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Just one well-placed shot

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Walaw717

40 Cal
Joined
Jan 31, 2022
Messages
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I reflect a great deal about a childhood and youth of hunting in the woods of the Appalachian Plateau and the Blue Ridge with my father and grandfather back in the 1950s and ’60s. We all hunted with simple guns, and my grandfather always carried his single-shot rifle and shotgun. He rarely missed and learned to shoot in the 1910s and ’20s.

Of course, we did not use muzzleloaders, so reloading was faster and simpler.

And hunting clothes were simple as well. Maybe a canvas over-suit. But usually just a shooting jacket and casual trousers, no camo and only later orange vests.

I also think about Sunday’s spent watching The American Sportsman with Curt Gowdy and the charm and sophistication he and his guests displayed. I have attempted to watch newer hunting and fishing programs and generally find myself turned off by the lack of sophistication and the mossy oak gimmick-filled hunting conversations and quasi redneck delivery. Gowdy and crew made the shows about the hunt or the fishing, the new shows are about the host and his gimmicks. The old American Sportsman had a feel like a movie we all love to love, Jeremiah Johnson, some talk but more about visuals and telling a story through actions and a soft narration about the land and the “game.”

Thinking about and reading about frontier hunters and muzzleloaders has taken me even more into the thought that the past hunters were much more proficient than today – no mossy oak, no commercial gimmicks, no semi-auto with mags bristling with high-powered ammo.

191b24c25ccc5f69609057a020a791f2-226x300.jpg


(frontier mossy oak??? hmmmm)

Just one well-placed shot as if your life depended on it. And it did. That is how my grandfather learned to hunt.

I am looking forward to not only building this Hawken gun when it arrives but working on that one-shot mentality my grandfather had.

I do not want to start an argument, simply sharing a thought like one might among a group at a local restaurant over coffee.

Will Law
 
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Ahh!. Yep.

My grandfather had one breach loading 12 gauge and one breach loading 30-06. Deer hunted with slugs in the shotgun.
 
Ya, how some can't even hunt rabbits without 400.00 of some Gooch camo, 800 worth of electronics, 80,000 pickups. Most think the more one spends, the better the hunter!!! Total hogwash, and I cleaned that up a bunch. Let alone get out and do some natural hiking hunting.

Too true. Consumerism has ruined us all. I am an old man, so I think it is natural, but youngsters need to sit down and learn. Most never leave adolescence behind, which I see in the current hunting and fishing shows. Take off the camo, lay down the semi-autos, remember to shoot and talk man to man in a dignified manner. If my grandson were a hunter and came to me, I would start him at a range with a single shot and work with him on the accuracy, then stalking. You know the old thrill of victory and the agony of nothing to eat. So many of these shows approach hunting like they are going to war.
 
I have to agree with all you have written.
i am now an old man in body, but my mind still thinks i am a kid.
i have been making and shooting Black Powder for 60 years. in all that time i have only once sat in a blind and "hunted".
it was only because my older sister bought one and she had bad knees, so i shared the blind with her. thinking about it, at that time our combined age was 155 years!
i have always still hunted and it just didn't seem like hunting to me, sitting in a hut and waiting for something to stumble by.
others are welcome to my share of that type hunting and i truly hope they are successful in it.
i want to sneak through the woods and surprise whatever is sharing it with me for at least a few more years/seasons.

i lied. i have sat many times in a duck blind! kinda hard to injun up on ducks!
i can say that.
 
I have to agree with all you have written.
i am now an old man in body, but my mind still thinks i am a kid.
i have been making and shooting Black Powder for 60 years. in all that time i have only once sat in a blind and "hunted".
it was only because my older sister bought one and she had bad knees, so i shared the blind with her. thinking about it, at that time our combined age was 155 years!
i have always still hunted and it just didn't seem like hunting to me, sitting in a hut and waiting for something to stumble by.
others are welcome to my share of that type hunting and i truly hope they are successful in it.
i want to sneak through the woods and surprise whatever is sharing it with me for at least a few more years/seasons.

i lied. i have sat many times in a duck blind! kinda hard to injun up on ducks!
i can say that.
Yeah, I have sat in duck blinds, never a tree stand. Hunting means looking not waiting. May as well bait with feed and wait. I, too, am an old man in body, lived long enough to get over the ego stuff and realize how wise my grandfather was. I do get it; young people listen to everyone they should not listen to; I did the same when younger—just saying from reading through here and reading other muzzleloader blogs and vids that I admire the one-shot hunter. One of the bad things about older men like me is we have the experience to say, well, how is that working out for you - like youngsters are idiots. Hell, Hire 1 30 year old while they still know everything ;)
 
aged 1-12 my father knew and could do everything and anything
aged 12 to 22 my father knew nothing, but could do anything
aged 22 to 30 i could tell everyone everything and could do anything
about 30 my dad got real smart again.
at 45 i lost him and in the intervening 30 years, not a day goes by but i have a question only he could answer.

ps. trees are for cats, squirrels and birds. have only been the one ground blind.
 
aged 1-12 my father knew and could do everything and anything
aged 12 to 22 my father knew nothing, but could do anything
aged 22 to 30 i could tell everyone everything and could do anything
about 30 my dad got real smart again.
at 45 i lost him and in the intervening 30 years, not a day goes by but i have a question only he could answer.

Yes, I know that pattern and feeling. Lost my grandfather when I was 16, my dad when I was 43. Not a day goes by I do not want to sit in the old easy chairs and actually listen to them talk.
 
Yes, I know that pattern and feeling. Lost my grandfather when I was 16, my dad when I was 43. Not a day goes by I do not want to sit in the old easy chairs and actually listen to them talk.
I've been fortunate in that my dad is still here but after his stroke last fall, his personality has changed a bit. He's on our N-SSA team and still goes on the line to stand and deliver at 88yo. Youngsters don't understand the concept of gone and not returning. So many things are left unsaid that shouldn't be.
 
anymore i find i will pass on shots easily made just to prolong the time in the woods. line up the sights, whisper "bang" and watch the critter until it moves on.
sitting under a cedar and watching a Black Bear go through it's comedy routine is far better than watching anything on TV. if i had TV.
watching the interaction between a Doe and her fawn is as close to being content as i can get.
when the smoke clears and the blessings are said, it turns into work
 
One trip to box stores (including sporting goods stores) tells the story. Most every gun is plastic. Hunting ammo (even in normal times) is limited. Muzzleloading is pellets, not powder. Only thing resembling a possibles bag will be in ladies' purses. IF a single box of swaged roundballs is there, it will be dust-covered, in an oddball size you never owned.

Outdoor channels portraying "hunting" as sitting in an elevated, heated blind over a feeder or food plot don't help. That's killing, not hunting. Same thing for "tournament" fishing in my book. Gowdy had class. Rowland Martin was real. Fred Bear - a true sportsman. I'd rather watch "Swamp People" than professionals dressed like Nascar drivers.

Best I've seen this week was two "Good ol' boys" win a Crappie tournament using a 12-foot jon boat, rods with no reels and 12' of line.
 
I reflect a great deal about a childhood and youth of hunting in the woods of the Appalachian Plateau and the Blue Ridge with my father and grandfather back in the 1950s and ’60s. We all hunted with simple guns, and my grandfather always carried his single-shot rifle and shotgun. He rarely missed and learned to shoot in the 1910s and ’20s.

Of course, we did not use muzzleloaders, so reloading was faster and simpler.

And hunting clothes were simple as well. Maybe a canvas over-suit. But usually just a shooting jacket and casual trousers, no camo and only later orange vests.

I also think about Sunday’s spent watching The American Sportsman with Curt Gowdy and the charm and sophistication he and his guests displayed. I have attempted to watch newer hunting and fishing programs and generally find myself turned off by the lack of sophistication and the mossy oak gimmick-filled hunting conversations and quasi redneck delivery. Gowdy and crew made the shows about the hunt or the fishing, the new shows are about the host and his gimmicks. The old American Sportsman had a feel like a movie we all love to love, Jeremiah Johnson, some talk but more about visuals and telling a story through actions and a soft narration about the land and the “game.”

Thinking about and reading about frontier hunters and muzzleloaders has taken me even more into the thought that the past hunters were much more proficient than today – no mossy oak, no commercial gimmicks, no semi-auto with mags bristling with high-powered ammo.

View attachment 119229

(frontier mossy oak??? hmmmm)

Just one well-placed shot as if your life depended on it. And it did. That is how my grandfather learned to hunt.

I am looking forward to not only building this Hawken gun when it arrives but working on that one-shot mentality my grandfather had.

I do not want to start an argument, simply sharing a thought like one might among a group at a local restaurant over coffee.

Will Law
Curt Gowdy, wow does thjat take me back. my dad and i always watched him, aways wondered what the next cool adventure would be.
 
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