Been hunting with my new gun I finished building a few weeks ago, my first build and first flintlock, and had some success yesterday! Hunted along the coast at Assateague Monday and Tuesday, but no good shots. Yesterday the general state BP season came in, so I was back in my home pulbic land haunts, paddling out in the kayak to hard to reach places.
Didn't see anything at the spot I went in the morning in a thick fog, warm temps and humid air, so I had planned on whitetails for the afternoon. But the weather turned cloudy and windy, and the Friday forecast said T-storms, so I thought I should hit the sika again while I could. Good idea. At 3pm paddling in one was already bugling.
Set up by 3:45 in a tree, had one young sika running circles around me in the reeds as it began to drizzle. In a few minutes it started to rain pretty good, making me worry about the gun going off. A few minutes into the rain a stag stepped out, about 7" tall antlers with a few small points starting to split off, so I aimed the longrifle. I can tell you I was more excited than I've been while deer hunting in a long time, shaking even. Not sure if the gun would go off in the rain after all the day's moisture and humidity, either, which added to things, but it fired. And I missed!
Don't know if I flinched or it was a bit of a hang fire, but he jumped a few feet, two does I didn't see jumped at the same time, and they all stood there looking around. Now I'm trying to reload in the rain and not get water in the charge, all while the deer are at 30 yards. I get the charge in, patch placed, drop one lead ball to the ground, get out another and get it started, ram it home, pull the gun up and prime the pan. Now the stag is at 40-45 yards in a gap in the brush, still raining good, and I try a shot. PPhhhht. Damn. Then they are gone.
Wipe the pan, put in fresh prime, cover the lock as best I can to keep it dry. At 4:15 here comes another from a different direction, can't tell what. Still raining. It's a button buck, swings downwind, picks up the apple scent I use, (Downwind Apple Foam, best stuff I've ever seen for sika!) walks to directly under my stand and starts nibbling leaves. No visible antler showing, so it counts as an antlerless deer,(which leaves me all late season to hunt a big stag with the gun) but good sized, young and tender - next best thing to a monster stag to me - so I decide to try him, partly to see if the gun will go off.
I aim directly down at him (learned that flintlocks don't like to fire in that direction, heat from the prime goes up, and up is not toward the touchhole at that angle :cursing: ) and Pphhhht. Cock it and try again - Clachett!, not even a spark. I wiped, reprimed and tried at least a half dozen times, mixture of pan flashes and clachetts with no spark at all. All through this the deer stood there, would look around at the sound and keep nibbling the leaves with the apple scent on them. I had to be dropping powder on him when I was wiping out the pan, too. Dug in my possbiles bag, got out the touchhole pick, shoved it in the hole, poured fresh 4F primer on the pan and tried to shake some into the hole. Now the deer had taken a few steps to the side, I aimed again, pulled the trigger and BOOM! Whoo-hooo!!! He ran about 20 yards and piled. Back at the kayak, deer gutted, loaded by 5pm, home by dark.
A few mintues after I killed him it stopped raining and the sun came out too. :grin:
