I hunted most everything you can think of over the last 50 years with a recurve bow. I was always eat up with it. They say the adrenaline rush you get is from the fear of missing. I’m not sure what created the rush but I was hooked on it. A few years ago age kinda caught up with me and I really started to struggle with traditional bows if they were heavy enough to hunt big game.
I kicked around and played with several other weapons. open sighted rifles, handguns and compound bows were all fun but they just didn’t give me the rush that my recurves did.
I have always had a couple of October County hawkin style black powder guns that were al lot of fun and I started hunting with them quite a bit.
About a month ago I was on their web site and saw they had a flintlock that John had built. I jumped all over it.
I have had it for about 2 weeks and have been practicing with it in the afternoons trying to make myself follow through. Much like shooting a bow there is a split second between pulling the trigger and the actual gun going off.
I hunted with it for the first time this evening. Right at dark I heard a couple of hogs splashing their way to me through the swamp. The smaller one was in the lead and I let him pass by me hoping the bigger one would hit my shooting lane before the first one hit my scent. Sure enough she popped out of the brush with just enough light to see my front sight. I was just thinking “follow through, follow through” as i squeezed the trigger. Pop boom and I was setting in the tree stone blind. Between the fireball from the 120 grains of FF black powder and the cloud of smoke, I had no idea whether I hit her or not. As the smoke slowly drifted off I could see a big black shape stretched out in the mud. The .62 caliber had hit right where I wanted and she had hit the ground right where she was standing.
All that to say I believe I have found a new toy that I will be having a lot of fun with over the next few years.
I kicked around and played with several other weapons. open sighted rifles, handguns and compound bows were all fun but they just didn’t give me the rush that my recurves did.
I have always had a couple of October County hawkin style black powder guns that were al lot of fun and I started hunting with them quite a bit.
About a month ago I was on their web site and saw they had a flintlock that John had built. I jumped all over it.
I have had it for about 2 weeks and have been practicing with it in the afternoons trying to make myself follow through. Much like shooting a bow there is a split second between pulling the trigger and the actual gun going off.
I hunted with it for the first time this evening. Right at dark I heard a couple of hogs splashing their way to me through the swamp. The smaller one was in the lead and I let him pass by me hoping the bigger one would hit my shooting lane before the first one hit my scent. Sure enough she popped out of the brush with just enough light to see my front sight. I was just thinking “follow through, follow through” as i squeezed the trigger. Pop boom and I was setting in the tree stone blind. Between the fireball from the 120 grains of FF black powder and the cloud of smoke, I had no idea whether I hit her or not. As the smoke slowly drifted off I could see a big black shape stretched out in the mud. The .62 caliber had hit right where I wanted and she had hit the ground right where she was standing.
All that to say I believe I have found a new toy that I will be having a lot of fun with over the next few years.
