I was on a recent hunt with a younger guy , Allen (about 19-20) that had never yet hunted using a muzzle loading rifle ,
Im 71 so Ive spent a few decades in the field with my 62 caliber hawken replica ,
he had purchased a TC 54 caliber hawken replica, after playing with my rifle for several weeks at the range
he had spent most of the summer getting proficient in its usage and sighting it in, he had settled on use of a 230 grain speer lead round ball,
over 80 grains of 2f black powder with a cotton ball wad over a charge of powder separating the well lubed patch from the powder.
3" 3 shot groups were rather common off the bench rest at 100 yards.
https://myfwc.com/hunting/no-quota-permit-hunting/
we had located a dense stand of florida oak and were seated with our backs to a large oak each of us watching about a 130 degree angle of the surrounding brush,
visual limits were less than 80 yards max, in most directions,
but several game trails crossed near our location, I was far more interested in seeing him score than in getting anything personally.
we had reached our location and settled in to watch at about 6 am, in the dark, by about 7:00 am it was rather obvious,
that there were other hunters as we could hear people occasionally talking in several directions. I was not thrilled, with the human traffic increase as the sun came up,
but I assumed there was nothing I could do but sit and watch.
at about 8:12 am a couple does nervously trotted by seeming unconcerned with the distant conversations, at about 8:20 I nudged Allen as an average 4 point buck showed
the range was about 75 yards and there were several trees in between us and the deer making the shot rather difficult as only intermittent shots were available,
Allen slowly spotted the buck and adjusted his position to use his rifle, after what to me seemed several minutes , but was probably 40 seconds,he fired,
he stood and quickly reloaded, then asked me which way the buck he just missed ran?
I was a bit confused....the buck had dropped instantly....I told him he had dropped the deer.....
.he insisted he had seen, and watched its bouncing white tail exiting the area.
I got him up and we walked over to a reasonably nice deer, Allen was totally amazed as he was sure he had missed.
he swore he missed, he assured me he would never have considered he scored as he had seen the deer run, off as if unharmed.
I assured him the deer he had seen exiting the area must have been one of the does.
his patched round ball had passed high behind the shoulder and impacted the lower spine and was found looking like a 50 cent piece under the hide on the far side.
Allen had his first deer and I showed him how to field dress it before we carried it to the check out station at the wma.