• This community needs YOUR help today. We rely 100% on Supporting Memberships to fund our efforts. With the ever increasing fees of everything, we need help. We need more Supporting Members, today. Please invest back into this community. I will ship a few decals too in addition to all the account perks you get.



    Sign up here: https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/account/upgrades

My first flintlock deer

Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

fleener

50 Cal.
Joined
Mar 27, 2010
Messages
2,353
Reaction score
1,027
Location
USA
I have shot scores of deer with a ML, but never with a flintlock. So, I decided to take my .54 Dickert style rifle that Mitch Yates made for me last year and see if I could change that. So I headed for the cabin Friday afternoon.



Early ML season opened on Saturday morning and I only had Saturday and Sunday morning to hunt. Saturday morning was a bust. No deer within range, saw a nice buck at 300 yards, with a smaller buck and doe. Saturday afternoon I headed to a different stand at 3:30 pm. Way early, but I did not want to get in too late and bust the deer coming in.

The stand I was in Saturday night is great for seeing several hundred yards in front and to the right. I built this stand on electrical poles and it is fairly big. I built it to take my young sons deer hunting. They could move around without getting busted and they were not going to fall out of it. The boys and I have shot a lot of deer out of that stand. On the left is a creek with brush and timber. Across the creek is mature timber. The deer come out of the timber at night to feed in the open areas. In front I can see for 300 or more yards and to the right even farther.

After a couple of hours 7 or more does showed up in front me at around 250 yards on my neighbors property feeding on the clover. I kept glassing looking for any antlers in the bunch but none showed up. I was getting ready to sneak over there and put the drop on a buck if he showed up. I had a doe come within range, but passed on her.

At sunset I heard a noise coming from the creek area, I could see a buck getting ready to come out into the open by me. He was less than 50 yards from me at that point, I glassed him and knew that he was a buck I had been seeing on trail cam that has antlers that are not uniform and a little messed up. He came out into the open, I kept glassing to see if anyone was following him and was still in the brush. I did see what appeared to be a nicer buck hanging back. I decided to wait for the second one to come out.

As the second buck stepped out, I must of moved or made a noise, he looked right up at me. Or perhaps he could sense I was watching him. The only thing he could see is the rifle sticking over the edge of the wall and my head. I had my head pointed down to hide my face under my cap.

He decided I was not a risk, so he walked on out. He stopped right behind the pig sil. target you can see in the picture. I decided that I would not wait until he was abreast of me or even past me. He cleared the target and was walking slow, I took the shot, he was at around 30-35 yards way.

The round ball dropped him in his tracks. I quickly reloaded, watching to see if he was going to get up and run. He struggled a little but was anchored firmly.

He died right there on my lane. I got him hung by the cabin and figured it was cool enough last night that I could let him hang until morning. Iowa State was playing West Virginia last night in Ames, my wife and son were at the game. I was able to catch the second half on TV. WV is no longer undefeated.

He is not the biggest buck on the place, but just a nice decent 8 point, and I got to sleep in this morning.

I have a trail camera that is pointed North with the creek behind it. My stand is just to the right of the pig target you can see in the picture, tucked back into a tree lined drainage ditch.

I pulled the pictures this morning. You can see the first buck that came out, and then the second one that I shot. I shot him less than a minute after the last trail camera picture.




oxide symbol



Fleener
 
That sue is a nice buck and rifle. Glad you got him with your flintlock. As for WV getting beat they sure played terrible! Dan.
 
Congrats Fleener! :thumbsup:

Ya’ done good Pilgrim! :hatsoff:

Great story, great hunt and a great buck.
 
:thumbsup: Congrats! nice buck! good story.. deer huntin never be same now without a flinter lol :wink:
 
I like this rifle, it is representative of what my ancestors might of had when they first came to this country in the 1700's. I call it my heritage rifle.

I picked up an original 12 bore English sporting rifle this year. My next hunt will be with that rifle. 580 grain rb with 85 grains of powder, it should put a whitetail down.

Fleener
 
:thumbsup: :thumbsup: Congrats on a fine buck.Good in my book anytime.NY GRIZ
 
Congratulations fleener! That is a really nice buck taken with a beautiful rifle. :applause: Any game harvested with black powder tastes so much better. Keep yer powder dry...”¦”¦.robin
 
Back
Top