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Post by Loggy on Jan 3, 2021 8:47:22 GMT -5
I recently posted in our current season's flintlock hunt report thread about my 105 yard flintlock kill. Well, here's the rest of the story on my longest "flintlock" kill.  Back in my (pre-Swiss)Goex days I lost my sanity and thought I needed a fast twisting flintlock!! Long story short I had Brad Emig, Gun Builder fit my T/C PA Hunter flinter with a Green Mountain 1-28 twist barrel along with a L&R lock. Both bbl & lock were "supposed" to be an easy "drop-in" but that's another story in itself!! lol The gun was a tack driver off the bench at 100 yards shooting MMP saboted Hornady 300 grain .452 HP/XTP(load below). I had gun shot in for 75 yds as is range in most areas I hunt but at 100 it still held comparable groups off bench. It was a real killing machine. The trigger job & speed of Brad's tuned lock was unbelievable!! I killed the below Sullivan County doe at 105 yards but sumpin just didn't feel right with this souped-up rig that also sported frt & rear fiber optic sights!! In a few short years I regained my sanity and had Brad build me a 54 caliber PA Mountain Rifle sporting a SLOW TWISTING 1-56 Colerain tapered/flared barrel. I have taken deer with this .530 round ball pitcher along with a 300 lb TM wild boar all being clean/quick kills. Looking back...glad I went thru this crazy stint as if I hadn't would always think about doing so. Sorta like the handgun hunting phase I went through!! I'm where I need to be now for at least the time being!! Be great to hear about your loooonnnngggg range smokin experiences(good & bad)!!   |
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Post by ridgecommander on Jan 3, 2021 8:57:44 GMT -5
Not a long range flintlocker as my short range skills are not very good, lol. Admittedly I don't practice much. Every year I say I am going to but that never happens. From the bench I can shoot 3 inches groups with Powerbelts all day long.
My longest kill was probably 40 yards. I have a self imposed limit of 50 yards. I think of my 7 flintlock kills, my average shot has been about 25 yards.
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Post by jj103 on Jan 3, 2021 10:04:25 GMT -5
A good friend of buzz and myself is an incredible shooter. He has competed in long range rifle shoots where he has done very well. I watched him 2 years ago drop a doe with his flintlock at 180 yards. It’s not a guess on yardage cuz we ranged it. Couldn’t believe it
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Post by davet on Jan 3, 2021 10:34:36 GMT -5
I honestly don't recall the longest flintlock shot I've taken a deer with. I can tell you that I've taken running shots on deer. Not many but at times I have. Of the few that I've taken, two come to mind. One was a big doe that was doing the big leap run and as she came out of the brush (being pushed) I lined up the shot and the 50-Cal T\C with a Green Mt. drop in barrel (best thing I ever did to that T\C) and followed the deer's chest and pulled the trigger. (Don't stop the follow.....just do what trap or skeet will teach ya) Hit her right thru the heart and she dropped in 25 yards.
The second was similar.....but I got lucky. The memory is pretty well burned in my brain. Three doe coming up a hill at "full throttle". I took aim at the one in the middle and as I pulled the trigger I could see thru my peep sight that I was aiming at her tail. So, as the gun was going off I quickly went forward in an attempt to hit the chest.....and the conical hit her right below her right eye. She dropped like a bag of bricks.
Some may tell me I'm taking unethical shots. OTOH, I've taken many running deer with offhand shots in rifle and flintlock seasons. Have I missed? Of course. Have I wounded? Well, all I can tell you is I usually spend 20-30 minutes after a shot to look for hair\blood and look for any blood trail. But I have connected many times on a running deer....and as a good friend of mine states......"if you don't shoot, they don't die." I know I've missed more deer with my T\C pre Green Mt. barrel because the factory barrel was just plain junk. Shallow cut rifling with a 1-48 twist just didn't do the job. The Green Mt. barrel is longer by at least 6", has a 1-70 twist and I can shoot at least ten shots before the barrel needs swabbed and the conical gets tough to seat. That and those ten shots will all group under 4" at 100 yards. The rifle is easy to balance as well.
I liked the Green Mt. barrel so much that when I did my Leman .54 cal build, I bought the GM for that one. The .54 cal is just as accurate as the .50 cal barrel. I wish Hornady or Buffalo Bullets would make the stubby Pa. Conical for the .54 calibers. I love those projectiles!! No patch to mess with and as accurate and consistent as the day is long!!
Interesting part about the .54 Cal barrel vs the .50 Cal barrel is the .54 barrel weighs less than the .50. Both barrels measure the same across the flats.....but the .54 has a bigger "hole" and thus, less metal. Less metal......less weight!! Just an interesting side note!!
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Post by Loggy on Jan 3, 2021 10:42:21 GMT -5
A good friend of buzz and myself is an incredible shooter. He has competed in long range rifle shoots where he has done very well. I watched him 2 years ago drop a doe with his flintlock at 180 yards. It’s not a guess on yardage cuz we ranged it. Couldn’t believe it Hat's off to your friend making that shot JJ!! Goes to show that if you can put it there....it will do the job!! |
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Post by Loggy on Jan 3, 2021 10:47:56 GMT -5
I honestly don't recall the longest flintlock shot I've taken a deer with. I can tell you that I've taken running shots on deer. Not many but at times I have. Of the few that I've taken, two come to mind. One was a big doe that was doing the big leap run and as she came out of the brush (being pushed) I lined up the shot and the 50-Cal T\C with a Green Mt. drop in barrel (best thing I ever did to that T\C) and followed the deer's chest and pulled the trigger. (Don't stop the follow.....just do what trap or skeet will teach ya) Hit her right thru the heart and she dropped in 25 yards. The second was similar.....but I got lucky. The memory is pretty well burned in my brain. Three doe coming up a hill at "full throttle". I took aim at the one in the middle and as I pulled the trigger I could see thru my peep sight that I was aiming at her tail. So, as the gun was going off I quickly went forward in an attempt to hit the chest.....and the conical hit her right below her right eye. She dropped like a bag of bricks. Some may tell me I'm taking unethical shots. OTOH, I've taken many running deer with offhand shots in rifle and flintlock seasons. Have I missed? Of course. Have I wounded? Well, all I can tell you is I usually spend 20-30 minutes after a shot to look for hair\blood and look for any blood trail. But I have connected many times on a running deer....and as a good friend of mine states......"if you don't shoot, they don't die." I know I've missed more deer with my T\C pre Green Mt. barrel because the factory barrel was just plain junk. Shallow cut rifling with a 1-48 twist just didn't do the job. The Green Mt. barrel is longer by at least 6", has a 1-70 twist and I can shoot at least ten shots before the barrel needs swabbed and the conical gets tough to seat. That and those ten shots will all group under 4" at 100 yards. The rifle is easy to balance as well. I liked the Green Mt. barrel so much that when I did my Leman .54 cal build, I bought the GM for that one. The .54 cal is just as accurate as the .50 cal barrel. I wish Hornady or Buffalo Bullets would make the stubby Pa. Conical for the .54 calibers. I love those projectiles!! No patch to mess with and as accurate and consistent as the day is long!! Interesting part about the .54 Cal barrel vs the .50 Cal barrel is the .54 barrel weighs less than the .50. Both barrels measure the same across the flats.....but the .54 has a bigger "hole" and thus, less metal. Less metal......less weight!! Just an interesting side note!! Yep Dave....hard to beat those Green Mountain barrels!! I had the original T/C PA Hunter flintlock and I started to fit the G.M. drop-in but saw a potential Loggy butchering job unfolding so had Brad Emig fit it. I think they were mainly made for the more popular TC Hawkins etc. |
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Post by davet on Jan 3, 2021 11:01:42 GMT -5
Yup. They were for the Hawken style rifles. But drop in’s ? Well...I had to “carve out” some pan metal for the barrel to fit....but it fires darn near every trigger pull as long as I have a good flint..,or knapped the flint back to good shape.
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Post by jj103 on Jan 3, 2021 11:03:57 GMT -5
A good friend of buzz and myself is an incredible shooter. He has competed in long range rifle shoots where he has done very well. I watched him 2 years ago drop a doe with his flintlock at 180 yards. It’s not a guess on yardage cuz we ranged it. Couldn’t believe it Hat's off to your friend making that shot JJ!! Goes to show that if you can put it there....it will do the job!! I’ve also witnessed him kill a gray squirrel at 425 yards with a rifle but that’s another story |
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Post by Loggy on Jan 3, 2021 11:17:39 GMT -5
Yup. They were for the Hawken style rifles. But drop in’s ? Well...I had to “carve out” some pan metal for the barrel to fit....but it fires darn near every trigger pull as long as I have a good flint..,or knapped the flint back to good shape. Below is pic of my T/C PA Hunter. Was my first flintlock. T/C introduced them shortly after PA's Flintlock Season originated and later discontinued. They had a nice walnut stock out of the box sporting a 1-66 31" barrel. Pic of gun with new L&R lock plus GM bbl installed with original T/C factory bbl & lock below. Sorta wish I woulda keep it same as many I got rid of.   |
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Post by davet on Jan 3, 2021 12:34:24 GMT -5
When I first looked at your pic Loggy....I thought man.....that lock looks a lot like L&R drop in. There's no scrolling on those locks. They are much faster than the coil spring T\C factory. I've thought about one......but then I look at the cost and tell myself the T\C lock goes off!!
Interesting from the angle of your pic the "drop in" flash hole doesn't center in the flash pan. Same issue I had.....hence metal removal on the T\C lock pan. Frankly, I like the more "plain\simple" look of your PA Hunter vs the T\C Hawken. On my Hawken I hacksawed off and then shaped the little trigger guard "extensions." I hated those extensions as they always seem to get hung up on my clothing.
The nice part of keeping my T\C is I can take it out when the weather isn't the greatest and not worry too much about knocking it around. (Not on purpose.....but stuff just happens)
FWIW
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Post by Loggy on Jan 3, 2021 13:25:05 GMT -5
Yes that is a L&R lock. The factory T/C lock(scrolled) is at bottom of pic. After tuning the L&R it was pretty sweet!! My current 54 caliber PA Mountain Rifle has a Large Silar lock which is by far the best lock I've ever shot. Most smokers who have owned both lean towards the Silar.
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Post by rem700 on Jan 3, 2021 14:30:58 GMT -5
I used to always enjoy flintlock season it was always a great time to be roaming around in the woods even though I actually never got a deer with my flintlock i have shot at a few and ended up with clean misses but I did splinter a few trees along the way.
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Post by davet on Jan 3, 2021 15:54:48 GMT -5
I used to always enjoy flintlock season it was always a great time to be roaming around in the woods even though I actually never got a deer with my flintlock i have shot at a few and ended up with clean misses but I did splinter a few trees along the way. Wow!!!! Your post reminds me of a flintlock day in the snowy woods of Pa near Loyalhanna dam. We had a good 6-8" of fresh overnight snow on the ground and it was a beautiful day to be out on the woods!! Temperature was high 20's with just about zero wind. I'm overlooking a hillside and along comes a nice doe about 50 yards below me. The doe stopped and was feeding so I lined up and pulled the trigger. I aimed a tad low as the angle downhill was steep. The doe dropped right down so I figured it was a good placement.....or even better placement than I had hoped for. I reloaded and then began to weave thru the brush down to the doe. As I approach her she has her head up. Then, she starts going down over the hill using only her front legs and dragging everything else behind. OH.....a spine hit and not a lethal one. She stops and I have a neck\head shot at about 25-30 yards. Now, I was shooting my factory T\C Hawken barrel which had highly questionable accuracy at times......most times. I took a head shot and missed cleanly. Down the hill goes the doe again. Reload.....walk down to get close enough not to spook.....take a shot, another clean miss!......and down over the hill the doe goes again. GHEEEZZZZ!!! One more load, one more down the hill I go and finally the third shot does it. After I dressed the doe out my buddy had come along. I was telling him I just didn't understand the high spine hit considering the POA I made. So, we go back to the original shot and he's looking around and discovers a branch about the diameter of my index finger.....with a half a RB hole cut right out of the top. This branch was only 3-5 yards in front of the deer. So....the RB clipped the branch top....deflecting it up....and thus into the spine instead of the boiler room. I got a lot of respect for the whitetail as they can do amazing things even after being shot with a PRB....or a high power. Ya know.....if I kept missing that doe would have likely made her way all the way down to the road and saved me some dragging. Then again, I may have run out of BP or PRB's. But likely if that would have happen, the doe would have climbed her way into the thickest, nastiest stuff at the bottom. A deep snow down hill drag is pretty easy!! FWIW |
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Post by Loggy on Jan 3, 2021 17:08:36 GMT -5
I've learned one thing early on & it's to follow through....keep the sight on the target till you see the bullet hole. You can still miss but not quite as often!! |
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Post by rem700 on Jan 3, 2021 17:47:10 GMT -5
That's a good flintlock story dave those deer are tough for sure and them tree branches can really screw things up.
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Post by Loggy on Jan 3, 2021 19:37:19 GMT -5
I used to always enjoy flintlock season it was always a great time to be roaming around in the woods even though I actually never got a deer with my flintlock i have shot at a few and ended up with clean misses but I did splinter a few trees along the way. Amen Rem700!! Just going for a walk in those woods with the ole smoker is what it's all about. |
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Post by fleroo on Jan 4, 2021 9:42:09 GMT -5
A good friend of buzz and myself is an incredible shooter. He has competed in long range rifle shoots where he has done very well. I watched him 2 years ago drop a doe with his flintlock at 180 yards. It’s not a guess on yardage cuz we ranged it. Couldn’t believe it I'm guessing buzz doesn't tap into his knowledge base for any pointers ? |
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Post by jj103 on Jan 4, 2021 15:12:54 GMT -5
A good friend of buzz and myself is an incredible shooter. He has competed in long range rifle shoots where he has done very well. I watched him 2 years ago drop a doe with his flintlock at 180 yards. It’s not a guess on yardage cuz we ranged it. Couldn’t believe it I'm guessing buzz doesn't tap into his knowledge base for any pointers ? Yes he does. Our friend told him that hunting may not be his sport so he left and went to Florida |
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Post by acorn20 on Jan 4, 2021 16:04:41 GMT -5
In 1986 I remember three individuals killing small rack bucks and four or five of our party harvesting does. I was deerless at the end of rifle seasons but the thing I remember the most was the shirtsleeve weather we had to hunt in. That changed in the days leading up to Christmas when 6 - 8 inches of snow blanketed the ground.
We had ten fellows that had muzzleloading tags and we decided to hunt a State Game Land in Bedford County on one of the Fridays. We were going to still hunt the SGL and see if we could move deer around to each other. We were quite successful and as three does crossed through open timber in front of me I was able to drop one at about 45 yards.
The next day, Saturday, we hunted a SGL on the mountain bordering Fulton and Bedford County. The parking lot had a fire road that ran South about 4 miles to another parking lot. Along the west side of this road a series of finger ridges ran down to a common hollow that paralleled the road. We positioned standers about 50 yards off the road and half of us dropped off to still hunt the finger ridges. I had a doe to do up so I was just enjoying hunt and the day...I could care less if I shot another deer.
I walked about half way down one of the ridges when I found a nice spot to just sit and see what transpired. A few deer had crossed the ridge below me and I heard the report of a rifle to the north. I noticed movement on the adjacent finger ridge to my left, south of me, and watched four deer work their way up straight across from me. As I previously noted, I really wasn't interested in another doe and the deer were moving up the finger ridge toward one of our younger hunters on stand so I thought I'd let him have some action. I was so intent in watching the deer move off that I hadn't noticed three more deer bringing up the rear guard. I couldn't believe it when I saw antlers on the next to the last deer. Well, this immediately changed things. None of our crew had ever killed a nice rack buck in muzzleloading season and I was going to see if I could change that.
I figured the range at 85 - 90 yards. The deer would stop occasionally and paw the ground, but remained broadside to me. I was sitting, leaning up against a large oak, so I rested the .54 caliber Keith Casteel built rifle and took aim just behind the shoulder. I took just a little more front sight than normal and aimed low for the heart...figuring that he might just drop a little. As the smoke cleared I watched the buck run to the top of the adjacent finger ridge and turning as if to run up the hollow on the other side. I heard the report of a rifle up where the young hunter was on stand. He hit one of the large does and she dropped not 5 yards from the fire road. The lucky turd.
As I was reloading, a buddy walked up the ridge to me. I replayed the event and we walked over to where the buck had been standing. I found the scuffed up snow where the ball hit and a tiny speck of blood. My buddy found more blood about 15 feet up the hill in the direction the buck disappeared. We tracked it over the ridge and sure enough, it went uphill in the next hollow. Four of us scoured that hollow till it got dusk and then worked our way back to the cars. That night at the cabin, we decided that if the deer was hit hard enough, it would surely go down the mountain into the big hollow at the bottom. On Sunday, we were going to have a few guys work their way down from the last blood and two of us were going to work our way up the hollow at the bottom.
After breakfast on Sunday, we left the cabin with high hopes of finding the buck. My friend Mike and I went to the bottom of the hollow and the plan was to work our way up to meet the others coming down off the ridges. Mike was on my left walking over the ends of the finger ridges and I was about 20 yards up the right side of the large hollow looking for sign when Mike hollers out to me "He's laying right above you about 25 yards." I waited at the buck till Mike joined me and as I attempted to pick up the deer's head, the right antler popped off in my hand. The left antler did the same. We dragged the buck to the truck and met everyone over at the cabin. The shot was just a tad back and high...but ripped through the liver. Here's a pic of the doe and buck.
Attachment DeletedAttachment Deleted
Those were certainly shining times!
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Post by Loggy on Jan 4, 2021 16:53:24 GMT -5
Nice shot Dan!!
Enjoyed your hunt report!! Amazing how those fond memories never fade.
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Post by davet on Jan 4, 2021 17:12:58 GMT -5
I did take this well proportioned 8 point with my flinter in January of 2013. He was running with a half-rack at the time. Filled my buck tag that year!!!  |
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Post by buzz on Jan 4, 2021 17:14:54 GMT -5
A good friend of buzz and myself is an incredible shooter. He has competed in long range rifle shoots where he has done very well. I watched him 2 years ago drop a doe with his flintlock at 180 yards. It’s not a guess on yardage cuz we ranged it. Couldn’t believe it I'm guessing buzz doesn't tap into his knowledge base for any pointers ? I used to shoot competition with him. I did learn quite a bit from him. Enough to finish 2nd at a state shoot with around 400 shooters. Guess who finished first........yea, him....lol. He is good with any gun, and can call the wind at long range. |
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Post by davet on Jan 5, 2021 7:35:39 GMT -5
In 1986 I remember three individuals killing small rack bucks and four or five of our party harvesting does. I was deerless at the end of rifle seasons but the thing I remember the most was the shirtsleeve weather we had to hunt in. That changed in the days leading up to Christmas when 6 - 8 inches of snow blanketed the ground.
BTW....I forgot to mention.....your story is a great read!! Thanks!! |
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Back in my (pre-Swiss)Goex days I lost my sanity and thought I needed a fast twisting flintlock!! Long story short I had Brad Emig, Gun Builder fit my T/C PA Hunter flinter with a Green Mountain 1-28 twist barrel along with a L&R lock. Both bbl & lock were "supposed" to be an easy "drop-in" but that's another story in itself!! lol The gun was a tack driver off the bench at 100 yards shooting MMP saboted Hornady 300 grain .452 HP/XTP(load below). I had gun shot in for 75 yds as is range in most areas I hunt but at 100 it still held comparable groups off bench. It was a real killing machine. The trigger job & speed of Brad's tuned lock was unbelievable!!
