Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Around the Campfire => Topic started by: JW_Halverson on December 14, 2013, 10:14:22 pm
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(http://i365.photobucket.com/albums/oo100/JW_Halverson/Muzzleloading%20stuff/2013%20flintlock%20buck/downsized_1214131456_zpsb4c1a752.jpg) (http://s365.photobucket.com/user/JW_Halverson/media/Muzzleloading%20stuff/2013%20flintlock%20buck/downsized_1214131456_zpsb4c1a752.jpg.html)
I found this 4x4 white tail buck out like a light this afternoon and snapped a quick show with the cell phone. I didn't have a sharpie with me, so I couldn't descend into cheap frat house tricks, though.
The trick is to watch where you place your feet. Do not commit any weight to the forward foot until you have felt thru the sole of your shoes for anything that may crackle, snap, or pop. Of course, it don't hurt any if you put a .50 caliber ball thru his boiler room first. Makes 'em go ni'-ni' in right fashion.
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nice buck
congrats on the success with the flinter.
KH
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And kudos to you for supplying me with something to unzip his gut locker with. I'm afraid it got a little dirty.
I have more pics on my camera, but no way to download them here at work. Will post more later.
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Nice deer JW!
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Nice job. He should be some good eating.
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Oh maaaan! I almost had me a new super hero with your sneaky cat like ability, then I finished reading. Oh well! Nice looking buck, for shore he will taste far better than my tag soup. ;)
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With the worsening tendonitis in my elbow, I am gonna be eating side dishes of archery tag soup with this guy's steaks and roasts.
He was loaded inside with rolls of fat. Great condition going into winter, so I have great hopes that the herd will do ok this year again.
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Way to go JW, thats a good deer there.
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You had me going there for a minute....congrats.
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JW, that deer is sooo, cute. Did you sing a little lullaby before it went sent?
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JW, that deer is sooo, cute. Did you sing a little lullaby before it went sent?
I read "Good Night Moon" to it instead of singing.
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try reading this one for those stubborn bucks. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gv6b0CretuE
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Nice deer JW ;) Congrats on tucking him in for the long haul...
Cipriano
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I have snuck up on does with their kids I guess a bunch of times, always in fields with high grass. Never sleeping, but they were lying down in it. Never on purpose, I'm always hunting for bow wood, not them, haha. I think the deer around here about retarded though.
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Congrats. JW.
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And kudos to you for supplying me with something to unzip his gut locker with. I'm afraid it got a little dirty.
JW
my pleasure.
I think a durty knife is a purty knife.
besides a little blood adds a nice patina.
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Oh the irony. Or is it coincidence that I found a squirrel sleeping in our loft. With All the insulation it must have been comfortable. He's now sleeping in my freezer. Alot of fat and meat on him.
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Congrats... Nice deer.
It is quite fun to sneak up on sleeping deer. Works best if you are light, and small...
another fun one- just pick a quiet place to sit a few feet off a deer trail. If the deer know you won't do anything to them, they will literally walk up to you... don't do anything stupid like try to pet them, get too close, or feed them. THINK.
if you wait a while... they come to you when you don't expect them.
also, speaking of deer-fat, the deer my friend shot had plenty of fat on it too.
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Congrats JW that is a beauty of a deer!!
Jon
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You had a GOODER! Congratz!! dpgratz
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nice buck Jdub.you did good brother.
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Nice deer JW,always make me nervous to walk up on a deer with his eyes closed.
They usually ant dead yet. :o ???
Pappy
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Awesome deer JW, congrats!! Where's all the snow? :o
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Nicely done JW...
Thanks Leroy
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So, here's the story. 7 Years waiting for a muzzleloading buck tag and we get one of the coldest Decembers in history. Instead of responding to rattling at the end of the rut, they are all holed up outa the wind and trying to stay warm. Finally, we get a break in the weather and I am out in the woods at sunrise. I worked several areas known to harbor good populations of deer, but you gotta walk a good bit to get there. I'm game, so out I go.
I find lots of heavily used trails, several good scrape lines, and a couple great funnels. Only problem is that everything is at least 24 hours old. I quit the area at about 2:30, GPS told me I had tracked almost 9 miles. And all of it without seeing a deer. Good 2 inches of powdery snow on the ground and moist pine needles under the snow, so silent walking was easy. I even gave up trying to be quiet and just plain tried bumping deer. No luck, white-tail flag-free!
I was driving home when I decided to glass across a canyon to a small piece of National Forest Service land that is almost totally surrounded by private land. Sure enough. On a steep hillside inside a wooded ravine I spot a buck grazing. He's got headbones, I got a tag for deer with headbones. Nuff said.
I diddy-wop over the finger ridge next to me and slide downhill out of sight. I start climbing up the steep side of the canyon just one ravine over, so the buck won't see me coming. After gaining about 200 ft of elevation in only 20 yards of horizontal real estate, I am chugging like a demented steam engine, sucking wind and badly outa shape! I wait to get heart rate and breathing under some control as I slowly top over the ridgeline to look down into the ravine where I saw the buck.
BUSTED! The buck is much bigger than I thought and he is heading out over the finger ridge across from me already. I freeze in place hoping he hasn't seen me. As he disappears, I see movement in the ravine where I had originally spotted the buck. It's a buck, probably the same one I had first spotted, I had missed the larger one in my haste. I can wait for him to follow the big buck and try to catch them once they go over the next finger ridge or I can settle. I settle for meat today.
He's busy grazing on dry alfalfa, slowly working his way up the opposite side of the ravine from me. I have plenty of time to get my butt under me, raise my knees, rest elbows on the knees, and find my sights. I'm holding dead on since he's at about 90 yds, my iron sights covering much of his chest. He is quartering away from me at a steep angle and I wait for a better shot. Another two steps and all I have is Texas Heart Shot, nothing but a full moon. Wait a little longer and I see some ribs again. Finally I get a little more ribs showing and I decide to put the shot at the back of his left side ribs in order to put the roundball close to the heart as it passes thru.
When the hammer dropped, flint struck steel, sparks ignited the fine powder in the pan, the subsequent flash drove thru the recessed touchhole and set off the 65 grains of powder in the charge. I tend to exhale slowly when pulling the trigger, and that's a bad habit because it leads to inhaling any smoke blown back. I had a light breeze in my face and got a lungful of delicious blackpowder smoke.
The buck humped up and kicked. He ran 20 yds with his tail sucked up between his hind quarters. He stood on the sidehill with his back hunched and I feared a gutshot. His legs were wobbly and his head hung. I never took my eyes off him as my left hand felt in the shooting bag for the turkey wingbone powder measure and found it. I had the gun loaded in seconds by touch, something I was told long ago to practice. Everything in it's place once again and the bag tucked back tight against my ribs, now the buck stands up from where he lay and he wobbles off over the ridgeline.
I'm on my feet and doing a glissade down the rocks and blowdown pines in this 25 yr old forest fire wracked hillside. At the bottom, I pull it together and start up the hill with all I have. Good sense returns before I top the finger ridge and I slow down. I check the prime in the pan and close the frizzen again. I check the half-cock and it's good. Finger out of the trigger guard, thumb on the flint, I ease over the ridge and spot him. He's stumbling slow with his head down. I take a couple long strides and drop to a kneeling shooting position. Just when I have full-cock and a finger on the trigger he stumbles and falls into the next ravine. And there I found him, sleeping the long sleep.
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(http://i365.photobucket.com/albums/oo100/JW_Halverson/Muzzleloading%20stuff/2013%20flintlock%20buck/CopyofSAM_0108_zps285ab7cb.jpg) (http://s365.photobucket.com/user/JW_Halverson/media/Muzzleloading%20stuff/2013%20flintlock%20buck/CopyofSAM_0108_zps285ab7cb.jpg.html)
(http://i365.photobucket.com/albums/oo100/JW_Halverson/Muzzleloading%20stuff/2013%20flintlock%20buck/CopyofSAM_0109_zps96d5bb43.jpg) (http://s365.photobucket.com/user/JW_Halverson/media/Muzzleloading%20stuff/2013%20flintlock%20buck/CopyofSAM_0109_zps96d5bb43.jpg.html)
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KHalveson makes fine gear and I am pround to carry them along with my rifle, horn, and pouch. Best of all, they work like they are supposed to!
(http://i365.photobucket.com/albums/oo100/JW_Halverson/Muzzleloading%20stuff/2013%20flintlock%20buck/a2dc0965-c65f-4d68-9c5c-ffa36845d29f_zpsad6e5a92.jpg) (http://s365.photobucket.com/user/JW_Halverson/media/Muzzleloading%20stuff/2013%20flintlock%20buck/a2dc0965-c65f-4d68-9c5c-ffa36845d29f_zpsad6e5a92.jpg.html)
(http://i365.photobucket.com/albums/oo100/JW_Halverson/Muzzleloading%20stuff/2013%20flintlock%20buck/CopyofSAM_0114_zps3df6dfe0.jpg) (http://s365.photobucket.com/user/JW_Halverson/media/Muzzleloading%20stuff/2013%20flintlock%20buck/CopyofSAM_0114_zps3df6dfe0.jpg.html)
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Rock on!!!! Was wondering if you made it out...congratulations ;)
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wonderfull story JW.
beautifull rifle
thanks for taking me along.
KH
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GREAT story JW - I was right there with You ! Like the Rifle also - Bob.
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Nice deer.
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Loved the story JW,thanks for sharing. :)
Pappy
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WOOOHOOOO
That perked me right up
Good job and thanks for sharing it
I am tickled for you !
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Wow! Nicely written account of a great hunt, J-Dub. I felt like I was right there chugging up the hill with you. That's a beautiful flinter! Did you build it? Your photos are really good, I could study them. Great accountrements too. I love that "hawk! And...you sure did your part, making a good shot with historically correct sights on an American Longrifle. Congratulations!
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Geat story! Always something special about a deer taken with a flinter.
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Way to go,and great story CONGRATS!!!!!
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The rifle is "Perty Girl". She was my first flintlock. She and I have spent thousands of hours together in the woods over the last 15 years. I broke her stock tragically some years back. This spring I had a real gunsmith fix the break and I refinished the rest.
I have rebuilt the lock twice and tweeked the triggers until I am satisfied. She is mine thru and thru by purchase, use, and adversity.
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Great story love it............................
DBar
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And today, 5 weeks later, I finally cut up the little buck.
Yup. Five weeks hanging in the garage. I like my venison well aged. >:D
Actually, the little buck only got about 5 days of aging. He froze solid as a rock and we didn't have enough warm weather to thaw him out until this week! I got the usual pile of steaks and roasts, but the front shoulder on the off side had some damage, so I got less for grind than usual. I made a batch of breakfast sausage using 60% venison, 40% pork. I ate a small patty this evening and it was good, but needs more pepper. I will add pepper tomorrow morning and mix the sausage again before packaging into 1 lb packages.
I found the roundball under the skin in front of the off-side shoulder. It was badly mashed passing thru the right shoulderblade. I intend to weigh it out and compare it against a full roundball to determine what percentage of material it shed. I am concerned about leaving lead in a gutpile, since birds of prey will often feed on these opportunistic situations and I don't want to kill them. In this case, the gutpile got buried and a flat stone placed over the gutpile.
My freezer now has two small whitetails, one buck and one doe. Each meal will start me re-living the hunt. Each forkful will be a celebration of that animal's life and contribution. Their strength and vitality will carry me thru many days. Longbones left over will provide my dog with treats that she loves, each one will last weeks. She will run grab the bone and show me her "trophy" when I come home, her tail wagging with joy. The hides will provide rawhide backings for bows, likely bows made by some newbys on here needing a little extra support. The buck's tail will be tied into flys by Flycaster (new to this site), he also has the sinews for future projects. I'm saving some toes to attempt tip overlays for some future bow project.
These deer are not wasted. They are not taken for granted or shot to bolster my flailing ego. I bore them no malice, just as they bore me no malice. Their brothers and sisters in the woods and prairies can count on me to work to defend their habitat even as I make use of them as sustenance. I am active in several conservation organizations locally and nationwide. I keep educated on pending legislation that will effect future opportunities to fish, hunt, and enjoy the outdoors...and I not only vote accordingly, but I keep in touch with my state and national representation to ensure they understand what I find important.
All that in a little 4x4 two year old buck, a flintlock rifle, and the knife and tomahawk from a friend I have never laid eyes on? Yup, and so much more. So much more.
Thank you all for sharing this hunting season with me, brothers and sisters of the bow. Thank you all for passing along what you know and believe, for what matters to you and me and hopefully generations to come.
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Thanks JW, that was a lovely piece of writing. Maybe I'll get over to your side of the world one day.
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Thank You JW - well said ! Bob
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Well said indeed JW!
Sum's up how many of us feel when it comes down to the things we think are important in life.
Kevin
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cool story JW and nice to see that you practice what you preach, burying the gut pile ;) :D
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Very nice bit of writing JW. Perhaps a book should be in your future? ;) ;D
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I've been working on a children's book on the life of our Black Hills Raptor Center's great horned owl, Icarus. But that has been 2 flipping years now! However, I do have a local artist willing to do the artwork if I share the authorship with her. Sounds fair to me, she'd doing the hard work that actually requires talent! (Talon-t?)
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You better take her up on it JW - you get it published and I will buy one. 8)
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Congratulations JW on your successful hunting season. Really nice pictures and enjoyed the story...