Longbow and flintlock bucks

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dhaverstick
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Joined: Sun Jan 24, 2016 3:51 pm

Longbow and flintlock bucks

#1 Post by dhaverstick »

Last Thursday afternoon I finally got promoted from Deer Monitor to Deer Killer after calling this young 6-pointer in and dispatching him with my longbow. My dad had seen this buck in the same spot when I was hunting with him a couple of weeks ago. There is a huge thicket between our graveyard and our middle field and the deer use it as a main travel corridor. Dad always clears a road out in the middle of it to make their traveling easier and I set up on the road edge occasionally. This time I was in a hickory tree up on a little knob that looks down on the road just before it goes into the field. The buck had the brush horned up all around the mouth of the road so I knew he was using the area regularly.

About 4:30 pm I saw a doe out in the field and I bleated and grunted to her. She walked a couple of steps and then stopped. There was some brush between us and I couldn't see her so I just waited for her to come out one side or the other. Suddenly I heard some noise in the brush right next to the field edge and I couldn't for the life of me figure out how that doe had gotten there without me seeing her. Well, it wasn't her, it was the 6-pointer coming in to see who was in his territory. I let him get broadside at about 18 yards before sending an arrow his way. It was the first deer this season that I had gotten to draw on. The shot was good and I was soon loading him in the back of my truck. He is only the second deer I've killed with a bow during an afternoon sit. All my other deer have been morning kills.
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I saw a bunch of deer Friday but only bucks came into bow range. I saw three shooters in 30 minutes! That was okay. I would come back to the same spot Saturday morning with my 50 caliber flintlock and a whole new set of rules to play by. I was hunting on the ridge behind our barn. There is a big oak flat up there that the deer and turkey just love to dine on. I would be there too but with a different menu in mind.

Saturday morning started out a little slow; I think mainly due to the bright moon that shone all night long. Around 8:00 I saw a young 8-pointer come out of the holler to the northwest of me and start doing deer stuff. He was about 50 yards away so I bleated and grunted to him to close the distance. All that did was call his fork-horned buddy out of the holler and they started feeding away from me towards our northern neighbor's place. At one time I had a good broadside shot on the 8-pointer but I decided to pass. It was only about 50 yards but I couldn't be sure there wasn't some unseen obstacle between me and him. I was shooting iron sights so I wanted to be sure I had a good shot. The day was early so I figured I had more opportunities in store for me.

And it turned out, I did. About 10 minutes went by and the 8-pointer decided to come back. He apparently remembered he had an appointment to keep because he was walking at a pretty steady pace on a vector that would take him by me on the left at about 25 yards. With a loud CLICK, I cocked the hammer back on my flintlock and tried to position myself for the shot. I am left handed and animals on that side are the bane of my hunting career. There's only so much turning you can do in a climbing stand so I tried to stop him with some doe bleats by mouth. Finally, he acknowledged my presence and slowed down enough for me to shoot. I lined up the sights, picked a spot behind his shoulder and pulled the trigger. Through the cloud of blue smoke I could see him hump up and then run down into the holler. Fortunately, he piled up before he made it too far and I had one more buck for the freezer. I used 75 grains of FFg powder and a .490" diameter PRB.
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Anyone who thinks that hunting is all about killing has obviously never had the pleasure of dragging 150 pounds of dead weight uphill for a couple hundred yards while trying to stand up in calf-high leaves that are as slick as goose grease. The killing takes seconds, the rest is all work. A 4-point safety harness also doubles as an excellent dragging harness!
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Overall, we didn't hurt the deer population too badly at the Haverstick Game Preserve and Day Spa but we did manage to fill the meat pole. I really wanted to kill a couple of does but Fate provided me with bucks so that's what I killed. They were both young deer so they should still be fine table fare. I will spend the rest of the week deboning the meat and putting it up. Sausage making will commence over Christmas break. Life is good!
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Darren

Carpdaddy
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Re: Longbow and flintlock bucks

#2 Post by Carpdaddy »

Wow; congratulations Darren on two nice Deer! That first one probably came in just to see that sharp arrow quiver. Nice work on that also by the way.

Captainkirk
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Re: Longbow and flintlock bucks

#3 Post by Captainkirk »

I love happy endings!
Aim small, miss small!

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Ole Dave
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Re: Longbow and flintlock bucks

#4 Post by Ole Dave »

Wow...flinter yet! I got one of those in the closet left from PA days...

In lines are legal here and while I won't go out with all these forest fires raging and me unfamiliar with the ways to get out if caught... I'm happy I can use the in line...

I've had far too many Flash-NO BOOM with flinters in my day... course, the flint season in PA usually was damp or downright wet...

Beautiful deer...great looking country and savvy hunting! Kudos and conrats!
All we have and call our own, once belonged to someone else, and will again. Our purpose here is not to serve ourselves.

Bigfoot SAS LB (47# LB limbs 38# Semi Static RC limbs)

Couple of old Bear bows

Gamestalker
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Re: Longbow and flintlock bucks

#5 Post by Gamestalker »

Wow, congrats! you're having a great year.
I'l love to see more pic's & hear more about that flintlock.

Dave, that PA flintlock season is my favorite season of them all. I love hunting with flintlocks. I used to have misfires way too often, but having a quality gun & really learning the do's & don't's of flintlock hunting greatly reduced that problem. I've even killed deer with my favorite flintlock on rainy days.

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Shadowhntr
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Re: Longbow and flintlock bucks

#6 Post by Shadowhntr »

Nicely done Darren, on Both the hunts, and the write up! Congratulations!
The element of surprise can never be replaced by persistence.

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Ole Dave
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Re: Longbow and flintlock bucks

#7 Post by Ole Dave »

GS,

You must hunt PA to say that as NY has the PRB but uses percussion, doesn't it?

I had the original T/C Hawken, then dumped it...then I got a Firestorm...

Hot shot POS!

Claimed to shoot pellets...it did...eventually, but even off a bench you could light the match, bend over and tie your shoe and come back up before it went off... well, almost! :roll:

I have a friend who swears by BP cartridge guns and flinters... properly timed lock is key and the pan should be counter to T/C design...fire goes UP, not sideways...their shallow pan doesn't help much..I dremeled out one and bore out the flash hole liner... but the real sticker I think is that there is a SS cone on the removable breech plug in the Firestorm for the pellet to sit on top...and I think the main charge rolls around behind the pointy thing and the pan flash doesn't reach it in field conditions...

But I too have harvested some with the PRB in PA before they went to maxi or the CVA ones with a plastic base pinned to em...

There are guys who hunt trad bows who build several thousand dollar Flinters that go boom every time...swamped barrels and all... but... and there in comes the rub... but who has 2K for a flintlock...not me! :(
All we have and call our own, once belonged to someone else, and will again. Our purpose here is not to serve ourselves.

Bigfoot SAS LB (47# LB limbs 38# Semi Static RC limbs)

Couple of old Bear bows

Captainkirk
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Re: Longbow and flintlock bucks

#8 Post by Captainkirk »

A properly outfitted flinter has a lock time almost indistinguishable from a caplock.
Most of the variances have to do with how much powder you use in the pan, flash hole shape and diameter and the design of the pan, plus a properly hardened frizzen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbe6V-gUFNs
Aim small, miss small!

Gamestalker
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Re: Longbow and flintlock bucks

#9 Post by Gamestalker »

A couple critical things I learned are to not use too much prime powder & always pick the flash hole after loading & before priming. You want the flash from the prime to go thru the hole to the main charge. Too much prime powder makes it burn like a fuse.... slower.

Here's my favorite flintlock:
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It has a C profile swamped barrel in .54 caliber.
It's a semi-custom & you're right about how expensive they can be. I bought this one "in the white" & it still cost me $1000. They can go for ten times that too.

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dhaverstick
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Re: Longbow and flintlock bucks

#10 Post by dhaverstick »

Thanks, all! I feel blessed to own a piece of ground that offers such bounty and that has also been in my family since the early 1800's. I also feel blessed that my best hunting buddy, my father, still lives there and takes care of the critters so that there's always plenty to go around. The evening I killed that buck with my bow, he took a picture of a doe and her fawn standing by his well house not 30 feet from the kitchen window! It's getting so it's not safe to go outside unless your armed.

The flintlock rifle I used is an Isaac Hayes design made by my good friend, John Pruitt, of Spring City, TN. It is the first gun he made for me and it has always been reliable. John is a whiz when it comes to building these things and he can crank you one out in short order. His current price is $150 plus parts and that is with him supplying the stock wood and carving it out. You will not find a better deal than that anywhere!

I've known Mr. Pruitt for over 10 years but never met the man face-to-face until early this year. We became acquainted through a mutual friend and John built me my first selfbow. I don't know how many of his bows I have now; a bunch, and they are some sweet shooting sticks. His latest design is a bamboo-backed osage affair with a slight reflex he puts in with a heat gun. Again, he can crank one of these out in a day or two and ship it to you for around $100.
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Darren

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