Howdy from deep in the Big Thicket

[tonykarter]

Hello everyone. I've owned a muzzleloader for six or seven years now, and am finally getting the time to invest in learning how to shoot it well. I am semi-retired and have been hunting since the sixties. In the last couple of years I am just not as mad at those deer as I have been in the past. (The crappie however continue to speak my name in hushed tones...) I figured that I'd give the deer as much advantage as possible going forward by going retro and shooting primitive. A lower-end Italian .50 cal percussion rifle and no time to invest to figure out how to shoot it accurately: that is about as much advantage as the deer have needed to survive and to continue to mock my existence. The Davy Crockett National Forest echoes with their deer laughter as they relate their run-ins with me and this gun. I am positive that my name is humorously invoked nightly as they kick their deer campfire. Hopefully the time I invest here will change my blackpowder fortune, and theirs.

 

[Treestalker]

Hello, Tonykarter, I was born in Silsbee Tx. If you hunt in the Davy Crockett, you must not be too far from Lufkin and the Angelina River. Et lots of good frog legs outta there, Ha! You'll find lots of good advice here and good folks from all over will help you on your path in the Dark Side. Good luck and good shooting. Geo.

 

[tonykarter]

Yes, ate a few frogs out of the Angelina too. Use to shoot them off the bank in the little boat ramp lagoon at Bevilsport with a RWS sidecock .177. Had a cab-over camper back in the 80's I'd put on that peninsula that formed the lagoon. Would hunt the "Forks" from there, the confluence of the Neches and Angelina, up Bee Tree Slough. Use to wade the cypress sloughs in there to get from island to island. Did not, WILL NOT HUNT black powder up in there. There are things for which you will need several follow-up shots in there...if you are lucky enough to get the first shot off.

 

[dave61965]

Welcome from another east texan, I too was bored with huntin till a lowly Italian flintlock gave me my first snort of real black powder smoke and I've been hooked ever since, wouldn't hunt with anything else now.

 

[Grumpa]

Did not, WILL NOT HUNT black powder up in there. There are things for which you will need several follow-up shots in there...if you are lucky enough to get the first shot off.

Sounds like you hunt in interesting places.

Welcome to the Forum! :hatsoff:

 

[tonykarter]

I use to. Hunt higher ground now. Back in the day, before the gators started coming back we would wade to some of the islands in this 12,000+ acres of hardwood and palmetto river bottom public land: 30.920067, -94.182978. Boat access only, no roads, and some of the islands you couldn't get to without a pirogue because the cypress trees were too thick to get our aluminum boat between them, and we didn't own a pirogue...so we went as far as the boat would go, then we waded. The deer would retreat to its inner-most islands after the rut and we would go in after them. Too many gators in there now to wade, plus hogs, and cougar proliferating now too. Great adventure when young, but requires too much effort now at my age. It is Type II public land now, $40 for a permit. Only pressured the first 200 yards off the rivers, as most are too scared of getting lost to penetrate it further. Go deep...You'll love it.

 

[Grumpa]

Sounds really wild and inviting :grin: .

I've had minimal experience with gators in Florida and North Carolina, and I know they are nothing to mess with, especially wading in their waters...not to mention rattlesnakes and cottonmouths...makes the hogs and cougars seem downright convivial. :haha:

I've been in all but 4 or 5 states, but have only hunted Pennsylvania. But that sure sounds interesting....

 

[Cowboy]

Welcome to the forum! Alot to learn right here. You are definitely in the right place. There is not a single day that I don't learn something new here. Respectfully, cowboys1062.

 

[kswan]

Welcome.

 

[jamesthomas]

Did not, WILL NOT HUNT black powder up in there. There are things for which you will need several follow-up shots in there...if you are lucky enough to get the first shot off.

Sounds like you hunt in interesting places.

Welcome to the Forum! :hatsoff:

Welcome to the Forum! You must have the Swamp Monster like we do down here in the swamps of South Al. among other unnamed and unknown creatures!. You DO NOT camp out unarmed down here! :grin:

 

[tonykarter]

Thanks guys. Yes, there is a TON of great information here. I've learned so much in just a few days, and have been soaking it up like a sponge. A process which reveals to you just how little you knew, and how much you still have to learn. I love journeys like this. Kinda' like that line in Don Henley's Heart of the Matter, "The more I know, the less I understand, all the things I thought I knew, I'm learning again."

 

[Eterry]

Howdy Tony from a fellow Texan. We used to hunt unit 120 on the neches between palastine and rusk. I took my first buck there. I just THOUGHT I was country till I hunted there!
I'm one of the many who went there and got fiercesome confused one time on the river...all them damn trees look alike! We found our way out bout sundown.
Also ended up one night at the dolphin club, but that's another story.
welcome to the forum!
et