Scoring "at the Buzzer"

[wildcat junkie]

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.

Edited December 12, 2017 by wildcat junkie

[grampy]

Congratulations, and a great story, of an awesome hunt! Way to go wildcat!

[moog5050]

That's a very cool gun to score with at the buzzer.  Well done!

[wildcat junkie]

10 minutes ago, moog5050 said:

That's a very cool gun to score with at the buzzer.  Well done!

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.

[tommyc50]

wow so cool i have a sidelock  muzzleloader  too i havent shot it in years though the last time i did you could still buy black powder i used  90 grains of  ffg [hunting load] a .490 ball and a .10 patch with a # 11 cap and the thing went boom. back in the day [late 70's,80's and early'90] most of the stuff you had to make yourself . i made my own possibles bag, melted my own lead to make balls,even melted gojo hand cleaner and soaked my patches in it made my own too, i know guys who built their own muzzleloaders from kits you could buy. you had to there was very few catalogs around that sold black powder stuff .  congrats on the deer thank you for posting

[wildcat junkie]

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

[tommyc50]

wow i didnt know that back in the day you could buy it over the counter . 

[wildcat junkie]

1 hour ago, tommyc50 said:

wow i didnt know that back in the day you could buy it over the counter . 

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.

Edited December 12, 2017 by wildcat junkie