muzzle loader fail: aiming

[mosseater]

First, the situation, then the question.

My cousin and I hit one of the local SGL's yesterday. Spent all day slowly stalking. This is the one below Bermudian Springs HS at the corner of Lake Meade Rd. and Rt. 94 (don't recall the #). The habitat is astounding down there! Strips of corn broken up by pine, cedar and hardwood stands, several ponds, marshes, thick low briar cover, all at differing angles and intersections. Really great place to get lost for a day.

We were slowly pushing down a cornfield, he on the other side of the cedar thicket on the lower side of the picked field, and me on the upper side about 100 yds away. I was picking my way along the edge of a thick stand of pines where it meets the open field, hidden in the early afternoon shadow cast by the 50' trees to my right. Out 75 yds ahead, a buck walked out of the pines and started down the field toward my cousin's side. He had no clue I was there. I could see his antlers clearly, and as I put the binocs up, I determined he had two forks on each side of his 12" high "rack", but I could not for the life of me put brow tines on him, so onward he walked. I couldn't see my cousin through the thick cover to my left, but when the buck reached the other side of the corn field, he was obviously startled by something, so I figured my cousin was near that point, slightly forward of my position.

The buck started to trot on down the field and another buck, unseen until that time, who was already on that side joined him. That buck had only one antler, which was obviously bigger than the first buck, and together they ran down to the end of the field and angled off to the right, disappearing into thick cover. I figured that was the end of that, and stood motionless scanning the last row of the cornfield and cover beyond. Although I was happy to have seen a buck in late season, and to know if he'd had brow tines I would have had a beautiful opportunity to take him. Still, it's a bummer to see the opportunity run away after hunting so hard for so long.

When I had reached the end of the cornfield, I stood in the open wondering where my cousin was and guessing where he might come out. I was just about to start down to him when the same two bucks came bounding up from where they had disappeared, angling toward me and to my right. Only this time, there were three more bucks in tow! Five bucks total, in late season, right before my very eyes!!!

I instinctively cocked the hammer and raised the rifle, knowing I would have mere seconds to decide which were legal and which were not. They passed by me in a line at a fast, bounding trot, not quite a full-out run. At about 40 yards distant, there was open picked corn with one lone unpicked scraggly row left standing, and beyond, a strip of low cover picked early in the season, where the deer were running, with a patch of heavy briar behind. If one were setting up a video game scenario, it couldn't have been any better.

I had already ruled out the first two since I had identified them earlier. The third one in line had three 5" points on my side and seemed to be the biggest rack, so I keyed on him since he was clearly legal. I distinctly recall a good sight alignment, front dot buried deep into and centered in the buckhorn of the rear sight. Everything felt good as I began squeezing the trigger. The dot settled on the very front edge of his brisket as the smoke flew. The ignition was fast, but not primer-and-firing-pin fast. And therein lies the question...

The buck I was shooting at suddenly went into high gear. Not quite a stumble, but clearly effected by the shot in some way that the others were not, and his pace quickened to "scalded cat" speed. So, I thought I had made a clean shot. I watched in dismay as they finished their run up through the end of the open field 200+ yards away, and vanished into the pines, antlers gleaming in the midday sun. No stumbling, falling, veering...nothing. We looked for blood and hair and tracked them for over an hour to the point where we saw them evaporate.

Nothing! The tracks melded in with many others and the trail was lost. No sign of a hit, mortal or otherwise.

I have replayed the event in my head many times since yesterday and the same question comes up every time: How far to lead a running deer with a muzzle loader?

Given that the average hunter doesn't get a huge number of these shots in total, it becomes clear that practicing them is a matter of on the job training. I feel I did as right as I could overall, but wonder if I shot in front of the deer. That, or I stopped on my swing through when I touched off the shot. This seems the more likely of the two scenarios to me. I figured, in those 5 frantic seconds, that putting the dot right on the boiler room with the slow ignition time of a muzzle loader, would guarantee a hit in the guts or a total miss, so I move the aiming point as far forward as I could get and still cover meat inside the silhouette of the animal.

Of course, since then, I also wondered why I didn't scream "STOP!" to try and get them to do just that. Had nothing to lose at that point, but it's hard to remember that when concentrating on the shot at hand. Your thoughts and analysis, please.

[hunterdan]

If you had the sights dead on him as he was moving, you more than likely shot behind him. Given how long it takes to touch off a flintlock, you probably needed a good amount of lead on him. My bet is you shot behind him and or slightly grazed him.

[jerkin]

At 40 yards I wouldn't have led him at all, sight on the front shoulder, squeeze and keep the smokepole moving.

[Lycanthrope]

If you kept swinging, no lead at all at that distance and at his "trot".

If they hunker down and go low and fast, that can often mean a hit. I'd go looking for him again.


Lycanworthatrythrope

[arjohnson]

If you kept swinging, no lead at all at that distance and at his "trot".

If they hunker down and go low and fast, that can often mean a hit. I'd go looking for him again.


Lycanworthatrythrope

Yep, I would have kept looking.

Here's one of my muzzle loader stories. I took a shot at a big doe at about 50yds, quartering to me. After the smoke cleared I saw her go low and bolt up the hill, I said to myself" I know I made a good shot". So I head over to look for blood and found none. There was also snow on the ground and I've shot enough deer to know it was hit.

So I start following the tracks in the snow, still no blood. I tracked her for about 150-200yds and did not find one spec of blood, even with snow on the ground. I look ahead just a bit more and there she is, dead as a doornail. I follow her tracks and still no blood, now I'm thinking maybe this isn't the deer.

I get to her and yep, it's the one I shot, considering all this took about 30 minutes from the shot to when I found her she was plenty warm like she was just shot. Weird part still no blood. I roll her over and as I do this I spun her around so she was facing downhill and the blood starting pouring out of the entrance hole. Shot was a little high just in front of the shoulder. In all my years of hunting and as many deer as I shot I have never had one not leave blood like this.

So I would get back out there and at least look around some more in the area of where he ran.



I

[mosseater]

I plan on going down again tomorrow (Fri.) so I will definitely be looking in the general area again. I have a pretty strong sense that this game lands is home territory to these deer. Unlike the entire previous portion of my season, it would seem to make sense to hunt where the deer are. Hopefully, I'll come up with something. I mapped it out and we sneaked from sunrise to sunset and covered over three miles in a giant loop. We didn't begin to cover half of it, so plenty of work to do.

[God's Country]

IMO you should lead the deer, but with a flintlock that would require a lot of practice. As you pointed out the best course would been to get the deer to stop. It's tough to think on your feet sometimes.

[mosseater]

We went back to the scene of the crime yesterday and retraced my steps. Obviously, finding hair or blood several days after wasn't going to happen, but did manage to follow the same trail to where I saw them disappear. We took several different routes and circled the area twice, expanding farther out. Found no white bellies or circling buzzards, so 99% sure it was a miss or non-lethal. Can only do so much. I might go back down next week. That place is amazing in how it's layed out and the amount of cover. Very hard to get through. If you like travelling light, killing deer on your hands and knees with a pistol, this is the place. You'll need a canvas suit, though.