No Excuses for this.
 

On Friday morning i met a good friend for Breakfast. After that i was planning on shooting my Flintlock and getting ready for Monday morning. The first day of Pa Flintlock season.

After a few stops and about an hour drive home i wasn't feeling to well. To make a long story short, either got the Flu or food poisoning. So i finally started feeling better Sunday afternoon.

I took a ride up to one of my hunting spots and put a blind up. I usually don't hunt out of blinds but decided to for the first morning. I got my blind up and took some pics while i was at it.












Now is where the problems begin. My plan was to use my normal load of 100grns of Goex ffg and a 300grn Extreme Elite bullet. Then after the morning hunt, try and see if i could get the 220grn Lehigh's to shoot in a 1/48 twist Lyman DeerStalker to use the rest of the season.

After getting my Flintlock out and inspecting i noticed two problems. The first was, i got new sights on it. The second was i also got a new finish on it(Duracoat). I actually cannot remember if i ever sighted this gun in with the new open sights.:confused0024:

I had to make a decision, of course it's an easy one. I'm not hunting in the morning, and i'm going to go shoot my gun in. Pretty sad to tell you the truth, but i guess **** happens.

So now first bullet up in the morning will be the .458 220grn Lehigh. This bullet is right on the edge of being able to stabilize in a 1/48 twist. I plan on starting with 100grns of Goex and a MMP Orange sabot. My gun is only rated to 100grns of FFg Goex for some reason. I might go 5 less or over and that's it. If they dont shoot well enough i will go back to the Extreme Elites.

Grouse, You're right. No excuse for someone to have only ONE flintlock in PA. Shame on you. And to make matters worse, we are getting a fresh snowfall. Tomorrow morning should be nice.

Grouse45

But the pictures of the area really look nice and deery....

Grouse:

For either the Flu or Food poisoning use charcoal tablets. get them at any pharmacy and take them with plenty of water. try it you will be amazed. they should be part of everyone's hunting kit. You will have to get them from the Pharmacist they are kept behind the counter usually.

Ken

No way in the world I would miss the first morning of hunting. Even if I had to shoot 25 grain squib loads in my basement at 25 yards to check my rifle. Limit your shots to 30 or 40 yards and check your 25 yard zero in the basement tonight!! Just don't shoot past 30 or 40 yards. Then mid-morning take a couple of 50 yard shots, and limit your self to how far you shoot. It don't look like you can get much past 50 where you are at. Tom.

I can see how the charcoal would help for food poisoning...act as an antacid? But the flu? That is pretty amazing if it really works.

Grouse: have you shot a flintlock from inside of a blind before? I am also a flintlock shooter, but have never hunted from inside a blind with a flintlock. Any fire hazard issues? Thanks.

How do the Deer react to a newly placed Blind where you Hunt? I know we tried a Blind one year and never saw a Mature Deer come within Shooting distance of it. We then Built a Pemanant Blind out of 1/2" Pressure Treated Wood and Roofed the top with shingles (on our own land) at the Seasons end.
It took all of the next Season pretty much befor a Nice Doe was even shot from it. Then the following Season all the Deer were pretty much used to it and it was a real comfy place from then on out to sit in and be protected from the elements.
Im only about a 25 Minute Drive from North East, Rifle Hunted in PA but have yet to buy a Flinter, seems like too much work and too many things can go wrong using one??
Good Luck in PA and hope you get one of them Big Old Managed Bucks out there.
(BP)

Never thought of that.:biggrin: Hey, i never have a problem with one Inline.:lmao:

I'll check on that thanks.

I have not. I'll keep ya posted if i do.

I can pretty much say from one zip code to the next pretty much all the same. Deer are very curious creatures. What i have found is movement is the key. Don't move, and you will kill Deer. Blind, tree stand, up against a tree it doesn't matter.

Use a good flint, a good frizzen, and keep your powder dry, it will go Boom every time.;)

Hey Grouse could that be because it is a Knight?:D

Your a pretty smart guy.:party0005:

I gave the 220grn Lehigh's a fair chance in a 1/48 twist flintlock today. I just could not get them to group. So back to my normal 300grn Extreme elites. These bullets grouped really well at 50yds, the problem was they were 8 inches low. So i made adjustments and had them dead on at 50yds and 1 inch to the right. That's plenty good for me.

Now for fun i took a target out to 100yds. I loaded up the gun and sat on the bench. I could not see that Orange bulls eye very well at all. So i emptied the powder out of the pan and sat the gun on the rack. I took out a target that was laying on the table that had a black dot on it. This was a lot better for sure.

So i fired three shots at the black circle swabbing after every shot and this is what i got. I must say these fiber optic sights are a huge improvement for me.