I’ve killed about 15 deer with my 20 gauge flintlock smoothbore since I bought it in 1997. Because of my interest in historical loading regimens I’ve taken them using a wide variety of wadding/patching combinations. Distances have varied from about 5 to 70 yards and I’ve never failed to find one. All but one has been a one-shot kill, and that one was so strange I still shake my head when I think about it.
It happened the first year I had the gun, the first deer season with it. I had considerable trouble learning to hit with the gun, first time ever with no rear sight, but by deer season I was confident enough to use the gun. I was still having some ignition problems, but only occasionally. Not to worry.
I hunted that day with my good friend Chuck, and we agreed to hunt different sides of the farm. I was hunting in a cedar thicket, and mid-morning I decided to change positions because the wind had shifted. I was still hunting slowly along a deer trail when I glanced over my shoulder and saw a doe walking on the same trail, not far behind me, head down, coming steadily along. I was standing by a small cedar tree which had fallen but still had all its needles and partially shielded me, so I just raised my gun to cover her as she approached and froze. She continued on the trail until she was only a few yards from me, then did a 90° turn to her right and walked down the other side of the downed cedar, not more than 15 feet from me, still walking slowly with her head down. I put the front blade on her heart and squeezed off the shot. The pan fired, but there was a slight delay, a minimal hang-fire before the main charge fired. The cloud of smoke from the priming flash mostly blocked my view, but thought I saw her run a few jumps and go down, hard, about 25 yards away. I had absolutely no doubt I had killed her and that she was down over there….with powder burns. I took a few steps forward to see her, and she wasn’t there. Wasn’t anywhere. How was that possible...I thought I was losing my mind. Before that question was even finished being asked, I heard a shot, close by, and obviously from a muzzleloader. How could that be, I was hunting on my own farm, and nobody was supposed to be near me.
I walked in the direction of the shot, and in about 35 yards came on my hunting buddy, reloading. The doe was down a short distance in front of him.
Long story short, when I fired and the priming smoke blocked my view, that doe reacted to the hammer fall and spun to her right, away from me, and my shot hit and broke her back left leg, exited through the front part of the right back leg. She hightailed it away, and would probably have never been recovered, but Chuck had given up on his half of the farm and come to check on me. He was back where I was hunting at first, wondering where I had gone, when he heard my shot and the doe came roaring past him. He knocked her down with his 20 gauge Narragansett Armes fusil de chasse.
We shared the doe, but Chuck gets full credit for the kill. All I did was learn that black powder deer hunting can be really weird.
Spence
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