Bought a 50 caliber Hatfield caplock last spring and had rung it out enough to get it shooting 2" high at 75 yards, Three shot group about 2" wide. I figgered that'd do for whitetails, wasn't trying for the ultimate in accuracy just wanted to make sure I had a load that'd do the job. I settled on 60 grains of 2f goex and a .490 PRB and pillow ticking patch.
Well, anyway, with the kids bein' home from school Friday and the weather beautiful with temps in the 60's I figgered I'd take the two older boys hunting with me.I have three boys 7, 5, and 4 years old. We planned on going down to the brush blind we had built near a power line right of way behind our house and setup for the last 40 minutes of light. You know, get their feet wet without them having to sit still TOO long.
We were leaving and I said to my wife "We'll be back 'round 6 ,prolly won't kill anything" She said "yeah not much chance of that." and we went on outside . We were standing on the side porch and I happened to look down where the blind was and saw two ears pointing our way about 50 yards from the blind. I told the boys "theres a deer there already, Guys!"
I got the rifle loaded and we duck walked around the sand box and across the play yard to the fence, keeping our heads down. The fence is conveniently covered with honeysuckle so the deer couldn't see us. By the time I got to the fence and peered carefully over the deer had moved a little further on and was standing broadside about 100 yards away.I couldn't make out any antlers but the body language and build kept telling me it was a buck. It knew something was up and started to head for the woods at a walk so I bleated loudly amd it stopped broadside to me. I set the rear trigger and squeezed off the shot. The deer fell but wasn't done. I figgered I'd spined it so I sent the boys on the long trail around the garage , reloaded and sprinted down to the deer and finished him off. It was a little button buck, and my boys were totally amazed that we'd killed one without having to leave the yard! The funny thing is that thats the 3rd deer I've killed from that fence post! One time I was in my PJ's in the snow!
Thats how I killed my first deer with a real muzzleloader, I've shot plenty with sabots, scopes and pyrodex but this one was the first with an old style rifle, powder horn and shooting bag over my shoulder and I got to share it with my boys.Perty cool stuff.
I'm gonna post some questions over on the accuracy forum ... gotta get some things ironed out.
Good hunting everybody!!
:grin:
Well, anyway, with the kids bein' home from school Friday and the weather beautiful with temps in the 60's I figgered I'd take the two older boys hunting with me.I have three boys 7, 5, and 4 years old. We planned on going down to the brush blind we had built near a power line right of way behind our house and setup for the last 40 minutes of light. You know, get their feet wet without them having to sit still TOO long.
We were leaving and I said to my wife "We'll be back 'round 6 ,prolly won't kill anything" She said "yeah not much chance of that." and we went on outside . We were standing on the side porch and I happened to look down where the blind was and saw two ears pointing our way about 50 yards from the blind. I told the boys "theres a deer there already, Guys!"
I got the rifle loaded and we duck walked around the sand box and across the play yard to the fence, keeping our heads down. The fence is conveniently covered with honeysuckle so the deer couldn't see us. By the time I got to the fence and peered carefully over the deer had moved a little further on and was standing broadside about 100 yards away.I couldn't make out any antlers but the body language and build kept telling me it was a buck. It knew something was up and started to head for the woods at a walk so I bleated loudly amd it stopped broadside to me. I set the rear trigger and squeezed off the shot. The deer fell but wasn't done. I figgered I'd spined it so I sent the boys on the long trail around the garage , reloaded and sprinted down to the deer and finished him off. It was a little button buck, and my boys were totally amazed that we'd killed one without having to leave the yard! The funny thing is that thats the 3rd deer I've killed from that fence post! One time I was in my PJ's in the snow!
Thats how I killed my first deer with a real muzzleloader, I've shot plenty with sabots, scopes and pyrodex but this one was the first with an old style rifle, powder horn and shooting bag over my shoulder and I got to share it with my boys.Perty cool stuff.
I'm gonna post some questions over on the accuracy forum ... gotta get some things ironed out.
Good hunting everybody!!
:grin:
