13 year old daughter and TC Encore
11-04-2012, 05:11 PM
#1
Fork Horn
Thread Starter
Join Date: Dec 2007
Posts: 169
13 year old daughter and TC Encore
Well, I had very high expectations for the opening weekend of the Tennessee muzzle loading season. It was everything and more. I promised my 13 year old daughter Taylor that I would take her hunting. I have a small farm in Indian Mound, Tn. It has a very healthy deer population. I had been watching 5 different bucks that was 15" or wider and I had very high expectations for the opener. However, it has proven that difficulties appear with young hunters and this hunt would be no exception. I woke up early Saturday morning and prepared for the hunt. I woke my daughter and my son for them to get ready. All went well for the first 15 minutes. That’s when Murphy showed his ugly face. We were in the blind early enough to get settled in for the morning sit. About 15 minutes later a nice little 8 point showed him at 110 yards. My daughter was excited and so was I. She had a rest and I was talking her through the shot but she missed. We laughed and she was so hilarious that I couldn’t help myself but to laugh at her. We had a ball setting in the ground blind. I swab out the TC Encore with the Speed Breech XT. I reloaded the rifle with 120 gr of Pyrodex RS and a 240 gr XTP and supplied sabot. I put the primer in the breech plug and notice the rifle was hard to close. We set about another 20 minutes when out steps a 10 point with about a 17" outside spread. He was a mere 34 yards away broadsided. My daughter eased the gun up. She had a very nice steady rest and she pulled the hammer back and took a deep breath and exhaled and paused and squeezed the trigger and click. She cocked the gun again and went through the same routine and click again. I place 3 more primers and it did not fire any of them. Finally the buck decided he had better make tracks. I had a backup pack of primers so I opened them and placed a new primer in the BP. I looked at the other primers that she had snapped on and the firing pin hit in the center and left a good deep dimple in the primers. Later another nice buck showed up and again we went through the same routine with the same results. I got angry and took the gun back to the house and got out my TC Renegade and loaded it. I went back and we sat for a couple more hours and seen a couple other small deer, but no shot. We went back to the house and I took the Encore apart and cleaned it. I put it back together and loaded it and it worked fine. I shot it to make sure and then swabbed it out and reloaded it. We returned to the blind for an evening sit. It got cloudy and came a small thunder storm. We hadn't seen anything until about 20 minutes before dark. Unfortunately she could not see the buck to make a good shot so she patiently waited. The buck meandered off in the direction my son was hunting and she simply stated she hoped that Harley would get him. Five minutes later this little button buck stepped out at 42 yards. She didn’t know that it was a button buck, but she made a great shot and he dropped in his tracks. You talk about excited.....WOW... I was so happy for her to take her very first deer with a muzzle loader. She is definitely a challenge to hunt with, but I cannot think of a better way to spend the opening of the Tennessee muzzle loading season. My most fond memories are spending time with my children in the great outdoors. I am content with life even when Murphy appears. I have no clue what the problem was with the primers or the rifle. I have used CCI primers mainly with this rifle but I did use the Remington clean bore’s after the CCI failures. Any way it was a blast and I look forward to many more hunts with my children.
11-04-2012, 05:30 PM
#3
Dominant Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Wisconsin
Posts: 21,193
Congratulations on a fine deer. That will be excellent eating.
On a side note, that failure to fire would bother me. I know nothing about the workings of your rifle. But if it were my rifle, I would be sure finding out why it failed. What a shame. But she was able to get a deer, make memories, and that's all that's important.
On a side note, that failure to fire would bother me. I know nothing about the workings of your rifle. But if it were my rifle, I would be sure finding out why it failed. What a shame. But she was able to get a deer, make memories, and that's all that's important.
