better than bowhunting and centefire rifles

[leadball]

being fairly new to BP I was thinking today after I made some very tight groups at 50 yards with 75 grains of powder and patched rb that this is better than reg gun hunting and bowhunting combined. Think of the cost of 6 arrows including broadheads vs patches and balls. My 270 win cost about 18 bucks for 20 rounds. Plus the joy of taking a deer with a prb and happy you didnt have a misfire at that moment. so i have sworn off centerfire rifles and have no interest in bowhunting. I, Leadball, do solemnly swear, to never fire a centerfire at a deer again. I will donate the 270 to the ruffed grouse society banquet. I will treat my Traditions Kentucky rifle as if its my fourth child, so help me God. Amen :applause:

 

[Huntinfool]

There ya go leadball.

I think I'll keep all my guns and bows but I still enjoy my ML the most! I enjoy sending a cedar shaft (that I made and crested with my personal colors) through a deer lungs.

I get about the same enjoyment out of traditional archery as I do from my flintlocks!

"The Chuckster" ::

 

leadball, you done got hooked bad huh? I know the feeling.
I love to bow hunt and will continue as long as I can get into a tree stand, but I just have to take a deer with my .58 Jeager rocklock and a p/r/b.

Huntin'fool. I have a small collection of older recurves, a Browning, Shakespear, and I fergit, but I'd rather shoot those than my compounds.

 

Hey Leadball...

Welcome to another "benign addiction".

Now, as I have an abiding love for anything with rifling in it's bore and real bows without training wheels may I suggest you donate all your other rifles, handguns and traditional archery equipment to the "Sharps4590 Benefit Society". I can assure you that your former weaponry will be in the best of homes, receive more than ample care and feeding and will take their proper place of honor alongside other well cared for items of hunting and shooting history. Your generous contribution will be appreciated more than can be expressed.

Sincerely
Vic
Founder, Executive Director and chief beneficiary of the "Sharps4590 Benefit Society".

 

[musketman]

I will donate the 270 to the ruffed grouse society banquet.

Or, you could sell your .270 and buy muzzleloading stuff with the money... :winking:

 

now musketman....I'm working on this so don't go puttin' any selfish ideas into the mans head. Just think how warm and fuzzy he will feel inside knowing he has made a generous and unselfish contribution. I have NEEDS!!!

Vic

 

[Stumpkiller]

Sell the .270 and get a muzzleloading shotgun for them grouse. (I do confess to still preferring my side-by-side 20 ga. for that purpose, but I do use my 12 ga. New Englander on occasion). I was about 1 in 30 with my 16 bore fusil flintlock w/#6 shot on grouse when I decided the forefathers ate a lot more squirrel than grouse (unless they relied on wire snares and potting them off branches).

The best thing about traditional bowhunting is that it makes the flintlock seem easy, and the percussion w/quick-loader tubes like a Buck Rogers/Star Wars uber-weapon.

 

[Huntinfool]

I don't want to highjack the thread but something StumpKiller said hit a nerve with me.

I had trouble with flintlocks when I first started shooting rifles. But soon mastered that.

But I really have trouble with flying objects and flintlocks. I have for years used a 12 gauge shotgun of the modern type.

I have muscle memory so well established it's hard to break the old habits so to speak. I have for years used the pull through the target and slap the trigger method of leading flying or moving objects. The lead is built into how fast the gun is moving as it passes through the target.

If I do that with a flintlock I will miss every time. I believe that the only method to use is sustained lead. You pull the gun in front of the target and maintain the proper lead as the gun goes off. Now that's hard to do with Ruffed Grouse dodging through the brush the way they do. Holding a sustained lead on a grouse is sometimes next to impossible. Isn't it Stumpy?!

I know what I'm doing wrong but have a hard time changing after 40 years of doing it one way. The reason is that the flintlocks lock time is not as consistent as the modern guns. Does any of this make sense.

Hey Maxiball,
I've sold most of my collection. I still have a Bear Super Kodiak and a Steiner Recurve made somewhere in Ohio I believe in the 50s and 60s. I hunt with a Talon Classic Longbow 62# @ 63" long Made by Dave Paxton of WV.

"The Chuckster" ::

 

[Stumpkiller]

<<Holding a sustained lead on a grouse is sometimes next to impossible. Isn't it Stumpy?!>>

LOL. You said it. When I go for a walk with my bow or a rifle I'll kick a grouse up and it will rise straight up and coast straight away like a pheasant. When I have a shotgun they will skew to the side, jink around trees, pull a half-Immelmann around a branch to fly back at me, barrel roll, release chaff, everything but fly straight. I get a kick out of hunters who tell me "I don't bother with them, they're so stupid and slow that it's no sport."

Try hunting them in a hemlock swamp or raspberry thicket that has regular hunting pressure with no dog.

[I've got a 60# Dick Palmer Hunter longbow, a 55# Martin Dreamcatcher, a 45# Bear Kodiak and a 1972 50# green Futurewood (so ugly it's interesting) Bear Kodiak Hunter. I also have a 30" draw that makes the above several # heavier pull.]

 

[leadball]

too late. the .270 was donated today. The wife of the local chapter pres had the prettiest smile when i handed the gun to her and said, "here is my clean, bolt action rem 700 for donation to the RGS banquet." How could I resist? Anyway, I dont regret it. I think i prefer my rem 870 pump 12 guage for grouse as its nothing to bump coveys of 6-16 birds in northern minn/wisc. Need more follow up fast shots.

 

[Huntinfool]

Kool StumpKiller good bows for sure I'm familiar with them!

Hey leadball now your making me jealous to jump 16 birds down here I'd have to walk for 25 miles in straight up and down terrain. They don't call this the Mountain State for nothing you know! And most of them would be re-flushes.LOL!

"The Chuckster" ::

 

[AgesofDays]

you know leadball i needed to hear that from someone. ive been battleing this question for sometime now allways being the last one to get a deer with hunting with my brother and all his cronies with inlines and me the only one with a flintlock .for several years now taking the constant scalding for missing that deer 150 yards away.not....this is why i enjoy it so much it aint easy... well at least for me buti was almost about to buy an inline and give in to the majority not now thank you ..

 

[gordy]

Leadball: Have to agree with You completely! The only centerfires I have left are two shotguns ,one I purchased over 50 years ago and the other the Wife bought for me 30 years ago.Also have a D/A .32 S&W long cal.revolver that I carried in the saddle bags working cattle.I keep it now as a house gun.The shotguns will go to the kids when I'm gone.As I've said before,I wish I'd gotten into black powder many years ago. :boohoo: /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif

 

[cayugad]

I really enjoy bow hunting but my tree climbing days are getting harder and harder. Ground stalking is always a lot of fun, but in my woods your chances are really reduced unless you use the snow in the second half of the season. Also the old shoulders seem to have a worse time every year pulling back the string and holding. Yet there is something I really enjoy about bow hunting. I thought of going to a crossbow (need a doctors certification to get one) but one of these years I will just hang it up.

As for hunting with firearms, it is muzzleloaders all the way. We can not shoot scoped muzzleloaders during muzzleloader season, which is fine with me. We can use scoped muzzleloaders during modern season. And now I am moving into the black powder shotgun era of my life, so it is getting better and better. ::

 

[JerryToth]

Hi AgesofDays,

Here's another way to look at it if you're trying to keep youself traditional.

I built myself an Early Lancaster flinter last summer. Most of my buddies carry inlines for the October early muzzleloader season for Whitetail. I take my very traditional (correct for the late 1760's). Even if I don't get a shot, I have a better day than they do, since I can sit in the woods and JUST LOOK AT MY RIFLE!!! It's SOOoooooo dog gone beautiful!!

How's that for a different perspective!

Regards,

Ironsights Jerry.

 

[roundball]

I know what you mean...and while a TC Hawken flintlock is not what purist's consider traditional of course, every deer I take with one I lay it back down, look at it with the smoke curling out the vent, and think: "and this is how Daniel did it"...it's a great feeling for me, a real sense of accomplishment...nothing else compares anymore :winking:

 

[riarcher]

Stumpkiller,
As the name implies (R.I. Archer) I still enjoy the trad. bowhunt (alot). However, my artheritis is saying "No More", and I'm leaning back on traditional ML again. The old Quinlan Longhunter, Character bows, and self bows are collecting dust excessivly lately. I do miss the stump shooting, 3-D's, and leagues alot. Still like making my own woodies ( : but usually for others now.
So, I'm "compromising", Getting a Bess for ball and shot. Just not too sure how well it'll work at frog hunting though. :haha:

 

[musketman]

So, I'm "compromising", Getting a Bess for ball and shot. Just not too sure how well it'll work at frog hunting though. :haha:

What you do is load a charge and a over-powder card and 1/2 inch felt wad, then a 44 inch long, 3/4 inch thick, hard wood rod with a frog gig on the end of it...

It's a frog harpoon... :winking: :haha:

 

I too was a self-bow shooter until a few years back but had to give it up due to cronic Tenis Elbow on both sides. I did go to wheels without sights for a while but it was as accurate as most of the others with sights - Just like shooting a rifle to 30yds.- no challenge really. For now, I can still shoot the longrifle & that's OK until I get a musket.- probably a .69 1728. The barrel will have to be 'customized' by trimming about 8" to get rid of the muzle weight of the double band & extra barrel length, but that's OK too since the full length will be too much for my back.
Daryl

 

[capnwilliam]

Those who have done a lot of deer hunting with both bow and muzzleloader: how does the bow compare with the ML as far as knockdown powder?

Capt. William