Hunt Year Wrap-up

[VTdeerhunter]

First post in a long time; work, family, life, death...you all know the drill. With the majority of hunting seasons wrapped up (still got a few coyote hunts left) I found myself sitting home drinking coffee and cleaning my gear, instead of in the woods early Sunday. Thought I'd send out some pictures and stories and catch up with y'all.



Like most of New England this year, the deer were well fed by Mother Nature and when it wasn't tee shirt weather she was trying to drown us with rain, always a fun hunt with a flintlock :grin:

Hunted most days during our brief season and managed to scare up a decent buck, he was short on horns, but big on a#%.....since I hunt to fill the freezer we made a good match. 165# dressed and hanging.











Took my son out to Montana for a remote primitive hunt, we tented in the Bridger Mountains 3rd week of November. The only modern thing we had was a phone to check in with mom (a mandatory requirement) horses, and mules did the heavy lifting. The horse tender carried a few guns and after we woke up to wolf tracks around our tents, I was fine with his "modern stuff" being in camp. Also ran into either a griz or awful big black bear track...didn't they get the memo it was time to hibernate???

Had Elk and Deer tags and did our best to fill them. My son dropped his first elk, and he earned it with the polar vortex cold we had (-30 in the tent one night before we got the pack stove going!). I managed to take a nice Mule Deer about 1 minute after my best friend dropped his, they could have been brothers as well!

I thought that going through these pictures would be fun, but now I'm dying for the seasons to start! Gonna be a long summer

Hope you all have been well and were able to enjoy the year in the woods! More hunt stuff to come later.

 

[Kansas Jake]

Great pictures and I like that the knife has earned its keep.

 

[Eric Krewson]

What an adventure! Great pictures as well.

 

[Patocazador]

Great trip. What gun did you use for the elk and muley?

Your packer/wrangler is smart using mules instead of horses for packing. They're a lot less spooky and more sure-footed across slides etc.

 

[ny griz]

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: Howdy and congrats on a great hunt.Thanks for the story and pics, :hatsoff: Griz

 

[will5a1]

Congrats and thanks for sharing your hunts, man am I jealous, you've had a good season.

 

[Spikebuck]

You had a great season shared with friends and family. Doesn't get better than that! :thumbsup:

 

[VTdeerhunter]

I used the gun shown in the first picture, built it from a few bought parts (Colerain barrel, siler lock) but made the rest. Stock came from a piece of Maple in my grandfathers barn, made many of the screws in the forge...did buy the pins. I have been blacksmithing my entire life and do a fair job at welding..however this project showed me that brass is a very different animal
I have a pile of scrap that started out as patch boxes..9 to be exact, and the one on the gun still does not totally represent the one I tried to pattern after, but it works...finally!
The butt plate and toe plate were less an issue, but every ramrod pipe has its own character...lol
The trigger guard was a fun project and came out pretty nice after I soldered the gaps in the folds.
All in all it took a long time, and going forward I will stick with iron mounted build projects...just is my cup of tea so to speak :grin:
It's 50 cal., likes 100 grains behind the round ball and is a bit heavy. A swamped barrel would have been better...it's 1" across the flats and is 42", the barrel alone tips the scales at almost 7.5lbs...
The horses and mules earned their hay that week...we will back out there again this year, used to hunt New Mexico and Colorado, but I like the remote mountains of Montana better now, its gotten into my blood bad! Working on the Mrs. to move to the Bozeman area...fingers crossed

 

[Britsmoothy]

:bow: :hatsoff:

B.

 

[robinsroost]

Congratulations on a very successful year and a full freezer. I am never concerned about the head gear on a deer, you can't eat them anyway.......robin :hmm:

 

[larry wv]

Good luck on the move. And thanks for the story and photo's.

Larry

 

[Arrowstorm]

Great pics! Thanks for sharing!

 

[Patocazador]

Bozeman is nice but land sure is expensive there. Maybe due to Ted Turner's ranch and the ski area nearby.

I really like that elk sculpture on the edge of town.

 

[Percy]

Congratulations on the great hunts; love the pics.
Percy

 

[Brokennock]

Congratulations. Sounds like a good season, story and pics certainly are good. Nice critters, good meat, great country, a son and good friend, can't be beat. Where was the white tail taken, CT. or VT. ?

 

[sidelock]

Great pics. and hunts. I have had from 35 to 200 elk in my front yard since thanksgiving. Getting too old to tramp the hills and am going back to Virginia soon as I can sell my house though I will miss the bitterroot greatly for the rest of my life.

 

[VTdeerhunter]

Whitetail was from CT, state land...don't have private land permissions to hunt, just a few to trap on.

 

[VTdeerhunter]

Sidelock...maybe we can make a trade? Although if she won't go you will get to keep the wife with the house, she's a great cook and a looker!

 

[Brokennock]

Looks like a spot I know in American Legion State Forest.

 

[Kapow]

That rifle is beautiful. The pics were truly inspirational. A lifelong dream of mine. Congratulations.