wildcat junkie

It's -2F right now. I'm not sure what it was at daybreak, but I'm sure it was colder than that. I took these pictures from my deck off the kitchen a bout an hour ago.

Livestock shooting.

This is my "150 yard shooter" and it uses real fffG back powder and .535 round balls.

How many acres can you "cover" with a scope sighted 270 or the like? I could probably cover a food plot that was say 600' by 1000' if my stand was located midway in the long distance and 100 yds away from the plot. That means I could easily cover a 14 acre plot.

Years ago I shot a yearling buck and froze the shoulders whole. We had a party a few months later. We took both shoulders, smothered them in onions, wrapped them in aluminum foil and cooked them several hours over a low hickory wood fire. When we unwrapped them, the meat had fallen off the bones and it was delicious! You might try something similar on a smaller scale.

So where is all the hair & hide?

A few years back i had some inexpensive ear plugs that actually enhanced hearing allowing one to hear the slightest rustling or twigs snapping sounds. They would also allow one to pinpoint the source much better than with normal hearing. They had a "suppression circuit" that would reduce the muzzle blast enough so that it wouldn't damage hearing. A volume control would allow one to turn up the volume like a hearing aide and the sound of the gun shot was muffled to level where it would sound like it was at a considerable distance. They were quite amazing and were very similar in design to my late Mother's $3000 hearing aides right down to the volume control, battery compartment and tendency to whistle when not inserted properly. The only real difference I could see was the fact that the $3000 examples were custom fit from ear canal casting while the cheap ear plugs used 3 varying size silicone ends to accomplish a snug fit. Walkers still makes them and for < $25 are worth giving a try. https://www.sportsmansguide.com/product/index/walker039s-ultra-ear-in-the-canal-hearing-enhancers-2-pairs?a=1811248&pm2d=CSE-SPG-15-PLA&utm_medium=PLA&utm_source=Google&utm_campaign=CI&gclid=Cj0KCQiA38jRBRCQARIsACEqIev2a6ADLgtzwDK2axZ4wkyqqezoKu-baV8PTXu9KIa41227SATzFQ8aAoDKEALw_wcB

Hmm seems to fit the profile of a lot of the LEOs in the news these days.

I had 15 acres of White Pine logged in the winter of 1998-99 and got $10k for that. Trees were 30" at the stump and if I remember right it was around 290K board feet of #1 pine.

Shooting livestock.

They don't make it anymore.

Be patient. Have confidence in your rifle and shooting skills. Always assume you hit the animal. Even if there is no sigh of a hit where the animal stood at the shot, make ever increasing circles until you have covered every square yard for a 100 yard radius.

Using smokeless powder in a Muzzle Loader is an invitation for some "Bubba" to blow it up.

Looks more like elk antlers to me.

When spillage results in a pile of corn, such as might happen when trucks are loaded with an auger, it is considered baiting by federal waterfowl regulations.

Actually "fence injury" is mentioned in the article I linked.

So while one can keep an eye on the deer while talking on a radio, texting would be better and quicker. I guess airplane pilots should shit can their radios and text with the air traffic controllers. We use both radios and texting. If there is time, texting works. Radio communication is instantaneous and one of the rules when group hunting on my property is that when anyone gets down from their stands, radio contact and affirmation is a must before anyone moves..

You can still find it OTC at some well stocked Gun Shops. As far as reliability and consistency, real black powder is superior to the various substitutes. All of the inline & 209 primer technology was developed to make substitute powders more reliable. Real black powder is an explosive whereas smokeless is just a flammable substance. Real black powder requires added safety measures when stored in large quantities and big box store do not want to go to the expense of complying. I'm sure the Insurance industry leeches have something to do with it too.

Where were the testicles? Increased testosterone as the days shorten in late summer cause the velvet to dry and the antlers to harden. If the testicles are damaged or not descended the buck won't shed the velvet nor the antlers but that usually results in what are known as "cactus bucks". http://www.wideopenspaces.com/7-photos-infamous-cactus-buck-syndrome/ My guess is that the buck in question had non descended testicles and was only 1 1/2 YO thus his 1st rack. Otherwise, the rack would have been abnormal in appearance and he would looked like the "cactus bucks" in the link.

Real Black powder can still be bought and shipped. You pay haz mat just like smokeless powder. https://www.grafs.com/retail/catalog/product/productId/5449

That was the beginning of my rifle building. I built in in 1983 from a slab of maple. I have built a total of 7 muzzle loader "from the block" including restocking an original for a neighbor. When I lived in Southern Indiana I hunted almost exclusively with muzzle loaders including squirrels with a .36 flintlock, as well as Cottontails & turkeys with 12ga muzzle loading double barrels. I also killed 3 whitetails with a recurve bow before my wood arrow making business made it nearly impossible to get out during archery season. Once I moved to NY State, I moved on to building CF rifles with semi-inletted stocks.

Sometimes the satisfaction of a successful hunt comes not by the size of the rack or even the sex of the deer, but rather the challenge involved. One of my most satisfying buck kills was when I used my Dad's old 30/40 Krag to make a 120 yd DRT frontal neck shot through an opening in brush with iron sights. That shot took me several moments to "dope" out a sight picture and was one of the most difficult shots I ever pulled off. The buck was a 3 1/2 YO with a funky screwed up rack of modest proportions. This year I was the only one that filled a tag during the NZ "rifle" season. We had doe tags for the SZ, but weather didn't play well for our success. There are no doe tags in area 6A now and we saw countless does during the regular season, but between the 3 of us, only 1 buck showed up & I made good on it. Since 1 deer split 3 ways doesn't make for very large shares. I bought a "Muzzle Loader privilege" tag & got my .54 percussion rifle out of moth balls after 16 years. Liberal doe tags in the previous seasons and does only in the early ML season had made me put the charcoal burner away. I thought it would be easy too tag one of the several does that had been hanging around one of the stands at the back of my property. Unfortunately, the deer hadn't read the script and on the 1st sitting in the stand only 1 small doe showed herself and I blew a moderately easy shot. Now that I had "fouled" the stand, I went to a ground attack using my Hammock Seat. The 1st time in the seat I set up where one of the boys had seen 3 does enter the area on the last day of the regular season. Nothing showed but a few Red Squirrels. It looked like the deer might have me "patterned" The last day I decided to change up and set my Hammock Seat along the long shooting lane about 60 yds from where the tree stand had allowed the missed shot 2 days earlier and where the deer had been emerging from the brush into the mowed shooting lane. I was located about 20yds beyond the mowed portion. Earlier, during the regular season, I has seen deer emerging in that spot from the tripod stand 190 yds distant and 170 yds behind me. Since the heavy rains had flooded that spot I figured that the deer would skirt the frozen pool in the brush just beyond. Unfortunately, only a small 6" tree trunk was available and there was 2" of water in that particular spot. I manged to get the seat set up and cleared some twigs from my line of sight. It was not the best spot for comfort, but the Hammock Seat came through and I was reasonably comfortable. By spreading my legs some, I was able to keep my feet dry.. It was about 2:45 PM by the time I got settled in. Official sundown in my area was 4:18 so I would not have a long session. I kept checking my watch and the last time I looked, it was 4.13. Discouraged as I was. I willed myself to sit 5 more minutes until sundown. Just moments later I saw the shadow outline of a deer coming to the lane through heavy brush 25 yds away from my left. I knew the brush would shield my movement from the deer but not the sound of cocking the lock so close to the animal. I held the trigger as I pulled the hammer back and released the trigger before letting the hammer back down on the sear. I then swung the rifle to my shoulder and held on the spot where the deer would emerge. As the small doe emerged, I had the drop on her as she looked directly at me. Unlike the previous opportunity that I missed, this time the silver blade was shining in the notch of the rear sight. I held midway up her shoulder to clear the stump just in front of her, I set the rear trigger and touched the front hair trigger. 100gr of fffG Gerhart Owen black powder thundered as the 230gr .535 round ball went sent on its way. A cloud of smoke obscured my vision. When the smoke cleared I could see the deer kicking behind the stump. Since I was now standing in water, I watched the deer for a bit to make sure it was down for the count and without reloading skirted the frozen pool to get to my prize. The heavy round ball had taken her cleanly right through the top of the shoulder and spine. A bit higher than where I had been aiming, but effective non the less. I worked hard for that little doe and did the old change up trick to throw her a curve. I believe she was the same doe I had missed 2 days earlier. She won't yield a lot of meat, but it will help when added to that of the big buck I tagged earlier already being made into snack sticks.

Shooting short, longs & LR will certainly not do any harm. Where shorts do damage is when they are used as a steady diet and exclusively over a long period of time. They do not harm the "action", they do not "wear out" the action, but they can cause damage to the chamber. It is rare. The same thing can happen to a .357 when 38 Special rounds are shot frequently over a long period of time without firing the longer magnum cases occasionally. I misunderstood you original post. The way you worded the post made it sound like the rifle only malfunctioned with 22lr cartridges. THAT would be a symptom of chamber damage from firing countless 22 short cartridges without proper maintenance.

So the shorts and longs didn't also contribute to the action wearing out, just the LR rounds?

Walking on greased bowling balls is good practice for wading the St Regis above Ft Jackson.