Ethan Grotheer
32 Cal.
- Joined
- Nov 27, 2009
- Messages
- 49
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I've actually been trying to fill a doe tag in my county with a pistol here of late, but on Christmas evening my wife gifted me with quite the sentimental item..
Lindell was a deacon at our church and good friend to everyone he knew. He loved kids, grew quite the glorious mustache, and even spoiled my wife with a gift from time to time when she would spend a day with his daughter in law. After a year of battling hard again cancer, Lindell found the ultimate peace.
Lindell was quite the gun trader and it just so happened that one day as he was showing his gun collection to me a couple years back that I spotted a Traditons Springfield Hawken in .54 that had never even been fired! Over time we would always "plan" to get together and set it up for him to hunt with, but as life tends to always go, we never made it happen... Shortly after he had passed, his son mentioned that they'd be selling a few of the guns before long and so I gingerly mentioned that I'd purchase the Hawken here in a few months if he still had it. He assured me that the gun was mine to buy when I could. This past Sunday night my incredible bride presented me with a large rectangular box.. you can probably guess what I found inside.
The next morning, I took to the makeshift shooting range that we have set up on the property behind my home and found that the Hawken only required a little bit of filing to the front blade to bring it on target and that it liked 80 grs. of FFG with .15 patch and .530 Hornady round ball. I was grouping roughly 1 1/2" groups (I'm sure that it shoots far better than that) off of my hunting bipod with it at 60 yards. It also shot roughly an inch and a half high at that range so I felt confident in shooting within 80 yards or so with it.
While I have a .54 Renegade that I've never committed a season to taking a deer with, I have it sighted in with the 425 gr. Great Plains conical. When I'd started muzzleloading years back, I'd always been told by close friends that a .50 roundball is capable but produces poor blood trails, so I've simply always shot conicals for whitetail hunting in all of my guns. I've seen several mentions of the .54 roundball on even elk on this site before so I felt like I'd give the 230 gr. ball a try for myself.
This morning I almost stayed in bed... I had hunted every morning and afternoon since Monday afternoon trying to take a doe with the Hawken. I'd had a few close calls but no opportunities to crank the hammer back. I was just about to settle back to sleep when the thought occurred to me that this was the only week I had to get it done, so I sprung out of bed and headed to an area that I had not even bowhunted at all this year because of a "feeling" about it.
It was already light enough to see my front blade by the time that I settled into the old ladder stand this morning. Truth be told, there's not much to say about the actual hunt. That 17 mph wind had my ears less concentrated this morning and not fifteen minutes after I had settled in, a plump doe came trotting right into view to my direct right at 25 yards. I quickly rose, cocked the hammer, trailed the blade just above her elbow as she carried on forward, and then I pulled through the shot. The doe kicked hard and I immediately saw blood streaming from the "sweet spot" that id been aiming at and she nearly toppled over after 15 steps of her mad rush and then I watch her disappear in the tree line 10 steps farther and heard the crash.
It wasn't until a looked forward of my stand that I realized that there were more does coming and I was forced to wait another 35 min before I could claim my prize as I waited for 5 more does to pass through, some of them brushing the ladder of my stand. I shot some video of them on my phone and after they disappeared over the ridge, I climbed down.
I knew where the doe was but I wanted to see what kind of blood the roundball had produced. This is what I discovered 3 yards after the impact point and the rest of the trail closely resembled this all the rest of the way:
She turned out to be a great 2-3 year old doe with a lot of fat on her when I skinned her out.
I sat there for just a few moments and patted the does hide as I imagined what it would have been like to show Lindell what his gun was capable of. I could see the wide, mustache grin and hear the giddy chuckle as he would said something along the lines of "Well, that's pretty alright".
To say the least, I am incredibly impressed with the performance of the .530 ball and can't see a reason for using anything heavier on a whitetail. In fact, i'm now thinking that this will be my go-to load for most of my firearms hunting from here on out.
Thanks for reading along!
Lindell was a deacon at our church and good friend to everyone he knew. He loved kids, grew quite the glorious mustache, and even spoiled my wife with a gift from time to time when she would spend a day with his daughter in law. After a year of battling hard again cancer, Lindell found the ultimate peace.
Lindell was quite the gun trader and it just so happened that one day as he was showing his gun collection to me a couple years back that I spotted a Traditons Springfield Hawken in .54 that had never even been fired! Over time we would always "plan" to get together and set it up for him to hunt with, but as life tends to always go, we never made it happen... Shortly after he had passed, his son mentioned that they'd be selling a few of the guns before long and so I gingerly mentioned that I'd purchase the Hawken here in a few months if he still had it. He assured me that the gun was mine to buy when I could. This past Sunday night my incredible bride presented me with a large rectangular box.. you can probably guess what I found inside.
The next morning, I took to the makeshift shooting range that we have set up on the property behind my home and found that the Hawken only required a little bit of filing to the front blade to bring it on target and that it liked 80 grs. of FFG with .15 patch and .530 Hornady round ball. I was grouping roughly 1 1/2" groups (I'm sure that it shoots far better than that) off of my hunting bipod with it at 60 yards. It also shot roughly an inch and a half high at that range so I felt confident in shooting within 80 yards or so with it.
While I have a .54 Renegade that I've never committed a season to taking a deer with, I have it sighted in with the 425 gr. Great Plains conical. When I'd started muzzleloading years back, I'd always been told by close friends that a .50 roundball is capable but produces poor blood trails, so I've simply always shot conicals for whitetail hunting in all of my guns. I've seen several mentions of the .54 roundball on even elk on this site before so I felt like I'd give the 230 gr. ball a try for myself.
This morning I almost stayed in bed... I had hunted every morning and afternoon since Monday afternoon trying to take a doe with the Hawken. I'd had a few close calls but no opportunities to crank the hammer back. I was just about to settle back to sleep when the thought occurred to me that this was the only week I had to get it done, so I sprung out of bed and headed to an area that I had not even bowhunted at all this year because of a "feeling" about it.
It was already light enough to see my front blade by the time that I settled into the old ladder stand this morning. Truth be told, there's not much to say about the actual hunt. That 17 mph wind had my ears less concentrated this morning and not fifteen minutes after I had settled in, a plump doe came trotting right into view to my direct right at 25 yards. I quickly rose, cocked the hammer, trailed the blade just above her elbow as she carried on forward, and then I pulled through the shot. The doe kicked hard and I immediately saw blood streaming from the "sweet spot" that id been aiming at and she nearly toppled over after 15 steps of her mad rush and then I watch her disappear in the tree line 10 steps farther and heard the crash.
It wasn't until a looked forward of my stand that I realized that there were more does coming and I was forced to wait another 35 min before I could claim my prize as I waited for 5 more does to pass through, some of them brushing the ladder of my stand. I shot some video of them on my phone and after they disappeared over the ridge, I climbed down.
I knew where the doe was but I wanted to see what kind of blood the roundball had produced. This is what I discovered 3 yards after the impact point and the rest of the trail closely resembled this all the rest of the way:
She turned out to be a great 2-3 year old doe with a lot of fat on her when I skinned her out.
I sat there for just a few moments and patted the does hide as I imagined what it would have been like to show Lindell what his gun was capable of. I could see the wide, mustache grin and hear the giddy chuckle as he would said something along the lines of "Well, that's pretty alright".
To say the least, I am incredibly impressed with the performance of the .530 ball and can't see a reason for using anything heavier on a whitetail. In fact, i'm now thinking that this will be my go-to load for most of my firearms hunting from here on out.
Thanks for reading along!
