After about 15 minutes, it was still breathing, but not moving. I decided to stalk it a bit closer and put in a finishing shot. I got to about 20 yards and put another ball into the chest cavity. My first shot had been higher than I'd have liked it to, and had cut the spinal cord. Anyway, that was my first, and sadly, my only flint deer to date. Last year, I had another one in my sights but the the pan didn't ignite.
I just finished my new .54 smoothbore so I have a summer of practice ahead of me.