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Made Meat in the NY Northern Zone Opener

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Tim Clark

36 Cal.
Joined
Jan 10, 2006
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Just getting around to posting this...

On Saturday, October 14th, at 8:00 AM I met at our church to take a group of young men ranging in age from 6th grade through 12th grade to climb (hike!!!) Bald Mountain (actually "Rondaxe" Mountain, but you can't much change local custom especially when it comes to traditional names). There were two other adults. Tough morning... Afterwards I went to our family's place in Forestport in Oneida County, WMU 5H for those of you in the area. Opened the gate, was on my way down our mile or so long road through the property from the highway to the camp on the lake (the other camp is on the hill a bit over halfway in), but a big beech tree had fallen across the road. Well, I walked down to the lake, went to the barn and got the chainsaw... walked back, cleaned up the problem, drove down to return the chainsaw and got to hunting, by then it was 3:00 PM. And it started raining fairly hard. Oh well...

I saw not less than 7 nice deer, no shot opportunites. Not sensible, responsible shot opportunities, that is. The last one was a very big doe not 40 yards in front (west) of me, offering me a clear, straight shot, so I raised up, aimed, squeezed the trigger, and >POP!< went the Remington #11 percussion cap, but nothing else. She had been staring at me from before I even saw her, but with that she just slowly trotted off to my left (south) into the deeper woods and I was left just wondering exactly what I was doing there in the first place... Seeing so many deer, with virtually every time having the wind in my favor and the leaves being wet and silent, and still getting busted, and now this...

I could have been down in the dumps, but I was sure of what I had felt earlier about this being a successful hunt. So, I put another cap on (after waiting a few minutes to be sure of no hangfire) and walked up to where the doe had been. I was milling about, slow and quiet, taking advantage of the situation to learn maybe one more thing or two about what makes deer do what deer do.

It was then that I looked (north) over to the opposite side of where the doe had run to and noticed a nose, eyes, big ears and a little rack amongst the brush. Little buck standing stock still, studying ME... maybe trying to take advantage of the situation to learn maybe one more thing or two about what makes hunters do what hunters do...

I looked a bit longer until I could make sure that what I was looking at was his body area and not the frost-killed bracken and brush. Then I raised up the 50 caliber, aimed at the heart-lung region, squeezed, and >BOOM!<

Even before the smoke cleared, I could hear thrashing in the area where he had stood before the shot about 75 yards away. By that time the wind had died away completely, the rain had stopped, and the sun had dropped just below the cloud layer and shone eerily on everything. The sun had just begun to touch the horizon when I had fired.

I walked over to where the buck lay. He had literally dropped on the spot. I've noticed that this is the rule rather than the exception for me whenever I use a muzzleloader. I gave thanks to God for a successful hunt, that the deer did not run and give me cause to track it in the dark, and that the subsequent drag was literally right on a short trail that led to our road in from the highway so that it would be an easy load into my Jeep Cherokee on my way out. The .490 PRB in front of 70 grains Goex FFFg had done its job well. No wasted meat, with leaving the liver and heart intact (and now in the marinade!!).

...and in the next moment, it started snowing like crazy! It got too dark to see almost immediately after that. All was well... I arrived home sometime after 8PM.

I slept well that night.

It was/is a nice little buck, just about 110 pounds dressed, fork-horn. Not big for the area, but just right for me. That .490 Speer round ball went in exactly at the point of aim, exited the off side, and took out one lung. How it did not take the other lung or the heart is a mystery to me, as is the way it just went straight down. No matter, mystery is a good thing in this case.

Anyhow, thanks for letting me crow. And by the way, that was only the 17th shot from that gun, and the first at a living quarry. The rest were practice and sighting-in (16 shots in practice; after the first shot showed that I needed to move to the left, I was fortunate that the slight sight correction was all that was needed, and after that it grouped 15 shots in under 1.5" at 75 yards, offhand). It also happens to be the same little CVA Bobcat that I picked up from WallyWorld about a month ago. It's lighter than my other muzzleloaders - also 7/8" across the flats instead of 15/16" and 1", and during practice and sighting-in, it shot tighter groups than any of my others. I chose it over my (previous) favorite for this hunt, and had no regrets. Although I experienced that misfire, I don't fault the gun. In practice and sighting-in, everything went perfectly. And along with it being as relatively light as it is, I wouldn't hesitate to take it along again.

And by the way, it's 1:48 twist, and it shoots PRB's quite well... :blah: :thumbsup: I've got meat in the freezer and a hide in the bucking solution to prove it. And those tenderloins... oh my my... they surely were wonderful.
 
atta boy tim! congrats! sometimes dem guns knows better than we do! now shall we go over the concept of sharing???? nice job! RC :hatsoff:
 
Congrats!

When hunting I carry a flintlock primer horn full of 3f or 4f powder. When I am done loading, I remove the cleanout screw and give the drum a 2 grain prime. It is annoying, but when my cap goes off, so does the gun! I have several stories like yours that lead me to start doing that. :winking:
 
Thanks, gents.

As far as sharing - well, whereabouts in NY are you, RC? :confused:

Halftail, I have a Fuji Finepix f700 camera that I really cherish. However, the CCD or whatever the thing is called is prone to failure, mine was no exception, Fuji has a policy of agreeing to fix the problem without charge even when the warranty has expired, just waiting for them to fix it and return to me. So, no pics.

I just wish the season was longer for muzzleloading. I know that we've got a "new" week added to the end of the regular season in the Northern Zone, and that the Southern Zone hereabouts also has the season after the regular gun season, but come on... for working stiffs, that means maybe the opening weekend or parts of it, and the rest of the week is out. I just wish... that's all.

Last year I got more deer with muzleloader than I got combined with rifle and bow. I don't know how much time I'll get out this year, but I sure hope to match that record.

As for seeing tons of deer, RC -- used to be, from back in the early 60's when I was a little kid, right up until about 8 or 10 years ago, to see ONE solitary deer the entire season (didn't used to be antlerless allowed back then, either), you had something to talk about. I am not exaggerating that point at all. And around where I live, deer, while more plentiful than "up north," were still scarce. NOW? Almost a nuisance everywhere. Plentiful as - well, not quite - rats. And they're not getting smaller in size the more there are of them. Also, my sister now owns the family property and how that came to be is a story in itself, and one that'll NOT be told by me. Let's just say that I am the only one she allows to hunt the property (about 300 acres, surrounded by lake, creek, and woods, and across the road is state forest land), maybe from a sense of guilt but hey, I'll take it, I get to continue to hunt the place I've hunted all my life. As a result of the property's near-sanctuary status, deer are thriving.

Anyways, lots of rabbit trails that could be run but I'll stay on the main path.

...for now... :yakyak:
 
tim...where am I in ny? jordanville.....yea, where? it's about 15 miles north of cooperstown..but I hunt fulton/hamiliton county line near whitman flow..hunted north for 5 straight weeks last yr. seen 3[url] flags....in[/url] one day..bad year.must be to far from the road :rotf: 3 1/2 miles by foot....same area for 35+ yrs..family has made camp there since ww2...more deer then..lots more,,and ain't real excited about the southern tier either ain't seen much around home...but we're there fer the hunt,not the kill........ .....good thing heh? congrats again,,,and tell yer sister I think I love her! :redface: good luck with the rest of yer season! :thumbsup: RC
 
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Hey, RC, I'm just about 2 miles east of the Village of Clinton. We're probably not much more than 15 or 20 miles apart.

I understand from the DEC in Herkimer that there's resident bears in Jordanville, reason I know that is we've got 'em right here, down back less than 3,000 feet north of the house. Another critter becoming rather plentiful these days is fisher. More and more each year, whereas not 20 years ago it was rare to see one even in the Adirondacks. And then the turkeys... and eastern coyotes/red wolf subspecies... anyone ever give credit to the sportsmen of this state for the comeback of all these critters? I didn't think so...
 
y'know, scratch that last remark about taking credit for those blasted coyotes. "WE" didn't do that. Wouldn't have, either. Not with how badly out of hand they're getting around these parts, we wouldn't have. First started seeing them in the late 60's, but almost no one believed us (my brother and I used to trap the hill areas around Sauquoit/Litchfield where we grew up) until they became commonplace. There's an excellent article from Cornell University about how close they are to putting us on the menu. Just Google it, should be able to find it. I still have the newspaper clipping (Utica Observer Dispatch, I don't recall the date) about "coyote habituation."
 
Tim,
Congratulations!for
your deer and especially for your time with the
kids. :bow:
snake-eyes :applause: :hatsoff:
 
Way to go with the kids hike and with your hunt and giving thanks to the good Lord!

YEEEhAA!!!!
Wess
 
Tim Clark said:
Hey, RC, I'm just about 2 miles east of the Village of Clinton. We're probably not much more than 15 or 20 miles apart.
thats great! so thanksgiving morn you start towards my house and I'll be on watch,and if ya drive a big ole buck by me I'll give ya a ride back home.... :hmm: then...we can do it again saturday.. :rotf: goin up north friday...god willing...maybe I'll get ta see somethin! good luck, maybe vyou can double up this year..RC :thumbsup:
 
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