mauser06

dahhhhh i went and did it.....saturday was my next to last day to deer hunt for the year....took the flinter so i can take buck or doe....first drive we went and lined a ravine....drivers drive the woods to use from about a mile away id have to say...long drive....but it works dang near every time because they have nowhere to go across a road runing along the drive and i have no idea whats on the other side i dont do much driving...im a shooter...but hte leader is always telling the shooters to get high in the ravine and if they can find the treestand and get in it....noone ever listens...i never went high on that drive but i was one of the only shooters that day so i went high...the deer seem to go up high most of the time...i FOUND that treestand....and i did climb up in it...told the drive leader i found his treestand and to bring em to me...he said hteyd try....not 10 mins later i heard a sound infront of me that just screamed out DEEr sneaking through...i was smart and got ready...seconds later i see 2 sneaking towards me....crack back the hammer...and level the sights on the first one...stopped broadside..perfect clear shot...something told me to check for antlers....thank god....i did and sure enough....first one i was about to shoot was a 4-5inch spikehorn...illegal....4pts to a side or more for me here.....second ones body was massive compared to the healthy bodied spike...looked on the head and with 7x binos i couldnt see anything...maybe he shed his....or it was a XXXL doe...but either way it was meat for the freezer...and legal....and on its way to be my first flintlock deer kill....problem was it was quartering towards me....and neck blocked by a tree....checked the head one more time to be safe....and made SURE that what i was going to hit would be the shoulder...and the ball would go through and into the lungs....nice shot....i knew i could make it....it was 60-75yds away...i knew i could make the shot....set the hair trigger...lined everything up in the middle of the chest....fired....THABOOM....smoke cleared...and i see 3 deer....ok no biggie...mines going to fall over...got hte binos on her...no hole....no blood....she moved 5 yds...but shes standing there....no hole or blood...DANG what happend....reloading a muzzleloader in a treestand shaking like a leaf is no easy task....and having 3 deer standing there watching makes you shake like a leaf.....but i figured id move slow....take my time and maybe they will stay instead of hurry and maybe forget something and have an accident or fall out of the tree or drop something because i was rushing....they wandered off....and they couldnt find theym except the spike to bring back to me....he was just out of my view but thats all they found was him...they split up and disappeard....i got down and checked to make sure i missed....and found a tree...right behind the deer i shot....with a ball hole through it about knee hight.....being in a tree stand at that range made the ball drop....i didnt think of aiming high in time.....rifle it wouldnt made a diffrence..but a round ball moving at the slow speeds i guess it did....that tree was directly behind where i wanted to hit her....my ball went right under her belly......DANG....what a blast though....i want meat for the freezer....so that may have been the last flintlock hunt of the year.....they are never close enough....or stopped so i can check for antlers before i shoot with the open sights or something.....and saturdays my last and only day left to hunt.....so i think i might take the rifle out and try to get me a doe or 2 or 3 with it.....tough year hunting.....id like some meat....if i had meat in the freezer id definently take the flinter out.....i love it.....cant wait for next late season!!!!! thanx alot for all the help guys......without you guys i would never be able to get a flinter to go boom....let alone with the accuracy i get from my rifle and consistant firing i get.....goes off nice....accurate....cant beat it...just hard to check for antlers when they are close and moving before you shoot....and ARs i have to now......oh well i love it

Underclocked

I followed all that except the "being in a tree stand made the ball drop" comment. WHUT?

There is always next year (we all hope).

cayugad

Better luck next time..... Sometimes shooting from a tree stand is harder to do then you think. Get a tree stand and practice it next year. Again, better luck in the future. At least your rifle went off...

newguy23

I missed a shot this year too, as well as my father, as well as my father's friend.

It was one of the worst markmanship I have seen in a long time.

I think my fathers arthritis is getting to him and he is too stubborn to admit it. I have no excuse... I just straight out misjudged my distance.

UncleNorby

You missed, plain and simple. Shooting downward at a sharp angle may cause you to shoot high, but not low.

You could have hit a twig, or you may have flinched, or any # of things, but it wasn't the angle.

m.t.hands

i think when you pointed the barrel down the ball rolled out, he he he, couldn't resist

Triple Se7en

===============================================

That's close to the best explanation for shot being low.

Did you check your ball for tightness against the powder after you got into your treestand? If that ball was just a fraction off the patch, it could of made it shoot lower.

mauser06

hmm maybe you guys are right...shooting UPHILL the bullet drops faster...i guess thats right i had it backwards...dont know if the ball moved....it was loaded for about 5hrs or so....could have moved i guess? its not a REAL tight patch n ball combo.....490 balls and a .010 patch...slides right down...but who knows.....maybe it was farther then i thought.....i will be honest....ive never shot anything as far as that deer....it just really wasnt that FAR...maybe 20-30yds past where i have practiced....i just plain missed...dont know if it was high or low now....the hole in the tree was at my knee...and 15-20ft in a tree...that could maybe been right over her back...i know i saw the tree behind her....and now im thinking maybe it was above her back...i had a dead steady rest....and had time to think and act at a nice speed...i was calm and cool...didnt jerk and highly doubt i pulled....flashbang...no lag in that shot at all....it was nice....just didnt connect...you better bet next year i practice even farther....and that was the only time i ever climbed a tree to deer hunt..i own a few stands...just never use them....that one is in the are the deer always come by when we drive that set of woods...never saw anyone in it...it does belong to someone....but we dont damage anything and that was the first time anyone climbed it from our group....it was a blast...sitting there watching the deer take a few steps and then stop and look around just killed me...holding a muzzleloader.....i ALMOST got that second shot off too....i kept it cool....let them calm down.....then ever so slightly reloaded...barely moving....never stood up....i got marks on my ramrod to tell me if my balls seated and i got it down there good....but just as i took the ram rod out they snuck over the ridge.....what a blast hunting with flintlocks is.....i bagged a nice sapling!!...

Striper Phil

I posted this earlier but it fits. I did manage a nice size freezer doe on the last day, the 31st of Dec. In fact I ate a loin piece last night and have the left overs with me for lunch

This is a fess up I hope will help someone , as I have noticed we have a lot of young members asking questions. For a little background for those who don’t know me I am 54 and have 40 or 50 deer under my belt most in the last 10 years. In all those deer I have only had 2 or 3 bad shots that weren’t placed in the vitals. Here’s yesterdays disaster. Went to my ladder stand in a fairly thick area of the woods. I haven’t finished really good shooting lanes here, mistake 1. As you know or will find out in a ladder stand especially when sitting it is difficult to rotate to the right and shoot. A nice doe approaches from about 12 o’clock position walking at me in some pretty thick stuff 50 yards out and turns right and will hit an opening to shoot her in 10 yards or so at the 1 o’clock position. I didn’t stand up while I could preferring to use the right front corner of the rest bar to prop the BP. She blew right through the small opening in the brush and I set up on the next opening at 3 o’clock. Now I am twisted to the right gun at the shoulder with no rest point. She pauses and I take the shot. With all the gyrations I am going through I don’t remember exhaling breath. Mistake 2 I am pretty sure my next mistake 3 was aiming at the vitals without picking a precise point to aim at, kind of how you point and shoot a shotgun. I also think I pulled the trigger instead of squeezing mistake 4. As you have guessed I missed plain and simple. I watched the doe trot off tail high and circle back. She stopped out 80 yards or so ( much to thick to try another shot, I did get reloaded while watching her) next to another doe and they hung out for a bit and walked off over a rise. I got down and circled but my circle was a bit short mistake 5 and I busted them again. They looked very healthy and trotted off.. I carefully retraced their paths of travel and found no signs of a hit, So at least I feel confident I didn’t wound the lady. Live and learn

UncleNorby

NO

Shooting at sharp downward AND upward angles will both cause you to hit high.

The angle needs to be sharp and the distance needs to be at least 75 yds. to make you miss your shot, assuming you are aiming at center of the body from top to bottom.

For "normal" treestand heights just forget about the effects of angle, just shoot.