BowmanMike

How many bullets do you @Jeremy_Kshoot before cleaning?

I went to blackhorn last year,before that for the hangfire i was using pyrodex or whit hot pellets. The gun is an older cva wolf,not stainless barrel. Maybe i could shoot more bullets with the blackhorn,but it feels like it gets harder to push the bullets in after a few shots. The final cleaning is soo much easier with the blackhorn though.

I have to run a brush through my barrel after 3 shots. Maybe i don't have to but i do,i can see the build up in there. I also leave my gun loaded for weeks,as i hunt with a MZ during regular gun season. Just don't subject it to big temperature swings. I had one hangfire after i switched loads and cleaned and oiled the muzzleloader,then brought it from the warm house into the cold...just like @turkeyfeathers my primer popped,that was it. On the second primer it went pop,then a 1.5 sec delay and boom. I missed of course...

I went for a little still hunt for a couple of hours..The snow is just starting heavy now. I snuck along the west side of a north south ridge and kept scanning for deer. All of a sudden i see the back half of a deer standing about 70 yds away. I froze and the doe heard me more than she saw me i think. She moved around looking for me and kept blowing fairly low volume. I watched her for 5 mins before i saw another deer behind her. I couldn't see if it had antlers,but i dont think so. I could have shot the doe,but i only have a buck tag for now. Eventually i saw three or four deer take off slowly. I dont think a buck was with them,and they were feeding on beechnuts.

I use those in 250 grains and they work well. As far as blood trails go i never had a problem with those. One doe i hit just above the heart and that blood trail was the best i ever saw. It looked like someone was dumping buckets of blood for the whole 50 yds she made it. I imagine the bullets do less damage than rifle bullets because of the slower speed,but they will kill a deer just fine. I wouldn't worry much about which one to use as long as youe MZ shoots them nice. Oh,one more thing...enjoy your first MZ season,the deer will almost be back to normal behaviour by then because the hunting pressure is so much less than at the beginning of gun season.

I had one in my house a few years ago,that was bizarre. I thought i saw movement and white at that,but when i looked nothing was there. I waited a few minutes and this ermine pops out,that was neat. I think he was helping with our mouse problem that year....

That is a pretty good poke for a MZ,at least it would be for me. I haven't shot anything over 100 with it,but it's dead on at that distance.

I got two shots at a young buck a few years ago. He was a dumb ass,came back to the spot i missed him at a minute after i reloaded. I was thankful though last day of the season. He threw himself on the sword.

Ok,but you will get a pm if i dont see anything.

I will sit this afternoon,i have to with the weather coming in..Just have to decide between a hay field or acorns...

This.

Was that close to hammondsport? I have been there in the summer and thought it would be nice to come back for deer season,lots of state land and even a national forest one lake over to the east. Sounds like fun wherever it was exploring new ground is great. Sucks about the knee,i hope it will recover fast!

Not chanterelles. It is way past their time now,just about any mushrooms season is over,they dont like heavy frost very much.

Good luck to everyone out. Seems like it should be a good morning with the temps the way they are. Get your deerz.

Lady luck has to be on your side if you are only out a day or two during gun season. Best chance is opening day when the deer get pushed around by other hunters.

They dont show you all the times nothing happens,who wants to watch that. Also,gun season is the hardest season to even find deer on private land,all the human scent in the woods has the deer on high alert and almost completely nocturnal. I much prefer bow season and muzzle loader season,by then the deer are almost back to normal. And i agree that a lot of hunting is being on the right spot at the right time,which mostly comes down to luck. I almost feel like i know less now than when i started hunting 8 years ago. I have been watching lots of THP and the hunting beast and i can't figure out bedding areas for the life of me. Seems the deer lay down when they feel like it. And i haven't jumped a buck this season at all,so no clue where they spend the day. It is a fun sport though just because it isn't easy.

I feel exactly the same way,how about that. Good luck to you in a few weeks!

Also if there is no electricity right there it should be cheaper.

grampy,i read that before about high in the a.m. Seems to me the opposite would be true with the coldest part of the day being around sunrise and falling thermals. Why is it the opposite?

Definetely not too late..Buckmasters post is right on. I bought a used wolf from a buddy with a mediocre scope on it 7 years ago and couldnt be happier with it. Shoots perfect,and the cleaning is so much easier since i went to blackhorn powder. There should be no noticable delay from the hammer hitting the primer and the boooom. That being said,I had that issue when i went to the powder. I didn't pack the powder tight before shoving the bullet in,operator error. Now it is working like a champ. I only use the muzzleloader for gun season,it is light,easy recoil and super accurate.

Nice buck charlie. Good to see some of them are still out and about during the day.

More bow hunting,that's fine by me. I am actually considering taking the bow out now,i miss it already and realized i don't have to miss it yet.

I don't bother with scents,but i have a grunt tube and rattling bag. This year the grunt tube followed by a snort wheeze worked to draw in a buck that would have passed me by.

I play it like moog,make a mental list and i also tend to focus on bow more than gun,but thats ok. I will definitely move my two hang on stands and i am thinking hard about a new mobile set up for next season,looks like a saddle and climbing sticks right now.

I only have a 50 cal muzzleloader i hunt with during gun season. I use the shockwave 250gr saboted bullets. They are lead,and i tried the copperbelt but my gun threw those unsaboted ones all over the place,and i mean 2' right at 50 yds,next one 2' low and who knows where the third shot ended up. But the MZ is a lot slower than a rifle,so my bullets do not fragment much and so hopefully lead contamination is not a big issue.