Hi guys.. just wanted to share my first flintlock hunting experience with you. My two brothers and I got together over last weekend in PA to see if we could put some meat in the freezers. We all had flinters, and this is the first hunt we did as a threesome for more than 30 years, best we could remember.
It all got started when our dad passed away a little over a year ago, leaving his .50 cal TC Hawkins to my younger brother. When I hunted with him (rifle) last year, I saw that flintlock and I knew that I needed to have one. One thing led to another, and last weekend the three of us met at his house in PA, and during perhaps the coldest weather of recent memory, made a go of it.
In PA, for the last weekend of muzzleloader season, it's legal to shoot a legal buck, or a doe, so we had high hopes. But dang, it was rough sitting in that weather at times. We didn't see temps above 2* Friday or Saturday--our two hunting days. We did see a few deer now and then, but the cold temps was keeping them hunkered down for the most part, and the ones we did see were too far away for flint, or on the run because we kicked them up.
Saturday morning and early afternoon was better, but it wasn't until late afternoon that we had a chance to blow some smoke. All three of us got to do some shooting, and in the end, we brought home a descent size doe and a button buck. These weren't the biggest deer, by any stretch, but we had a blast (literally and figuratively) hunting with flintlocks, and we've committed to doing it again next year too.
Here's a picture of the three of us with the two deer that we processed in my brother's garage. I'm the good looking fella, and I'll leave it to you to figure out which one that is!!
It all got started when our dad passed away a little over a year ago, leaving his .50 cal TC Hawkins to my younger brother. When I hunted with him (rifle) last year, I saw that flintlock and I knew that I needed to have one. One thing led to another, and last weekend the three of us met at his house in PA, and during perhaps the coldest weather of recent memory, made a go of it.
In PA, for the last weekend of muzzleloader season, it's legal to shoot a legal buck, or a doe, so we had high hopes. But dang, it was rough sitting in that weather at times. We didn't see temps above 2* Friday or Saturday--our two hunting days. We did see a few deer now and then, but the cold temps was keeping them hunkered down for the most part, and the ones we did see were too far away for flint, or on the run because we kicked them up.
Saturday morning and early afternoon was better, but it wasn't until late afternoon that we had a chance to blow some smoke. All three of us got to do some shooting, and in the end, we brought home a descent size doe and a button buck. These weren't the biggest deer, by any stretch, but we had a blast (literally and figuratively) hunting with flintlocks, and we've committed to doing it again next year too.
Here's a picture of the three of us with the two deer that we processed in my brother's garage. I'm the good looking fella, and I'll leave it to you to figure out which one that is!!