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.
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.