Blunderbuss Hunting?

[Cosmoline]

I've been doing a fair amount of shooting with my recently purchased .75 blunderbuss/musketoon. After getting the right size ball and patch figured out I'm hitting 3" groups at 25 yards without sights. I'm still getting used to not having sights, and I may end up doing the notch on the bell, but assuming I can get it to hit 5" groups kneeling at 50 yards, do you think this would be a viable hunting firearm? Ignition is 100% so far and it's very very easy to pack around.

I know the Brits used these for boarding parties and coach guns for over 200 years, but I also saw some references to Eastern Europeans using them for hunting. The power is there at short range, for sure.

If nothing else I have a mind to use it for squirrel with No. 4 shot.

Or am I out to lunch?

 

[Bill Hall]

I think only you can answer your question. We all hunt for the challenge, but we all set personal limits on what those challenges are. Some people drive around in 4 wheelers and shoot at deer 400 yards away with high tech composite stocked rifles, using scopes that weigh more than the rifle. Some folks sneak around with a longbow and take deer from 30 feet with a stick propelled by a string.

In deciding, you should ask yourself if you truthfully have the skill it requires to take a deer (I assume deer) at a given range. Then ask yourself if you have the discipline to adhere to that range, and position of the animal, when buck fever takes over. Finally, you need to decide if getting a deer is more important than passing one up because of the self-imposed limits you have set using a less efficient weapon.

Oh ya, and can you handle all the razzing from fellow hunters? I can hear the "pilgrim" jokes now. :rotf:

Mostly all we can do is tell you what WE would do in your case. I personally am not ready to ween myself off rifling and accurate sights. I will add this however, if you do take a deer with a smoothbore (flintlock?) blunderbuss, it would be waaaay more of an accomplishment than the biggest brawniest buck taken with a modern rifle. Something to brag about. Bill

 

[Cosmoline]

The deer here are moose, but this would be for squirrel and black bear hunting in pretty dense scrub. I hadn't thought about it in comparison with a long bow, but it has at least as much range and considerably more KO power. I may give it a whirl in the spring. I'm mainly just checking to see if wiser heads around here express any stern veto of the idea.

 

[paulvallandigham]

I have never been around a blunderbuss used for hunting deer.

The closest experience I can report is back in 1967,when I was a deer checker in Monroe County, Illinois, we had lots of local hunters using bird guns- smoothbore, with only a front bead, but no rear sights-- and whatever shotgun slugs were available at K-mart to shoot at deer. I saw lots of deer brought into the check station all shot up with most hits outside the vital chest area.

One I remember as if it were yesterday was a young fawn- still had spots in its coat-- that an older hunter brought in. It weighed only 35 lbs. dressed. It had 17 holes in its body, including one that broke a leg.

He told me that his family was spread out along the side of a ravine, and he was the last shooter in the line. The family started shooting at a doe that came by, and WWIII broke out. He fired at the doe as she bounded by, but thought he missed. When the shooting stopped this yearling was on the ground, stone cold dead, in front of him. None of the shooters had noticed the yearling, which was running with the Doe, but on the opposite side, and "under" the doe's belly.

He decided to tag the yearling, since he might have killed it, and thought that was the ethical thing to do- rather than leave it out their for the coyotes. I was very proud of him.

That year, the Dept. had us surveying hunters and asking lots of questions, including what kind of gun was used, how many shots fired, how many deer seen, how many deer shot at, etc. When I asked him about the gun used, he pulled out his bird gun. Then he commented about the fact that he thought the next year he might invest in some kind of rear sight, even if it was only put on the gun temporarily, to improve his accuracy.

He said the doe ran by him at about 25 yards, and she might have jumped up just as he shot. He wasn't sure. I did ask him what kind of group or pattern he was getting with his chosen ammo- and he didn't even know that it was helpful to target the gun, nor to compare different brands of shotgun slugs to see which fired the most accurately out of his gun! :shocked2:

While he was at the station, several other deer were brought in, and one of these other hunters had a shotgun with a "slug Barrel" with rifled sights on it. All the hunters, and on-lookers- deer check stations are popular gathering places for hunters and non-hunters alike-- gathered around to look at his gun, check out the sights, ask him where he got the barrel, etc. I heard the hunter who had checked in the Yearling say to someone else, " I think I'll get me one of those barrels for next season."

I share this with you because of prior comments about hunters making their minds up on what they want to use, and what personal restrictions they will place as to range before firing at a live animal.

There was Nothing illegal about using a bird gun to shoot slugs during deer season, and there certainly wasn't anything illegal about shooting at running deer. What bothered this hunter was the result- a totally "swiss cheesed" fawn that he thought should have been allowed to grow up.

That was his statement of Ethics- the rules we impose on ourselves when ONLY GOD and we will know what we are doing.

For instance, I know archers who practice 50 yard, and longer, shots all summer long, and are VERY GOOD Shots. They can keep all their shots in the box of a deer silhouette target all day long at 50 yards. But, during deer season, they will NOT shoot at a deer further than 30 yards. That is a function of Hunter Ethics for them, not the law.

So, continue to practice, and then decide what works for you. A RB that size is going to put a big hurt on any deer, or boar, or bear, Provided, it hits the chest area.

If you can reliably put a ball within 3 inches of your POA at 30 yards, when the light is good, you are calm and rested, and can pick your target at the range, then with buck fever, bad visibility and light conditions, and your heart and lungs pumping a mile-a-minute, you can expect to be able to hit within 6-7 inches of your POA on game, shooting off-hand, In my personal experience, at the same distance. :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

I would not hesitate to use that blunderbuss for shooting small game and birds, provided it threw a decent pattern, BTW. And, it would get a lot of comments on any skeet range! :grin: ( Granny Clampet- move over!)