So I have a .45 Pedersoli percussion "Kentucky" I have been looking forward to hunting with for almost two years. I did a water test this spring and was pleased with the results. I shot a couple of the forum's mail in matches and was quite pleased with this rifle's accuracy.
I took the rifle to Arkansas this weekend to hunt the new "Alternative Weapons" season. This was the first time I have hunted the Arkansas muzzleloader season in at least 15 years. My primary objective was to harvest a deer with this little .45.
The first morning I am in my ladder and at the corner of a woodlot and well overgrown pasture. I get there about an hour before legal light. The morning is quiet. Then, right at 9am I see a medium size buck (6-8 point eastern count) ghosting through the cedars on the edge of the woodlot. He comes down a trail and stops to check sent on a cedar sapling right in the middle of my shooting lane... it's like he read the script. He's 40 yards away, broadside and I stop him with a mouth bleat. My sights find his "knuckle" and I focus in. Blam! The shot feels perfect, no flinch, no hangfire, my call of the shot was dead on. The buck ran directly in my direction. Just a slight curve in his path like a runner rounding first base. Then up into a thicket. I didn't hear him crash so I reloaded, waited about 20-25 minutes and went to look for sign at the shot. Nothing. I follow the path he took to pass my stand no blood... there's no way I missed. This is a "gimme" shot. There were no obstacles in the path of the ball. I was hitting 1.5 inch dots at 25 yards in the mail in matches very easily. I an convinced the ball didn't pass through and he's not bleeding. I wait an hour then start looking in his direction of travel.... still no blood and no deer. I zigzag and grid search probably 20 acres of pasture land that has been left wild for the last 25 years, not easy going at all. Blackberries, saw briar, elm and ash saplings... awful. Then I cross the road and search a pine plantation on a 50' high ridge... pretty steep and overgrown as well... another 10-15 acres. As I am returning to my stand in the woodlot and cottontail hops by and stops about 20 yards away. I debated for a second then decided I needed to check my zero. I take careful offhand aim. Blam! I hit that rabbit exactly where I was aiming right at the bottom of his ears. Needless to say the results were telling. So I called my brother to come help with the search. While I waited for him to arrive I took the opportunity to shoot at a target I had handy and shot it at 40 yards off hand. The ball hit about 3" high and right of the bull. I told myself even if the first shot was twice that far off it's still a killing shot. We spent another 3 hours scouring the area going out from the shot no less than 300 yards in a semi circle and at least 400 in the direction he ran... no sign at all.
I began to wonder how far off could the "cold clean" bore shot be? So I did a quick field cleaning... poured a few ounces of water down the bore then some 91% rubbing alcohol. Swabbed with coton sheet material until clean/dry. Reloaded and took another shot at 40 yards off hand. The target board fell... but when I looked at the target, no new holes. What? Then I saw the mark in the limb above (I had placed the board in a fork of an old crape myrtle bush). My clean bore shot was somewhere around 10" to 12" high and right from the "dirty" shot. I reloaded the rifle and gave her a new name "Dirty Betty" because she likes it dirty.
I did a couple more sits Saturday evening, busted one when I stood up to leave at last light. Got winded Sunday morning. Went and sat on a piece of public land Sunday night. Had another hunter sitting about 200-250 yards away. No deer sighted.
Then this morning: Monday the 21st I went back to the ladder stand. The wind was favorable and again just like Saturday a young buck this time a fork horn comes down almost the same path the first buck did and at almost exactly the same time right around 9am. Almost like they're punching a timeclock. This buck is about 10 yards further away and I stop him with a mouth bleat when he enters a shooting lane. He stops quartering to me at 51 yards. I draw a bead on the point of his left shoulder. I know the angle is not favorable but it's the only shot I will get before he's out of my lanes and gone. Blam! He bolts back away from me and about 10 squirrels jump up from the ground in the area and start barking like crazy as they scramble up the nearest trees. I listen...no crash. I reloaded and wait about 25 minutes then climb down. I find sign of a hit right away. There's a piece of bone and a spot of what looks like lung tissue on the ground and quite a bit of hair. A few yards over there is a spray of blood, bright red some with tiny bubbles, so far so good. The blood trail goes about 15 yards and stops. Not good. Should be a solid hit. I return to the house for some TP... wasn't prepared, but it gave the wounded animal more time. By the time I got back it had been over an hour since the shot. The direction he went was towards another pine plantation. Thankfully on flat ground. Unfortunately the trees were spaced about 10 yards apart and all manner of brush was present. Including the confounded blackberries. I did a loop in the pines and on my return I spot a drop of blood about the size of a match head in the hardwoods. It's 50 yards from the last blood. I follow it up and find a fairly steady trail of similar drops for about 25 yards with drops every 3-6 feet. The trail fades just at the edge of the pines. I look at the trail of white toilet paper behind me and walk into the pines. There not 20 yards from the edge is the buck in a small depression about the size of a bathtub and 6" deep. It's just about noon and he's already stiff. He died within minutes of the shot. He went right at 100 yards from the shot. Interestingly there was the skeleton and skull of another buck right there with him. I guess this hiding spot was well known. It makes me wonder if does hide their fawns there and these wounded bucks sought it out because they hid there as fawns?
The little. 45 did great. The lack of pass through and blood trail are factors of the shot angle not the power of the gun. My load was 65 grains 3FG Schutzen with a .50 lubed felt wad, .018 oxyoke prelubed ticking patch,.445 speer ball, and a CCI magnum #11 cap. The shot hit just behind his left shoulder and about 2/3 up. The ball was just under the hide right against the last rib on his right side. It got a lung, diaphragm, liver, and the stomach. The ball passed through about 24" of deer. The recovered ball is amazingly similar to the one recovered in my water bottle test. The .45 is a pleasure to shoot and I look forward to contuing to hunt with Dirty Betty in the future.
Pictures to follow.
PS: first deer with PRB and real black.
