Black Powder Success Thread
#21
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Tennessee
Posts: 1,607
#22
Fork Horn
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Tennessee
Posts: 314
(Friday 11/19/2010) I was trying to hunt a new spot on public land that didn't turn out how I planned, so I decided to still hunt on the 1.5+ mile walk back to the truck and just enjoy the morning in the woods.
I was a good ways back up in a creek bottom that was covered in oak trees. I noticed a lot of acorn caps on top of the leaves, so I thought deer may be using the area. I kept easing my way through the bottom and something up the way caught my eye. I pulled out my binoculars and I could see that it was a buck with a set of forward-swept horns, although I couldn't tell exactly how many points. I pancaked right there – I mean belly in the mud, face in the leaves – and crawled up to the nearest tree. I put my arm up on the tree for an anchor for my Omega and drew the hammer. I was bringing the crosshairs down on him for about a 100 yard shot when all of a sudden I heard a 4 wheeler crank in the distance off to my right. He popped his head up and looked in the direction of the noise, flipped his tail, and trotted off. I was stunned. So mad i almost threw up. Here I had just stalked up on a buck on public land of all places only to watch him evaporate in front of me. I sat there in the same spot for about 20 minutes thinking about what had just happened. Then I thought that maybe if I just hung out he may come back since he didn't seem all that alarmed when he took off and I knew that he had not seen me.
So I got up moved over about 400 yards across the bottom and sat behind a fallen tree, which provided a better wind position and also more concealment. I sat there for about an hour and a half watching the squirrels and listening to them play around in the leaves and making all kinds of racket. The sun poked out from behind a tree and came across my legs and I was drifting to sleep in its warmth. I was slouched back and my eyes were in the fluttering stage that comes just before sleep when all of a sudden the same buck I had seen earlier came out on a steady march right over my left shoulder no more than 25 yards away. I had to fight my natural urge to sit up since he would no doubt see me. I managed to keep still, but now I had a whole new problem and that was that he was gonna walk straight into my wind cause he came in on a side I didn’t expect. And sure enough he did. He got directly downwind of me and froze on the spot and I knew I was busted for a second time! He spun around on a dime and took off out of there on a dead sprint. I mean that buck was moving. I had to make a split-second decision about what to do and I thought, 'I’m not about to let this deer get out of here for a second time. I am gonna kill this buck." So I pulled my gun off my shooting stick and followed him in my scope for about 60 yards. He ran into a relatively clear area of the bottom and when he was about 60 - 75 yards away I hollered at him. I hollered “Hey...Hey...HEY” and on the third time he slowed down to a walk/trot. Somehow the whole thing was just meant to be cause it was a freehand shot while he was moving, but I connected with his lungs. He dropped right there on the spot.
I reloaded and walked over to him. I thanked the Lord for this incredible blessing and second chance and this great (for me) buck. I cleaned him and dragged his heavy butt .7 mile back to the truck. That drag was one of the most physically arduous hours of my life, but I had a smile on my face the whole way.
I apologize for the long post, but thanks for reading it. You guys have no idea how much I have learned from your posts. Thank you, all of you.
I was a good ways back up in a creek bottom that was covered in oak trees. I noticed a lot of acorn caps on top of the leaves, so I thought deer may be using the area. I kept easing my way through the bottom and something up the way caught my eye. I pulled out my binoculars and I could see that it was a buck with a set of forward-swept horns, although I couldn't tell exactly how many points. I pancaked right there – I mean belly in the mud, face in the leaves – and crawled up to the nearest tree. I put my arm up on the tree for an anchor for my Omega and drew the hammer. I was bringing the crosshairs down on him for about a 100 yard shot when all of a sudden I heard a 4 wheeler crank in the distance off to my right. He popped his head up and looked in the direction of the noise, flipped his tail, and trotted off. I was stunned. So mad i almost threw up. Here I had just stalked up on a buck on public land of all places only to watch him evaporate in front of me. I sat there in the same spot for about 20 minutes thinking about what had just happened. Then I thought that maybe if I just hung out he may come back since he didn't seem all that alarmed when he took off and I knew that he had not seen me.
So I got up moved over about 400 yards across the bottom and sat behind a fallen tree, which provided a better wind position and also more concealment. I sat there for about an hour and a half watching the squirrels and listening to them play around in the leaves and making all kinds of racket. The sun poked out from behind a tree and came across my legs and I was drifting to sleep in its warmth. I was slouched back and my eyes were in the fluttering stage that comes just before sleep when all of a sudden the same buck I had seen earlier came out on a steady march right over my left shoulder no more than 25 yards away. I had to fight my natural urge to sit up since he would no doubt see me. I managed to keep still, but now I had a whole new problem and that was that he was gonna walk straight into my wind cause he came in on a side I didn’t expect. And sure enough he did. He got directly downwind of me and froze on the spot and I knew I was busted for a second time! He spun around on a dime and took off out of there on a dead sprint. I mean that buck was moving. I had to make a split-second decision about what to do and I thought, 'I’m not about to let this deer get out of here for a second time. I am gonna kill this buck." So I pulled my gun off my shooting stick and followed him in my scope for about 60 yards. He ran into a relatively clear area of the bottom and when he was about 60 - 75 yards away I hollered at him. I hollered “Hey...Hey...HEY” and on the third time he slowed down to a walk/trot. Somehow the whole thing was just meant to be cause it was a freehand shot while he was moving, but I connected with his lungs. He dropped right there on the spot.
I reloaded and walked over to him. I thanked the Lord for this incredible blessing and second chance and this great (for me) buck. I cleaned him and dragged his heavy butt .7 mile back to the truck. That drag was one of the most physically arduous hours of my life, but I had a smile on my face the whole way.
I apologize for the long post, but thanks for reading it. You guys have no idea how much I have learned from your posts. Thank you, all of you.
#25
Boone & Crockett
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: River Ridge, LA (Suburb of New Orleans)
Posts: 10,917
Well, I haven't scored yet this year. So all I can do is retell last year's story of my first deer with a flintlock. It's a little long, but something to read if you have nothing better to do.
\Friday evening, 20 Nov 09: “Turn DAMMIT, turn.” I was screaming inside my head. But the 8-pointer standing out there on my food plot just wouldn’t turn to give me a broadside shot. He was nervous as all get out too, staring at two does under the corn feeder. I knew he didn’t like being out in the open like that because the first time he trotted onto the field he dashed off without stopping. I couldn’t believe he was back.
I was three miles north of Greensburg, Louisiana, in St. Helena Parish. The folding camp chair in which I was sitting was positioned on a rise twelve feet above the plot. In front of me was a screening pile of branches - yaupon and pine that I had cut only an hour earlier. The forend of my .54 caliber Lyman Great Plains flintlock was steady on a camera tripod rest I had cobbled together just for this hunt, and the butt was on my shoulder. But that darn deer just would not turn.
The buck was facing me head-on and farther out than I would have liked. The front sight was planted at the base of his neck and even though I felt steady as a rock I was hesitant to take the shot. I really wanted him to turn an offer a nice heart/lung shot from the side.
Then, without consciously doing so, I touched her off. KA-BOOM! That distinctive black powder report echoed through the surrounding woods. Even through the cloud of smoke I could see him wheel around and head for the tree line at the rear of the food plot. The two does he was “checking out” disappeared somewhere to the right.
Man, I felt sick – he didn’t look hit - he was too far out - the angle was wrong. Then I pulled a rookie mistake that I have a hard time admitting. With only twenty minutes of daylight remaining, I left my gun and pack right there and pushed my way through the brush onto the plot to look for signs of a hit. I didn’t find any hair or blood where he was standing at the shot. I didn’t find any blood on the plot where he entered the woods. Things were NOT looking good. I entered the woods right where I thought he had, and started walking a straight line away from the plot. After slowly covering about 60 yards through the darkening woods I spotted a big pool of blood. I looked up ahead and THERE HE IS, lying on his side not 30 feet away.
The buck weighed 168 lbs. The shot turned out to be 88 yards measured with a laser range finder. The ball entered the chest cavity through the brisket cartilage, destroyed part of the right lung, exited the chest cavity between the second and third rib while clipping the third rib a little and cutting a "half moon" from the side of it. A fitting kill for the flintlock's first blooding.
(PICTURES ADDED `CAUSE RON WANTED THEM.)
\Friday evening, 20 Nov 09: “Turn DAMMIT, turn.” I was screaming inside my head. But the 8-pointer standing out there on my food plot just wouldn’t turn to give me a broadside shot. He was nervous as all get out too, staring at two does under the corn feeder. I knew he didn’t like being out in the open like that because the first time he trotted onto the field he dashed off without stopping. I couldn’t believe he was back.
I was three miles north of Greensburg, Louisiana, in St. Helena Parish. The folding camp chair in which I was sitting was positioned on a rise twelve feet above the plot. In front of me was a screening pile of branches - yaupon and pine that I had cut only an hour earlier. The forend of my .54 caliber Lyman Great Plains flintlock was steady on a camera tripod rest I had cobbled together just for this hunt, and the butt was on my shoulder. But that darn deer just would not turn.
The buck was facing me head-on and farther out than I would have liked. The front sight was planted at the base of his neck and even though I felt steady as a rock I was hesitant to take the shot. I really wanted him to turn an offer a nice heart/lung shot from the side.
Then, without consciously doing so, I touched her off. KA-BOOM! That distinctive black powder report echoed through the surrounding woods. Even through the cloud of smoke I could see him wheel around and head for the tree line at the rear of the food plot. The two does he was “checking out” disappeared somewhere to the right.
Man, I felt sick – he didn’t look hit - he was too far out - the angle was wrong. Then I pulled a rookie mistake that I have a hard time admitting. With only twenty minutes of daylight remaining, I left my gun and pack right there and pushed my way through the brush onto the plot to look for signs of a hit. I didn’t find any hair or blood where he was standing at the shot. I didn’t find any blood on the plot where he entered the woods. Things were NOT looking good. I entered the woods right where I thought he had, and started walking a straight line away from the plot. After slowly covering about 60 yards through the darkening woods I spotted a big pool of blood. I looked up ahead and THERE HE IS, lying on his side not 30 feet away.
The buck weighed 168 lbs. The shot turned out to be 88 yards measured with a laser range finder. The ball entered the chest cavity through the brisket cartilage, destroyed part of the right lung, exited the chest cavity between the second and third rib while clipping the third rib a little and cutting a "half moon" from the side of it. A fitting kill for the flintlock's first blooding.
(PICTURES ADDED `CAUSE RON WANTED THEM.)
Last edited by Semisane; 11-23-2010 at 07:48 AM.