little-d

the first deer i killed with a ml was in 1984,i bought a 45 cal cvapercussion long rifle 1 in 66 twist,in kit form.What got the ml hunting in our heads to start with was to see a massive 11 point buck killed in my area with a tc hawken that was bought in kit form years beforeby one of my older friends .And that setus off on ml. Early that winter1982 dec3 the friend killed the big buck and didn't have a camera so he came over to see if we had one he could use.My little brother and i looked that buck over for ever and went home with him and cleaned it for him .All he could do was stand there and tell us about the hunt and smoke more nails in his lungs,this would be his last hunt .But it set us on fire about ml. hunting. Well xmas was coming and my mom asked us what we wanted this year ,all we could say was ml.Well mom being our only parent,our dad pased in 74 he was only 33 died from liver damage from drinking to much from a very eary age .Well mom looked over the guns at the local stores and they only had finished tc hawkens and were priced way up there. So she gave us the bad news ,she couldn't buy us a ml so we would just have to be happy with somethng else.Thats when i hit the trail looking for aml that she or i could aford.Well xmas came and passed and we got boots and pants and other good stuff but no ml,we both had 30-30's so we didn't feel to bad.But later oni was in a pawn/gun shop looking around .The guy my late uncle had lots of older guns the one i had my eye on was a m1 grand that had been there for ever and it rattled like a sack of tin cans so i just handed it back and asked if he had any ml's ,he said no he couldn't sell that kind of junk gun around here so he didn't mess with them. I looked around the shop and over in theback was a paper sack with a long barrel sticking out ,i looked in the sack and asked unk what was this ,he came over and looked at it and on the sack was wrote 45 cal cva ml .He asked charles where this came from ,he said some guy brought it in and pawned it for 20 bucks,he didn't know if all the parts were there or not.Well being a kid i poured it out on the floor and looked it over,it had the barrel ,stock ,hammer and trigger,ramrod and a few brass parts that looked like someone poured them up in the carport in a lead sinker mold.He came over and looked at the mess laying in the floor and said i don't think all the screws or parts were there,but if i wanted it givehim the $20 bucks back and its yours ,by that night i had the hole gun put together after drilling out a few holes in the forearm for the barrel to lock on. It was all there or i thought it was,i sanded it down after taking it back apart and tried my best to work the rough brass down to were it looked liked something,my old friend took the barrel and heated it up a little with a cutting torch and tried to get some of the surface rust off,we sanded it down and he put some bluing on it and after a few coats it almost looked good.Then he started on the stock at this point he just took over the job of putting the gun together,as my brother and i watched ever day after school we would get told how he had to grind this down or drill this hole out some more but it was looking like something out of a davey crocket movie.Ever day i would ask is it ready to shoot yet ,almosthewould saybut he would have to make a front sight.The next weekend we were going over there to do yard work when we heard koomboom,we ran out back and he was pouring powder down the barrel and was licking a patch setting a round ball on the patch and using a homemade short startermade from a deer horn and a steel rod.He just grined and handed me the gun and a primer telling me what to do.He had a stick of firewood standing at the edge of the yard about 40 yardsaway.He was telling me take your time and aim a little to the right and about 2 inches high.I didn't even feel the hammer hit and a cloud of smoke filled the yard.This was the first time i ever seen a ml fired.Let alone shot one ,when the smoke cleared the firewood was laying on the ground and the old man was grining lighting up another cig.He said the front sight needs a little ajusting but it was a killer.He then started telling us how bad it was not to clean it right away after the shooting was done.That summer we went through a can of powder and two or threecoffee cansof lead balls he had poured up.Later that summer we watched as the local doc/coroner left with who we had all called uncle bill.Well with the new old gun and some store bought cva round balls and precut patches and grease i went to work shooting targets. My very first time out huntingwith the cva a spike buck walked over the ridge and stoped to eat some browse at about 50 yards or so,no matter how much i moved the sights the gun would hit 2 in. to the right and a little high. I didn't even fill the gun go off i just saw the smoke and when it cleared the buck was laying on the ground making his last kick.I walked over to the deer and was just about tograb it to gut itwhen i looked up the hill and seen a old man standing there by a oaktree waving and he just walked over the hill and away I couldn't see his face but in my heart i knew who he was. I had a few good years hunting with that gun and killed some good bucks with it. Then some scumbag sob stoled it from my cousins home along with all his stuff.I had my name inscribed on the barrel and uncle bills name was wrote all over it with his frontier style curly cues. I still to this day would string up that scum bag if i could ever find out who he was and feed him to the hogs. In short about your ? my gun would only group with the round balls with 70 grs. of powder it would make deer dead in one shot.My little brother bought a tc rengade 5o cal. and it would do fare with the hunters or the maxi balls at short ranges of about70 yards or less,he just didn't get the chance to find his sweet load even though he killed a doeon opening day in 87.that would be his last year to hunt he was killed with a co-worker in a mva on their way home from work one day.I still have his gun and the last two boxes of lead he bought, i get it out from time to time to cry over,put a fresh coat of oil on her and put it back in the lock box he bought with it.And some day i hope i can put it in the hands of a grandchild named richard ,and hope the gun stays in the family till the horn blows and the sword of the angle of god puts the guns of man back into the earth inwhich we are all made from.Now look what you done made me do it's 7:40 and the trucks and huntershave pasted the house and i still have to eat breakfast and get to my stand at least my 50 cal. is loaded and wondering whats going on. Good luck be safe keep your powder dry and for mothers sake eat as much of that big bird or ham as you can cause them womem got up for i did this morning and started work on that dinner.AndA SPECIAL PRAYER OUT TO ALL YOU FOLKS SPREAD SO FAR APART BECAUSE OF ONE STORM OR ANOTHER. BE THANKFULL TO THE MEN AND WOMEN TRYING THEIR BEST TO MAKE THE WORLD A SAFER PLACE,andGOD bless my FRIENDS FOLKS WHO LOST THEIR ONLY SON LUCAS IN THE WAR THIS SUMMER IT'S GOING TO BE A LONG TIME BEFORE THE HURT FADS ENOUGH TO MAKE THE RIVERS OF TEARS DRY.keep her flying high and never forget.