• 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

Sons first Flintlock kill - late season PA

Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:

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

Toneloc

36 Cl.
Joined
Nov 19, 2020
Messages
78
Reaction score
133
My son had some success last night in PA. Cold afternoon, around 15F to start and dropped to 10F. Public land …we jumped a few deer on way into the spot and kinda felt like our odds where low. His attitude was not the best after that happened….but to his credit, he turned it around. By 4:50 he was getting really cold. Told him we could leave, but he wanted to stay…..At 5:10 heard some crunching behind us and a deer came less than 10 yds but no way for him to get around. It gave us a quick blow and ran off. Then a few minutes later more crunching father out in front. First a yearling then a nice adult doe at about 60 yds. He had a good rest and has shown me he can do it, so gave him the green light. 70 grns of 2f with a .530 prb. Hit the shoulder on near side, clipped the heart and deflected back. Deer cartwheeled on the hit, but got up and ran. Heard a crash so picked up trail immediately. Very tough blood trail. Snow spotty at best. Ended up jumping her, so backed out for a couple hours. Went back in around 730pm and finally pieced it together one blood spec and kicked up spot at a time. She was stiff as a board when we found her. She did a circle and ended up 50 yds from the truck…worked out well. Was a very exciting hunt on the ground….happy to find her. Proud Dadalo…

D409CB26-C088-4A63-B962-9AD6F76DF1CF.jpeg
 
Handsome young hunter ,and very nice size cervid , (deer). Hope you both enjoy the meat. Congrats to all. I still remember my son's first deer , After he shot , he turned to me and remarked ,"Dad , this just like hunting squirrels.) We had a hearty laugh............oldwood
 
That is truly fantastic. Great for him to stick it out and then have success, what a way to learn that lesson 👍. Wonderful story.
Excellent photo too by the way, very tasteful.
 
Way to stick with it! Good lessons learned. I still remember alot of specific hunts with my dad. Some successful, some not. All warmly remembered.
 
Appreciate all the kind words guys. Joeys favorite comment was from Oldwood, haha. Probably shouldn’t of let him read that, need to keep that confidence in check :p…He’ll have to wait till Tuesday to tell his buddies at school.

Like a few of you mentioned, those memories with Dad in the field are some of the best of my life. My Dad is a Vietnam vet and I think that made him not really have the drive to kill as he saw a lot of combat (purple heart / Army commendation for valor). Even so he would always take me / be my guide. He’s recently starting to have some early signs of dementia…good reminder not to take these experiences for granted.

I’m very grateful for the mentor youth hunting program in PA. At 11 yrs old my little guy has had lots of great opportunities in the outdoors that the previous generations had to wait till 12+…
 
Well done Joey , there is nothing like getting a one shot kill on your first deer . The way to find blood spots is use a stick (or your rifle ) and lay the end on the first blood spot then point it in the direction the deer went , use the stick as a marker to search along to find the next spot , move it side to side if needed , then repeat moving the stick at each spot , you can find the tiniest spots using this technique .
 
Back
Top