PA Doe in the "late, late" season

[tddeangelo]

Flintlock season ended for most of Pennsylvania on Jan 20, 2020, but in the management area I'm in, we had until the following Saturday (Jan 25). That Thurs in the "extra innings" we get in this unit, I shot this doe.

5:20pm (about 15 min. before quitting time, which falls at 30 min past sunset), 105 yards off the shooting rail on the ladder stand I was in.

This was also my first flintlock harvest with a ball I cast myself, so that added a nice twist to it, as well. It's also my longest shot with a flintlock to date.

The ball went in where you see...a little lower than I intended, and she was quartering away, so the placement of the entrance produced an exit square through the leg on the far side (shattered the leg just above the elbow). From the holes in the hide, the soft lead ball didn't deform to an significant degree, as the holes were both perfectly round and of the same diameter.

She ran about 100 yards, but it was in the field she was feeding in when I shot her, so I saw her fold up.

This is deer #4 with that rifle since I got it in 2014.

[MuskratMike]

Well done and darn fine eating. What caliber and powder charge did you use? The "Muskrat" would like a little more about that fine rifle if you don't mind please.

[tddeangelo]

That rifle was a custom build for me by Allen Martin.

62-caliber Hoyt barrel, 1:56 twist, with a big beefy profile, but balanced perfectly.

My interest going into the build was the Jon Schreit rifle, a Reading (Berks County) area rifle. I told Allen what I wanted, we hashed out a few details, and he did the rest.

RE Davis Colonial lock on it, and a nice piece of maple that Allen did some carving on for me, as well as a patchbox.

I shoot a 0.600 ball, old blue ticking my father gave me that mike's out to 0.028 thickness (this stuff is likely older than I am, and I was born in 1975 for reference), and 120gr of 2F Goex. I didn't set out to shoot that charge...but that's where the rifle's sights hit spot on where I want. It hits about 2" high at 50, 1" low at 100. Patch is lubed with a bear fat/beeswax mixture I was given by a fellow ALR member.

[tddeangelo]

Just to add...the lighting and my iPhone did the stock's finish and appearance no favors in the deer pic I posted. The figure of the maple and finish of the stock are truly amazing...far more to it than that field picture shows.

[Sparkitoff]

Nicely done with a fine rifle. 

[sqrldog]

Good shooting be some fine eating. Enjoy the fruits of your harvest.

[Wingshot]

Good shooting! I’m in SW PA and I call deer like that “carry out specials”. It’s what I always go for. As far as pushing it to the wire on season and shooting light, we always say that if it wasn’t for the last minute, nothing would get done!

[scottmc]

Congrats TD!  I hunt 5D and saw plenty last week but just not within range for a shot.  Frustrating for sure.

[tddeangelo]

Good shooting! I’m in SW PA and I call deer like that “carry out specials”. It’s what I always go for. As far as pushing it to the wire on season and shooting light, we always say that if it wasn’t for the last minute, nothing would get done!

The picture doesn't really do her justice. She hung on my deer scale at 90lbs dressed weight, so over 100lbs live. Not a huge doe....I've shot plenty that were bigger, but she wasn't a little squirt, either.

I would guess she's a 1.5yr old doe.

As for the last minute, you aren't kiddin'.

I shot a real nice 11pt on the last day of rifle season.....4 minutes before quitting time!

I got the "full value" of my license fees this year!

[tddeangelo]

We have A LOT of deer, which may be part of it.

A mature doe will not go 160lbs dressed here.

The buck I shot in rifle season this year was almost surely a 3.5 yr old. I have to boil off the jaw and look closer at the teeth (on my to-do list), but I'd be shocked if he was younger than that, and I'd think it a stretch that he'd have been 4.5. There's no way he was 5.5.

He weighed 160 dressed, but our rifle season is immediately post-rut. That buck had nearly no body fat. I mean, NO fat. He was very, very lean.

[Darkhorse]

Just to add...the lighting and my iPhone did the stock's finish and appearance no favors in the deer pic I posted. The figure of the maple and finish of the stock are truly amazing...far more to it than that field picture shows.

He speaks the truth. I've seen better photo's of this rifle  and it is truly a work of art.

Nice shot on that last minute doe. It looks like the ball would have hit the heart on it's way through. BTW did you shoot her with a hand cast ball or a swaged ball?

[tddeangelo]

You know, I thought when I dressed her I'd find the heart with a hole in it, but it was untouched. I believe the ball passed just aft of the heart, since it was a quartering shot. Back end of the near lung, front end of the far lung, out. Really blutzed up the far leg....when I parted her out, the "armpit" between the front shoulder and ribs was really a mess....I'm gonna loose some meat there for sure.

The ball was cast from X-ray room sheeting I got from someone who'd scavenged it, ladle-poured in Lee mold.

[Bull Shannon]

Congrats on not only the doe but for the shot as well. Even when my eyes were young and hadn't been radiated, iron sights and hundred yard shots took patience and practice. I know the satisfaction when that bullet connects with the target and it all pays off.
120 grains is a pretty stout charge too! How is the recoil when you touch it off in that time rifle?

[OldMtnMan]

Nice job for a tasty doe with a great gun.

You guys sure do get to hunt late in the year. Our muzzleloader season is the second week in Sept for 9 days. It's almost always too hot. I'd rather your season.

[rich pierce]

Nice shot placement for that angle. Some folks think there’s a formula for anchoring a deer. Outside the central nervous system there is not. A well-hit deer can cover a hundred yards in a lot less than 10 seconds.

[OldMtnMan]

That's true Rich. Even when we turn the heart into mush. If there's blood in the muscles. They'll run.

[tddeangelo]

Congrats on not only the doe but for the shot as well. Even when my eyes were young and hadn't been radiated, iron sights and hundred yard shots took patience and practice. I know the satisfaction when that bullet connects with the target and it all pays off.
120 grains is a pretty stout charge too! How is the recoil when you touch it off in that time rifle?

It’s really not much.

The rifle is perfectly fit to me, which helps a lot. The buttplate is very broad, which helps some more. The barrel is a beefy early profile and 46” long. That helps, too.

All taken together, recoil is quite manageable.

That 16ga fowler I just got, when loaded with a round ball and 100gr of 2f, is far more of a handful (and hits harder on the shoulder) than this rifle.

[hanshi]

That was very good shooting on your part, so congratulations.  That is a beautiful rifle, too.  Many years ago I killed a couple of nice doe at around the same distance as your shot.  I was in a large hay field and neither ball appeared to have expended at all.  Shots were through and through but the wounds told the tale.  Neither ran any real distance and dropped as soon as they hit the cover at the field edge.  A .62 caliber will evermore flatten a deer.  You have good equipment and great shooting skills.

[StevenV]

Congrats TD, a deer in the late season with a flintlock is always a trophy. For me just something about flintlocks, family and snow. We've  seen plenty of deer this season , 12 different buck and plenty of doe. We hunt farm land, game lands and "up country" Susquehanna County. Last year daughter got 2, son 1 and other son 1. This year only one , my son, should've been more and it wasn't the guns they worked flawlessly. Congrats again and great shot !!!! Steve

[tddeangelo]

Thanks for the kind words, hanshi!

Congrats TD, a deer in the late season with a flintlock is always a trophy. For me just something about flintlocks, family and snow. We've  seen plenty of deer this season , 12 different buck and plenty of doe. We hunt farm land, game lands and "up country" Susquehanna County. Last year daughter got 2, son 1 and other son 1. This year only one , my son, should've been more and it wasn't the guns they worked flawlessly. Congrats again and great shot !!!! Steve

I'm down in Berks, but I was up in 2G for the opening few days at a camp at the invitation of a friend. Sure was cool to get out in the mountains.

I was sitting in the cabin one evening and looked up at the rack full of long guns and just....smiled. It's pretty cool.

[Wingshot]

Nice job for a tasty doe with a great gun.

You guys sure do get to hunt late in the year. Our muzzleloader season is the second week in Sept for 9 days. It's almost always too hot. I'd rather your season.

One of alluring aspects of our PA flintlock season has been the time of year. Hunting that late in a more “normal” winter landscape can be surreal. Eerie in a Jeremiah Johnson in the Indian burial grounds eerie if you know what I mean. Jumping bedded deer in deep snow is an experience many modern gun hunters don’t get to experience in this part of the world.

[OldMtnMan]

I agree that snow and hunting go together and it seems so right. It's pretty rare to get snow in Colorado for muzzleloader season. Even at 11,500ft. I do hunt the later rifle seasons sometimes with a muzzleloader and I enjoy it. I just don't enjoy all the rifle hunters and they think i'm nuts for using a primitive gun. Oh well.

[tddeangelo]

We are unique in the timing of our season, for sure. And I am a big fan of it.

There is an early doe-only season in October that also permits any muzzleloader, not just flintlocks.

There’s some occasional grumbling about the late season being limited to flintlocks, but most hunters have no ambition to be out by the end of our two week rifle season, let alone go back out a few weeks later after Christmas when flintlock season is open. 

[John SMOthermon]

Congrats on some fine eats and a nice rifle