Successful Muzzleloader Deer Hunt

Ugly Sauce said:
That would not surprise me, and why I prefer (insist!) on a RN for small game. Hollow points aren't bad if they don't open up. The Winchester 36 grain .22 H.P. comes out of my AirLite at 940fps, does not open up and kills grouse cleanly. Three dead grouse will testify to that! That Winchester load is the most accurate out of a big variety of .22's, in that pistol. I wanted to use CCI "Quiets", but chose accuracy over quiet. !!! However, from a little stubby barrel all the .22's sound about the same, or at least no BIG difference.

I don't think a round nose .58" would cause much damage on a deer. (other than killing it!)
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For whatever reason .22 pistols really bite my eardrums… doesn’t matter what kind of ammo you use. It’s either bad or worse… nasty.
 
They are loud for some reason, sound more like a .32 or .38 for some reason. Need to get me a good sling-shot for them little birds.
 
Frulk said:
Dave…Much respect for going the old school rifle route to bag that deer with a side lock.

Is that a Williams sight you added?
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The rear sight is a Lyman 57 SML with the insert removed so it's like a ghost ring. The front sight is also a Lyman with a white bead but I don't recall the model. The white bead works really well in the dim woods.
 
Dave Markowitz said:
Pennsylvania's early muzzleloader antlerless deer season was last week. PA was one of the first states to have a muzzleloader-only season but for decades this started the day after Christmas and was flintlock-only. That season is still available and is for antlered or antlerless deer, but the early antlerless-only season is a more recent addition. In the early season, any .44 caliber or larger muzzleloader is legal, so a lot of guys use percussion or inline rifles.

My friend N. owns about 65 acres in Tioga County, which is in north central PA, just south of NY. We went up there last week to catch the tail end of the early antlerless season.

Late Friday, he took a shot at a doe but it was a clean miss. He shot high because the sights on his rifle are difficult to see especially in the wrong light. (He has plans to fix this.)

Yesterday morning we got on stand. At 8:05 AM I heard a shot from the direction where he posted up and when I got to him, saw that he'd bagged a button buck. The .440 round ball from his Euroarms Kentuckian Carbine flintlock had passed through both lungs and must have hit a major blood vessel, because the deer bled out almost immediately and collapsed after running 15 feet.

I went and got my truck while N. field dressed it. We loaded it into the back of my Xterra and took it up to the campsite where we skinned and quartered it, and put it on ice. We had that done by lunchtime.

After eating lunch, then relaxing for awhile with a Guiness and a cigar each, we headed back out to a different part of the property at about 3:00 PM (closing time was 6:49 PM). He came with me to help with dressing and dragging out a deer if I got lucky.

At about 5:40 PM I had to stand up and stretch. I noticed a doe grazing in the field in front of us, about 60 or 70 yards out. I sat back down and a second doe appeared. I signaled to N. that we had a couple deer in sight.

Both of the deer were large. There's a cornfield and a couple pear trees across the street from N.'s land so they've been feeding well.

For a few minutes I'd peer over the burlap blind as the deer slowly worked their way towards us. At one point both were broadside but one was behind the other and I didn't want to risk wounding it if I shot the one closest to me.

Eventually, I had a clear broadside shot presented to me and I stood up to clear the blind, placed my front sight bead behind her shoulder and touched off the shot. The .490 round ball from my Cabela's (Investarm) Hawken caplock hit right where I aimed.

Strangely, the other deer didn't immediately bolt. Rather, it stomped and snorted at us, and even advanced a little towards us before turning and running. If N. hadn't already tagged out that morning he probably could have shot this one.

As we eventually discovered, the ball didn't exit and because it was a high lung shot the blood trail was poor, but we tracked it down in about 15 minutes. We decided not to wait before tracking it because we were running short on daylight. Normally we'd wait 30 minutes to allow the deer to lay down and expire.

Something we noticed on these deer was that they both had large quantities of fat reserves under their skin. I saved a gallon Ziploc bag of fat to be rendered down into deer tallow, which will make good patch lube.

N. texted me this morning. In order to get the legs into his meat bins after he got home, he had to debone them because they wouldn't fit into them. Between the two deer it's about 80 pounds of deboned meat with the fat trimmed off. I'll be going over to his house next weekend to help finish processing them.

We always try to learn lessons and do better. N. is going to put better sights on his rifle. I'm planning to experiment with a heavier powder charge in my rifle to improve the chances of a complete pass through if I shoot another large deer with it. (I was shooting 70 grains of 3Fg Olde Eynsford BP. I'll try 80 grains.)

View attachment 1110547
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Congrats! Good hunt!
 
hawg said:
Out of a revolver they are loud. Out of a 24 or 26 inch rifle barrel they're not loud at all.
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You got that right Hawg. I have a "Hawthorn Warrior" .22LR bolt gun with a 24 inch barrel. With CCI Quiets the report is less than a .25 Caliber air rifle I have, probably the same as the average .22 air rifle.
 
I've got a Stevens 87B with a 24 inch barrel and its pretty quiet. I had a Winchester model 67 with a 26 inch barrel and it was quieter.
 
hawg said:
I've got a Stevens 87B with a 24 inch barrel and its pretty quiet. I had a Winchester model 67 with a 26 inch barrel and it was quieter.
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My first rifle, a Remington M33 has a 26” barrel. It’s very accurate and yes, very quiet. Any subsonic load sounds like a pellet rifle.
 
When I got my T/C Renegade in 1981 and took it hunting I had the same low light sight problem. The fix was a bottle of "Whiteout" that secretaries and others used back in the day to make corrections to typing errors. Whiting out the entire post front sight and the upper portion of the rear sight took care of the low light sight problem. Touched the sights up every year before opening day.
 
Muzzleloader iron sights ( or any other
iron sights) can be fineggled to your
satisfaction with a bit of paint. You
can get many color choices in the
tubes of automotive touch up paint,
or the sharpie paint pens work good
as well
 
I lived in western Pa for my first 50 years, We had to hunt the late muzzle loader season where we were only allowed to use flintlocks, round balls, and primitive iron sights.
I used these in my barrel though for my first shot and carried round balls in my pouch.
They are accurate as hell and we have never lost a deer to one.
I moved away from Pa and moved to NC in 2008 when my son and his wife started having our grandkids. Her family was from down there originally so they moved back.
I still cast and send these to my cousin in Pa and they are still performing in his 50 cal Thompson. My 50 cal lefthanded Deerstalker loves these also.
Almost forgot to add that they are Lee's Real Bullets in 50 cal.

Real Bullets for flintlock.jpg
Alan's deer with Real bullets 2022.jpg My cousin sent me this picture and a text in the early season this year, saying that my bullets are still doing their job.
 
Conicals were legalized for PA's late flintlock season several years ago. The late season is still flintlock, with iron sights only.
 
tightgroup tiger said:
I lived in western Pa for my first 50 years, We had to hunt the late muzzle loader season where we were only allowed to use flintlocks, round balls, and primitive iron sights.
I used these in my barrel though for my first shot and carried round balls in my pouch.
They are accurate as hell and we have never lost a deer to one.
I moved away from Pa and moved to NC in 2008 when my son and his wife started having our grandkids. Her family was from down there originally so they moved back.
I still cast and send these to my cousin in Pa and they are still performing in his 50 cal Thompson. My 50 cal lefthanded Deerstalker loves these also.
Almost forgot to add that they are Lee's Real Bullets in 50 cal.

View attachment 1128096
View attachment 1128097 My cousin sent me this picture and a text in the early season this year, saying that my bullets are still doing their job.
Click to expand...

What powder charge do you use behind them?
 
Fishtales said:
When I got my T/C Renegade in 1981 and took it hunting I had the same low light sight problem. The fix was a bottle of "Whiteout" that secretaries and others used back in the day to make corrections to typing errors. Whiting out the entire post front sight and the upper portion of the rear sight took care of the low light sight problem. Touched the sights up every year before opening day.
Click to expand...

I have found, for my eyes at least, that bright yellow model paint works best, better than red or white. Most of my modern pistols have yellow front sights now.

On my muzzle-loaders, Silver, brass or copper sights work well for me, in sunny conditions I black them with a bic-lighter, then in lower light conditions I'll just rub the sight a bit with a wool glove on, and that stands out real nice, for me.
 
Jackrabbit1957 said:
Did you buy the orange fingernail polish just for front sights?? Inquiring minds want to know!
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Nope. I bought it just for rear sights:p. I bought fluorescent green for front sights. I did get a weird look from my wife when I said I needed some fingernail polish. I would have just used some of hers but she only uses dark colors.
 
I've often pilfered the wife's stash for red polish, but now the yellow model paint works best for me. Red really only works well, for me, in good or bright light. Otherwise kind of disappears in low light. However, I now have a grand-daughter who has some wild colors with sparkles in them...very tempting.
 
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