OK guys,you know I had plans to take my first flintlock deer when our ML season opened Saturday (Nov. 8th.).
Didn't happen. [:-]
Here's how it went. Remember my 16 ft. "sky chair" set up in the pine woods 50 yards from a deer cross trail? Well, I've had a game cameraset
up on that spot for the last two weeks. So when I got to the hunting lease Friday afternoon the first thing I did was retrieve that camera and check
the pictures. I had 87 pictures, but
not one during the morning hours.No bucks either. All does, and all crossing that area in the late evening or at
night. Also had several pictures of three free-running dogs that we've been having problems with on the lease. I put the camera back up and decided
not to hunt that spot as planned.
Daybreak Saturdayfound me sitting in a box stand overlooking this small 1/3 acre food plot, with the flintlock across my lap.
The plot is planted with a 50/50 mixture of oats and wheat. The picture was taken from thestand onOct 10th., and we
haven't had a drop of rain on it in the last six weeks. It's doesn't have much more growth on itnow, but the deer are hitting it
anyway. It's 95 yards to the tree line at the back of the plot, and 72 yards to those three young oak trees in the middle
of the plot. I figure that with the Lyman peep sight and a solid rest,anything between those oaks and the stand will have the
honor of falling to a .54 GP flintlockstoked with 95 grains of GOEX FFFg.
Just before 7 a.m. a good size doe (I thought)came out at the rear of the plot and started munching her way in my direction.
I put my little Nikon 9X25compact binoculars on her and "she" turned out to be a "he", with an 8" spike on the right side and a
8" antler on the left with a 1" brow tine and small fork at the tip. Dang, I thought I had a 125 lb. doe and it's a year-and-a-half
old buck. Not a shooter for our club.
So I'm sitting there enjoying watching that buck eat my wheatfor about twenty minutes when movement just insidethe left hand
tree line caught my eye, only about thirty yards out. I started easing the flintlock out the window "just in case". Here they come!
Fourteen hen turkeys, walking single-file across the plot. Me and that little buck just sat there and watched the parade go by.
Sat in the stand until nearly noon and didn't see another thing. Walked back to camp for lunch and hunting reports from the other guys.
We had seven hunters out that morning. All but onesaw some deer. One guy killed a real nice 155 lb. 8-pointer, and another took a
100 lb. doe. One of the guys had his 7 year old son in a stand with him and at one pointthey had 16 deer in sight at once - 8 on the
1/2 acre food plot, 5 on a shooting lane with a corn feeder on it, and 3 on the walk-in trail to the stand. You should have heard that
boy's excitement at seeing those deer.
Went back to the same stand for the evening hunt. Saw three does - one real nice - probably 110/120 lbs. She was right next to
those72 yard oaks, but I was looking into the setting sun and could not get a sight picture that I was comfortable with. Anyway, I
kinda` have a rule about shooting does. I try to avoid shooting them late in the day. We only take two does per man from the lease,
and have three full months to do it. So I'd just as soon shoot my doesin the morning andhave all day to deal with them. Bucks? That's different.
Went and sat on the sky chair Sunday morning to see if anything was moving where the game camera would not catch it. Didn't see
anything but squirrels.
OH WELL! My first flintlock deer will have to wait until next week end.
The GP Flintlock Is Still A Virgin
