Petey
Gold $$ Contributor
Almost a year ago to the day, I posted a little write up about great bullet combos for deer out of my TC Renegade flintlock. For those of you that missed it, it's a nice write up and worth a read.
Ffftttt ... Boom! Great Bullet Combos
Well over 30+ years of killing deer with the .50 caliber flintlock and I'm back to continue to lay claim to this awesome combo. This past Monday was our last day of primitive flintlock muzzleloader/late archery deer season, and my son was home from college over the weekend to fill his last tag. I wasn't too concerned with having to fill mine as I knew I still had Monday to hunt, and we already have a pretty stocked freezer, from archery and rifle seasons that stretched from early October to mid December. So, I really didn't have any pressure to "need" to fill my last ticket. We sure eat a lot of venison and the meat rail in the garage sure seen it's fair share of critters hanging from it this season. My wife sure loves pulling in the garage and seeing what she explains as "death" ..lol.. of course my hanging hooks on a barn door rail is right in front of her car stall.
On to the hunt and bullet performance. As stated before, this hunt is always a favorite. A great time to get the crews together to do old fashioned PA drives or "pushes" since most of the deer are herded up by late season. Saturday was going to be just my son and I, since everyone I knew we normally did drives with were kind of burnt out on hunting for the year. Anyone that's done these types of pushes knows how hard it is to put a deer within iron sight range of a single stander/watcher, especially when it's a 500 acre tract of big woods. We had just got about 1/2" dusting of snow the day before and it got cold enough the leaves underneath were crunchy. Knowing this, I knew I wouldn't be sneaking up on any deer or getting close enough to shoot one with my flintlock. That's one of my favorite things to do with a muzzleloader... cut a track and follow it until I get a shot. This was not in the cards with the conditions we had. A crisp 19 degrees, I was going to have to rely on, knowledge of deer travel, woodsmanship and good ol fashioned luck to get some deer to run by him.
Before we left the house, I fashioned a game plan. Told him to drop me off and drive the truck over to a spot and sit in a specific location that I knew the deer would travel. After giving him 15 mins to get set up I started my trek to get to my starting point. As I arrived at the beginning of my "push" I saw a doe feeding about 150 yards out. I found a tree to rest on and raised my gun, only to find the entire body of the deer covered by my front sight. Yeah just a bit out of range I'd say! I started in very slowly, trying to close that gap by at least 50 yards for a shot, and just as I knew would happen, the deer noticed me and started slowly moving in the direction of my son (that's hopefully in the right spot about 600 yards away). We played cat and mouse the entire distance and then I heard the boom... Not bad, 10 mins in and we should have our first deer down. As I make my way down to him, expecting to see him dressing it out, I see him looking for sign of a hit. I pass by a tree and see his bullet impact in the tree. Hanging his head low from the miss, I tell him not to worry, it's early and these things happen even to the best of shooters with these stinking flintlocks. Just be happy the thing went off! lol Of course I double check trail after the shot, and not even a drop of blood after 200 yards. Clean miss at 60 yards.
I'm happy to be moving in this cold weather and I tell him to move to a second location that I'll push to. This was perfect as I knew of the exact spot the deer would head and told him to sit within 20 yards of a specific downed tree and give me 30 mins to make the loop. On this push, it's starting to snow pretty heavy (not a good thing with a flintlock) The ol adage of "Keep 'yer powder dry" becomes hard in rain and snow, but I have a couple tricks up my sleeve. One is a simple sandwich bag and a rubber band wrapped around the lock to cover the pan/frizzen and lock. This trick I've use for years and a quick flick of the rubber band and the bag comes off and your ready to shoot. Quick, simple and effective at keepin the powder actually dry. Anyhow about halfway through this push I notice where some deer have been feeding and stirring up the leaves under the snow and I follow the tracks...thankfully heading right towards where my son should be waiting. There's a lot of tracks, so this could get fun real quick. I'm about 300 yards from where he should be and deer start popping up out of treetops where they were bedded from the snowfall, and they are headed his way. BOOM..... I walk over the crest of the hill and see a deer laying there while he's reloading. He dropped that one in it's tracks. 9 deer in total surrounded him and he chose one of the larger deer.
Another successful drop in the tracks shot with the 240Gr Hornady XTP 44 mag bullet from a .490 green sabot. 90 Grains of FFF
At least this year, he remembered his knife! His final tag is punched, smiling ear to ear and it's not even 9:00am and now I don't need to run deer for him all day! Win for both of us, lol.. We get it tagged, take some pics, get him drug the 500 yards to the truck and I'm ready to go home. He says, "Well, I can drive deer for you".. Oh, Ok, well I say if you want.. but no biggie. I still have tonight and Monday. He's adamant to do a little push for me now. Well I go about things the smart way, I'm not walking all over creation and sitting in the cold, lol. I'll drop him off, drive down the road and post up at a spot I happen to know the deer travel about 350-400 yards off the dirt road. That way he can do one push for me and we can just go home. I know this drive will only take 10 mins, so I get to my spot and begin the cold wait. I was dressed to walk, not sit. I will tell you in that 10 mins it was cold for the few layers I had on. I posted up on a spot I could see 200 yards down through the woods, but there's a known trail, that's like a horse path I pretty much stood on. I figured if he managed to bump a deer, odds are it would find this route and run me over. Well almost as I scripted it, 8 mins in here comes 4 deer right at me. I have enough time to remove my sandwich bag, cock back my hammer and get a rest on a sapling. They stopped at 50 yards, nah I'll wait.... kept coming and coming... at 20 yards the lead doe finally spots me and stops...BOOM... another head on shot.
This one spun and managed to make a couple hops and falls into the creek I'm overlooking. Wow, it made it 10 yards... surprising, they normally fall right there, lol..
#2 with the 240Gr Hornady XTP 44 mag bullet from a .490 green sabot. 90 Grains of FFF
We got this one tagged, pictures taken, gutted and drug out the 400 yards to the truck. Two deer, in 3 small pushes with flintlocks with just two hunters was quite a feat. And we're back to the house before 10am! I'm a stickler about getting the hides off as quick as possible, and while skinning mine out, just as last year, I found the 240 grain 44 mag pistol bullet just inside the inside of the hind quarter. That bullet passed the entire length the deer, wrecking everything in the chest.
I didn't weigh this one, but I'm sure it was similar to my post of last year of 220 grains of retention
Great way to end the season! I still claim this sabot, bullet combo to be the best deer killer out of our TC Renagades.
And yes, the wife was super enthused by the "Death" hanging in the garage when she got home! Looks like about 28 jars of canned meat, or 80 pounds of burger, steaks, roasts, bologna, jerky, or meat sticks.
Update: Yes he went back to college and left the processing to me.... the little turd. Who says kids aren't smart?
Ffftttt ... Boom! Great Bullet Combos
Well over 30+ years of killing deer with the .50 caliber flintlock and I'm back to continue to lay claim to this awesome combo. This past Monday was our last day of primitive flintlock muzzleloader/late archery deer season, and my son was home from college over the weekend to fill his last tag. I wasn't too concerned with having to fill mine as I knew I still had Monday to hunt, and we already have a pretty stocked freezer, from archery and rifle seasons that stretched from early October to mid December. So, I really didn't have any pressure to "need" to fill my last ticket. We sure eat a lot of venison and the meat rail in the garage sure seen it's fair share of critters hanging from it this season. My wife sure loves pulling in the garage and seeing what she explains as "death" ..lol.. of course my hanging hooks on a barn door rail is right in front of her car stall.
On to the hunt and bullet performance. As stated before, this hunt is always a favorite. A great time to get the crews together to do old fashioned PA drives or "pushes" since most of the deer are herded up by late season. Saturday was going to be just my son and I, since everyone I knew we normally did drives with were kind of burnt out on hunting for the year. Anyone that's done these types of pushes knows how hard it is to put a deer within iron sight range of a single stander/watcher, especially when it's a 500 acre tract of big woods. We had just got about 1/2" dusting of snow the day before and it got cold enough the leaves underneath were crunchy. Knowing this, I knew I wouldn't be sneaking up on any deer or getting close enough to shoot one with my flintlock. That's one of my favorite things to do with a muzzleloader... cut a track and follow it until I get a shot. This was not in the cards with the conditions we had. A crisp 19 degrees, I was going to have to rely on, knowledge of deer travel, woodsmanship and good ol fashioned luck to get some deer to run by him.
Before we left the house, I fashioned a game plan. Told him to drop me off and drive the truck over to a spot and sit in a specific location that I knew the deer would travel. After giving him 15 mins to get set up I started my trek to get to my starting point. As I arrived at the beginning of my "push" I saw a doe feeding about 150 yards out. I found a tree to rest on and raised my gun, only to find the entire body of the deer covered by my front sight. Yeah just a bit out of range I'd say! I started in very slowly, trying to close that gap by at least 50 yards for a shot, and just as I knew would happen, the deer noticed me and started slowly moving in the direction of my son (that's hopefully in the right spot about 600 yards away). We played cat and mouse the entire distance and then I heard the boom... Not bad, 10 mins in and we should have our first deer down. As I make my way down to him, expecting to see him dressing it out, I see him looking for sign of a hit. I pass by a tree and see his bullet impact in the tree. Hanging his head low from the miss, I tell him not to worry, it's early and these things happen even to the best of shooters with these stinking flintlocks. Just be happy the thing went off! lol Of course I double check trail after the shot, and not even a drop of blood after 200 yards. Clean miss at 60 yards.
I'm happy to be moving in this cold weather and I tell him to move to a second location that I'll push to. This was perfect as I knew of the exact spot the deer would head and told him to sit within 20 yards of a specific downed tree and give me 30 mins to make the loop. On this push, it's starting to snow pretty heavy (not a good thing with a flintlock) The ol adage of "Keep 'yer powder dry" becomes hard in rain and snow, but I have a couple tricks up my sleeve. One is a simple sandwich bag and a rubber band wrapped around the lock to cover the pan/frizzen and lock. This trick I've use for years and a quick flick of the rubber band and the bag comes off and your ready to shoot. Quick, simple and effective at keepin the powder actually dry. Anyhow about halfway through this push I notice where some deer have been feeding and stirring up the leaves under the snow and I follow the tracks...thankfully heading right towards where my son should be waiting. There's a lot of tracks, so this could get fun real quick. I'm about 300 yards from where he should be and deer start popping up out of treetops where they were bedded from the snowfall, and they are headed his way. BOOM..... I walk over the crest of the hill and see a deer laying there while he's reloading. He dropped that one in it's tracks. 9 deer in total surrounded him and he chose one of the larger deer.
Another successful drop in the tracks shot with the 240Gr Hornady XTP 44 mag bullet from a .490 green sabot. 90 Grains of FFF
At least this year, he remembered his knife! His final tag is punched, smiling ear to ear and it's not even 9:00am and now I don't need to run deer for him all day! Win for both of us, lol.. We get it tagged, take some pics, get him drug the 500 yards to the truck and I'm ready to go home. He says, "Well, I can drive deer for you".. Oh, Ok, well I say if you want.. but no biggie. I still have tonight and Monday. He's adamant to do a little push for me now. Well I go about things the smart way, I'm not walking all over creation and sitting in the cold, lol. I'll drop him off, drive down the road and post up at a spot I happen to know the deer travel about 350-400 yards off the dirt road. That way he can do one push for me and we can just go home. I know this drive will only take 10 mins, so I get to my spot and begin the cold wait. I was dressed to walk, not sit. I will tell you in that 10 mins it was cold for the few layers I had on. I posted up on a spot I could see 200 yards down through the woods, but there's a known trail, that's like a horse path I pretty much stood on. I figured if he managed to bump a deer, odds are it would find this route and run me over. Well almost as I scripted it, 8 mins in here comes 4 deer right at me. I have enough time to remove my sandwich bag, cock back my hammer and get a rest on a sapling. They stopped at 50 yards, nah I'll wait.... kept coming and coming... at 20 yards the lead doe finally spots me and stops...BOOM... another head on shot.
This one spun and managed to make a couple hops and falls into the creek I'm overlooking. Wow, it made it 10 yards... surprising, they normally fall right there, lol..
#2 with the 240Gr Hornady XTP 44 mag bullet from a .490 green sabot. 90 Grains of FFF
We got this one tagged, pictures taken, gutted and drug out the 400 yards to the truck. Two deer, in 3 small pushes with flintlocks with just two hunters was quite a feat. And we're back to the house before 10am! I'm a stickler about getting the hides off as quick as possible, and while skinning mine out, just as last year, I found the 240 grain 44 mag pistol bullet just inside the inside of the hind quarter. That bullet passed the entire length the deer, wrecking everything in the chest.
I didn't weigh this one, but I'm sure it was similar to my post of last year of 220 grains of retention
Great way to end the season! I still claim this sabot, bullet combo to be the best deer killer out of our TC Renagades.
And yes, the wife was super enthused by the "Death" hanging in the garage when she got home! Looks like about 28 jars of canned meat, or 80 pounds of burger, steaks, roasts, bologna, jerky, or meat sticks.
Update: Yes he went back to college and left the processing to me.... the little turd. Who says kids aren't smart?
great memories right there that you will both cherish all your lives. Congratulations!
