Christened the .58cal Early Virginia this morning

[roundball]

Christened the new .58cal Early Virginia Flintlock that Matt Avance at TVM built for me this year.

Sitting in the dark at the edge of an oak flat with its heavy acorn crop this year...waiting for it to get light enough to see and just a few minutes after gray light the 6 pointer came out of a nearby thicket with his nose to the ground like a bloodhound.

I’ve got a new Flintlock across my lap so I didn’t look a gift horse in the mouth and took him at about 50 yards...(didn’t notice one of his tines was snapped off until I went to get him).

So I quietly drag him back to the tree I’m sitting against, clean and reload the Virginia, and had barely finished a cup of coffee when I see the big 8 pointer coming out of the same thicket into the oak flat, nose to the ground on the same Doe track as the 6 pointer...when he got in front of me I whistled, he stopped, and I shot him.

Amazing it worked out this way but both my buck tags were filled by 8 o’clock on opening day...I’ll do some squirrel hunting next week on vacation, and probably just cancel vacation plans for the second week.

 

[nw_hunter]

Way to go RB! What a way to start and end lol! Your season. Two fine looking Whitetail bucks, and a fine looking rifle. :hatsoff: Little more detail on the shots, if you will.

Just wanted to add.......You had your fun, now the work begins. Lot of deer to process, but then.....Lots of good eatin also!

 

[JayDee Flohr]

Nice double :thumbsup: That just don't happen everyday.

 

[chance]

Congrats on a great hunt!!!

 

[redwing]

Now thats some real hunt'in with a flinter. Damn fine way to go. :thumbsup:

 

[Trench]

Seriously Roundball, I don't know where your luck comes from. Wasn't it just last year that you tagged two deer with one shot? :bow:

I'm playing the scene out in my head....you casually drag a deer back to a tree, pour yourself some coffee, open up your morning edition of the Wallstreet Journal when you hear a twig snap. You peer over your paper, and give out a bored sigh right before you pick up your Virginia and finish your morning off with another buck. :grin:

Congrats! This will be my second year out with my Early Virginia and I hope to break it in as well as you did. :thumbsup:

 

[Robert Scheffler]

I see the six pt., but is that the eight pt. behind it? At first glance it looked like a caribou !!! It don't get any better than that. Sit and relax the rest of the season. The rest of us will be up to our knees in snow trying to get ours. Well, at least us up here in the north.

 

[Little Wattsy]

Outstanding!! :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

 

[gmww]

Wow! :shocked2: :thumbsup:

 

[texcl]

Nice bucks the eight pointer is about the size of the one I shot yesterday, my stinkin olympus camera broke of course so no pictures, my mom was hunting with me and it really got her excited about shooting a buck.

 

[roundball]

Wasn't it just last year that you tagged two deer with one shot?

Not me...must be thinking of someone else.

The bucks are cruising for Does here right now, and according to the lunar tables, the peak of movement activity was supposed to be 7:00am to 8:00am and sure enough it was...you could hear distant gunfire start around 6:45 and end around the time I shot the 8 point...never heard another shot after that.

I hunt whenever I can like most folks, but I've also witnessed that those doggone lunar tables are right on the money...last year's buck was similar...the only time I could go one day was at midday...sat down at noon and it was drizzling.
Dead quiet everywhere for over 2 hours...then at about 2:15pm, I heard a distant shot on an adjacent farm...5 minutes later another shot off in another direction...5 minutes later a 3rd shot in yet another direction...a few minutes later I see a fat 8 pointer slowly picking his way through the woods crossing right in front of me.
Checked the lunar tables that night and sure enough the peak animal activity was listed from 2:00pm-3:00pm.

I'm just lucky to live where I live, have the deer that we have, the places I have to hunt, the time to hunt the rut, then the scouting & set-up usually pays off

 

[PreglerD]

Congrats and Waidmanns Heil Mr. "doublebuck" roundball! :thumbsup: you did a fine job over there. Diana kissed you!

Regards

Kirrmeister

 

[rabjr]

Nice double play! Grats! :thumbsup:

 

[tg]

Nice animals, glad you blooded the new gun, I cannot fathom the deer populations some areas have.
Dad settled for a yearling doe last night on the last day of a draw doe season,(notML) he only saw two other deer the whole two weeks.Keep shootin' as long as they keep commin' Roundball.

 

[roundball]

"...I cannot fathom the deer populations some areas have..."

The southern states really do have large deer herds due to the climate = longer growing season = more good natural food sources for more months of the year...plus an awful lot of agriculture crop fields for many, many months...wildlife really flourish here.

"...Keep shootin' as long as they keep commin' Roundball..."

Just have the 2 buck tags this year...have 4 doe tags but I'm not going to fool with them so my 2009 deer hunting started at 6:30am and ended at 8:00am :grin: ...s this afternoon putting away all the deer hunting stuff already.

Going to try some squirrel hunts next week instead... some with the .40cal, some with the .28ga

 

[bobman]

Bucks? :wink:

I feel better reading this thread.

Nice ones too, thats also a real nice looking gun.

very cool picture

 

[roundball]

"...Little more detail on the shots, if you will..."

90grns Goex 3F
Oxyoke .58cal prelubed wool wad
Oxyoke .022" precut/prelubed patch
Hornady .570"
Both at 50 yards

Fairly thick hard wood stand with lots of oaks and acorns...very dense bedding-area thicket on the north end of the oak flat...year after year (since the 90's) they come up out of that low thicket and fan out into the oaks, usually cruising for Does that are there or have been there feeding on acorns.

I sit on the ground against a huge pine tree surrounded by Holly evergreen trees...with a 3' high natural blind of pine limbs stuck into the ground around me and the pine tree, about 50 yards from the exit point of the thicket...that's about all the details I can think of.

 

[chuck-ia]

Congrats on the 2 deer. Nice rifle allso. flinch

 

[410-er]

Great job RB! :thumbsup:

 

[Snow on the Roof]

Round Ball,
Congrats on a successful season. Two shots, two deer...can't ask for any better :thumbsup: !

I've been talking to Toni and Matt about a new rifle. Yours is exactly what I invisioned, do you have any more pictures of that beauty?

John