Thread: Hunting Season 2013 - What are you after this year

I took two whitetails this year. Nothing huge but a good start to filling the freezer again. Hopefully I will get another one in the late doe season when that opens up in a few weeks.

I ended up with a nice doe, but didn't get it with the 45-70 or a cast bullet.

On opening day I had a doe cross a trail less than 10 yards in front of me while I was walking. I've never been that close to a deer in the woods. I pulled up to take a quick shot. CLICK!
In that rushed moment, I totally forgot about the crossbolt safety on these new lever guns.
I removed the crossbolt that night. I'm comfortable enough with half-cock and a two-piece firing pin.

The next day I missed a shot on a smallish buck in some brush. I just figured the bullet deflected off the brush, and didn't give it much more thought. Later in the season, I had a doe standing 40 yards broadside from the stand. I fired two shots and missed her clean.
Upon investigation I found that the front sight on the Marlin was completely loose in the dovetail. Not just a little loose - loose enough that turning the gun on its side and shaking it caused the sight to move half an inch.
I peened the sight in place, but didn't have time to sight the rifle in again.

With the season winding down, I was forced to pull out my old 30-06. Season here closed on a Sunday night, by the Saturday before, I was starting to worry I wouldn't see another deer. It was raining pretty hard Saturday afternoon, but it let up a little with about an hour of light left in the day. I decided to go out back and see if anything was moving. I had a few people tell me I was crazy going out in the rain. I wasn't about to give up on my season though, and there wasn't much time left.
I got out to the stand, and less than half an hour later I had a big doe cross the trail about 40 or 50 yards out. I fired one shot through the center of the chest. She did the high kick, which is a good sign, but started to run. I didn't want to track in the rain, so fired a second shot into her neck and she piled up right there.

I was happy to get some meat in the freezer, but a little disappointed that my new gun didn't work out so well.

I decided to put a red dot on the 45-70 for next year. I bought a weaver rail and a red-dot sight that's supposed to be able to handle the recoil. I put some blue loc-tite in the threads on the gun and mounted the rail, put the scope on and put the gun away. A few days ago I was going to take it out and sight it in. The lever was froze up tight.
I didn't notice when I put the loc-tite in - the tapped holes on the receiver are through holes. I basically glued the bolt in place with the loc-tite. I hammered the bolt out with a wood dowel, and as long as I was scraping loc-tite off of everything, decided to slick up the action. After deburring everything it's silky smooth now.

I'm still a little worried that the gun has some kind of curse on it, but I have 11 months to get it to behave...
I guess the real lesson for me, is that I shouldn't have taken a brand new gun into the woods without ironing out the kinks in it first.

The new gun will be fine, it's not cursed, the Loctite did it's job,,,

Yes. It definitely locked tight.
I was worried I was going to break something when I hammered it out.

I just didn't expect the tapped holes to go through the receiver.

Originally Posted by HNSB

I decided to put a red dot on the 45-70 for next year. I bought a weaver rail and a red-dot sight that's supposed to be able to handle the recoil.

Check out how your red-dot shows up on snow. I have one on the shelf that worked great until it snowed, the dot disappeared. Also carry a spare battery and don't forget to turn it off!

With the American Longrifle I finally got built enough (not finished completely) to go to the woods this year. It's a TN style with 42" .54 cal swamped bbl. Late English (Nock) style lock, Double set, iron, running PRB's ever and always.

Still shooting a tad low and right at 50 but close enough for deer gathering. I'll tweak the sites when i get more load development done.

I strongly favor a muzzle loader that looks traditional.
I like your rifle.
Jody

Originally Posted by jjsrp

I strongly favor a muzzle loader that looks traditional.
I like your rifle.
Jody

Hey thanks. It's my first flintlock ever. I mucked around with replica cap-snappers back when, but once I shot a flint i was hooked. I plan to make a few more in smaller calibers. Have everything on-hand to make a 40 cal in the same style, 44" bbl, in curly ash instead of Maple. The one above is a beginner's approximation* of an 1820's-50's TN-made rifle.

Flintlocks are the SR's of muzzleloading

*gotta start somewhere.

No offense to those that do not see this my way, I am not trying to ridicule them.
To each his own....

But I just do not see the attraction to the modern-muzzle loader concept (that is - rifles that look like modern rifles, but are just muzzle loaders).

Originally Posted by jjsrp

No offense to those that do not see this my way, I am not trying to ridicule them.
To each his own....

But I just do not see the attraction to the modern-muzzle loader concept (that is - rifles that look like modern rifles, but are just muzzle loaders).

As far as I can tell, the "modern style ML" is completely a function of "special seasons" to increase their chances to get game animals or give the hunter more time in the woods/another gun to fiddle with.

I say that because i never hear of big inline/plastic gun meets and shooting events. I don't think they make kits or sell component parts for those type, so there is no "making of such" community either. (fix me if i'm wrong)

But the traditional sort (caplocks, flintlocks, underhammers, sideslappers, and the like) do have large communities of shooters and makers and those who dig deeper into the whole "living history" aspect. Shooting matches and events are all around.

Yes, to each his own, but I've always been more of a shooter, always hand-loaded. And after years of hunting realized that it is extremely rare for me to shoot game beyond the range of a simple lead ball. So i regressed ballistically, without giving up much of anything in game-collecting potential. and picked up some style points along the way.