Follow Up Shot

[TrueBlueYankee]

Since I'm new to muzzleloading I was wondering how you guys handle the following situation.

I'm sure there's a few of you that have had the perfect shot go astray and wound your quarry. Sometimes all the practice in the world, hard work, and skill we acquire can't take into account that unseen branch that can deflect a shot just enough, or the animal moves at the last second, and you find you've got a wounded animal to put down quickly. Fairly straightforward with a multi-shot bolt action or semi-auto rifle/shotgun, but what about a muzzleloader? Do any of you carry a Muzzleloading pistol to quickly administer a coup de grace or do you just reload your rifle as quickly as you can?

BTW, this happened to me once while hunting deer in RI with a shotgun and slugs. Just as I took my shot I had a fairly strong gust wind come up and move a sapling right into my line of fire (there is fairly heavy underbrush in RI woods). It was enough to deflect my lung shot into the leg joint of my target, but I followed up within a few seconds with a killing shot.

 

[Vaino]

The use of premeasured, waxed paper powder packets which are opened w/ the teeth and the powder dumped down the bbl and a loading block and short starter hung on a neck thong all make loading much quicker. A priming horn attached to my possibles bag strap also contributes to faster loading. All the load components are in a handy pocket. Often thought about coning the muzzle to eliminate the short starter, but never got around to it. Have used this "system" for a follow-up shot and it was successful....Fred

 

[paulvallandigham]

Use a ball board to carry patched round balls(lubed, of course) with you, and carry a tube of some kind with a premeasured powder charge. That cuts down the time to reload for a finishing shot.

However, nothing substitutes for taking the time to NOTICE things like brush, and tree limbs, and saplings in your line-of-fire, and passing on shots that are risky.

Committing yourself to shooting single shot,MLing rifles and smooth bores makes any hunt a ONE-SHOT hunt game. Its a HANDICAP that many hunters simply cannot accept. Those of us who do accept it understand it means passing on a lot of shooting opportunities that we might have had with a high powered, repeating rifle, or shotgun.

It means we shorten the distance of our shots, even when we know that the gun we shoot is capable of killing game at much longer distances.

The Reward is the increased degree of personal satisfaction when we are successful in taking game. ANY game taken with a MLer is a trophy! Take a look at all the pictures and smiling faces on this thread of grown men with gray hair, who have taken their first Squirrel or Rabbit with a MLER.

And, no one looks down on any hunter who succeeds in shooting a doe, like you see among some young hunters in parts of his country. Muzzleloaders are proud to display those does- and many admit that they have hunted for years without success, before finally taking that doe.

The ethics of hunting with mlers is much closer to what you see with Archers, than with high power rifle shooters. Much more value seems to be placed on woodsmanship, stalking, pre-hunt scouting and planning, tracking skills, and learning how to move quietly to get closer to where the deer may be.

Accurate placement of a single Shot is what this sport is all about when hunting game. The Game deserve that level of consideration. Speed loading and Mlers are two ideas that have no business being used in the same sentence, IMHO.

I reloaded my percussion rifle in about 15 seconds after shooting my first deer, fast enough to have my sights lined up on a yearling deer then just walking away from the kill site. I was sure that I had its mother with a clean shot to the heart/lung area, at 40 yards, so I passed on shooting the second deer. Instead I waited until it moved out of sight, then walked quietly to the kill sight, followed the doe's tracks and blood down the side of the ravine to where she lay dead in the bottom.

I carried my powder in a horn- not pre-measured, and my patch and ball were carried loose in a ball bag in my hunting pouch. I had practiced reloading quickly for months at my club's range, loading out of the bag, in order to shorten the time of my reloads. There is NO fast way to either cap a nipple, nor prime a flash pan, that I have found. There are sloppy ways to prime a pan, but not a fast, QUIET, way. :shocked2: :surrender: :hmm: :hatsoff: :hatsoff:

 

[rabjr]

:haha: Now I've seen everything, a Mainer comin down here to hunt... :haha: :thumbsup:

There are a number of things one can do for a reload, from using speed loaders to more primitive style ball blocks and premeasured containers of powder. It generally doesn't take me long to reload and usually its because theres another deer standing there and having a pocket full of tags...

 

[Stumpkiller]

I've got a small ball-block on my powder horn strap with three patched balls. In a hurry I can pour a charge and set a ball and prime in 30 seconds. Still use the measure, hanging from the horn's neck, but the niceities of carefully leveling it may not occur.

 

[Supercracker]

I always swab the barrel and reload normally after a shot as a way of forcing myself to give the animal at least a few minutes to bleed out in case it turns out to not be a good hit.

Kind of a hold over from bowhunting.

 

[Dave K]

For us in Ohio, there is no back up shot with another gun such as a pistol, any pistol. But, with that in mind, I always just duck behind the tree I was using for a rest and quickly and quietly reload. If the deer don't know where the shot came from and many times they don't, you will get that second shot......probably, possibly, hopefully.

 

[TrueBlueYankee]

LOL. I was born and raised in RI, then moved to Maine after a stint in NY.

The good thing about learning how to hunt in RI was that it is a shotgun only state...or at least it was when I was a kid. So 80 yards was a long shot and the emphasis was on quietly getting close and making a good shot. I think I'm going to like muzzleloading.

 

[rabjr]

We finally convinced Fish&Wildlife to let us use muzzleloaders during shotgun season, so we have a choice now. :thumbsup:

 

[TrueBlueYankee]

I used to hunt in the Durfee Hill area. I have a lot of good memories from trekking through that area.

 

[rabjr]

Ahh yes, I hunted mainly Arcadia, Exeter, Rockville area back many moons ago myself. :thumbsup:

 

[TrueBlueYankee]

Ahh...whether to hunt the North Counties or the South Counties. Probably still a big debate there. :wink:

 

[rabjr]

Na, not now...they are in ever nook and cranny now. I remember growin up with Fish&Wildlife in the late 60's early 70's, sitting in Arcadia checking station with my father waiting, hoping to see one come in. More days than not none did. Course this was back before we harvested 100 animals during shotgun season Statewide. We've certainly come a long way since then... :thumbsup:

 

[Little Wattsy]

There are "Purer" ways to do it but I use the plastic tubes devided in the middle and capped at both ends.. Powder in one end and ball, patch, & cap in the other. I carry three of those in my possibles bag alond with a short starter. Its pretty quick to be reloaded and ready to go start tracking the critter.

 

[TrueBlueYankee]

My experience growing up hunting in RI sounds the same as yours. I took 2 deer in 10 years of hunting there. From your post I gather RI Fish & Wildlife game management is quite a success story now. That's so good to hear.

Maine is very different. Since moving here in '97 I've had 3 moose, countless deer and turkey, a couple red fox, and even a fisher cat traipse though my yard. And these were just the animals I saw. Of course they all disappear during hunting season.

 

[TrueBlueYankee]

Thanks for the replies guys. I think putting in the hours of practice and getting comfortable with "system" for reloading will provide the solution.

 

[roundball]

If you can't carry a pistol, and you're talking about some very rare need for some kind of an emergency / expedited reload, the fasted way I know of is this:
A single tube of PVC pipe (or copper, cane, plastic, etc) with all the components lined up and held in place with double waxed paper on the powder end, held in place with a wrap of scotch tape.
Set it on top of the muzzle and with one thrust of a short starter the whole set of components is driven through the wax paper into the bore...seat it down, prime and shoot.
(This particular photo shows a finger cot covering the powder end instead of wax paper, which I remove to use after loading as a muzzle mitt...was simply carrying a couple pocket reloads this way for convenience, not pure speed)

 

[tg]

I do not worry about a fast second load/shot as it is pretty tough to have a Deer still in range for the scond shot unless it just stands there and a hit deet will often go for a ways and lie down, I load after the first shot out of the bag from having loose balls and pre-cut squre pathces or wadding in the bottom of the bag and charge and prime from the same horn then wait for about a half hour before approaching where the Deer was last seen and then circle if need be in widening circles to look for sign if none is found I follow any Deer trails that lead in the diretion the Deer was last seen heading, it has worked well for me over the years, I do know that a Deer will often lie down a short distance form where it was hit and not get up if not pushed and that one can push a Deer a lomng ways even if hit fataly, I have helped a lot of folks look for Deer/Elk over the years as the word was out that I hunted and trapped the area west of here for 30-40 years and I knew a lot of the local hunters or their familys having lived here all my life and new it aboout as well as anyone not into the local forestry or enforcement agencies, from putting together the stories hunters told me and seeing where the shot was taken from and the range and type of projectile I got a pretty good ideas of what was happening in general as to what could probably be called common mistakes, nothing really sientific but the consitency of it all paints apretty good image in general tha is hard to ignore.Each must make their own choice as to how to deal with the "second' shot, from what I have seen it is likley best to get close and make the most of the first shot and reload at ones leisure and then look for sign of a hit, which can fisrt show quite a ways from the point the anilnal was standing as ofetn a PRB bloodtrail starts slowly, and I have found it benificial to track from the side of the trail, in case one wants to go over it again and of course to mark anything founds in an environmentaly friendly manner other milage may vary, the above is based on many years of personal envolvment no second hand information. I have fopund that I can reload almost as fast with my method as when i tried the block and pre meaured charges there was just not enough difference to make it worth while plus I like to use the methods of the period my gun come sfrom so a block is questionable, I also use a load combo that does not need a short starter, one might be surprise at how fast one can load from a bag if using a well thought out system and combo.Local geography and botabical niches might cause some difference in what works but overall there should really be no need for a quick second shot as a rule, if a person has multiple tags and wants to take a second animnal after dropping the first a few moments after it dropps then I guess you need to load fast....or extend your hunt and settle for one Deer a day.

 

[Rifleman1776]

The only time I needed a follow-up cous de gras shot was when I hit the deer high in the spine. It was a steep downhill shot and I simply did not place well. He was down, I reloaded normally and dispatched him. I believe, in ml'ing, there is no such thing as a quick second shot. That is why the first one should count.

 

[Rat Trapper]

TC makes the 4 & 1 and quick shot for use in carrying extra loads. Of the two options I like the 4&1 the best, it holds either a prime charge or cap, the main charge and a patch & ball or bullet. The 4&1 also works as a starter while the quick shots hold all the above, but you need to use your own short starter.