After another hunt with nothing to show besides a pleasant cold day in the woods, My Buddy the Gun Enthusiast hashed over the day drinking coffee in the sun. We planned for the next outing and hoped for more luck. MBtGE is already talking NEXT season, which is great. He said maybe we'll go out a bit earlier and shoot a muzzle-loading rifle before the modern rifle season starts. Or, he will take a bow and I will take his black powder rifle.
I hadn't considered that. And I was wondering why that didn't occur to me.
Oh, I knew of it, and how the season is earlier on. And that that is good as the deer are less skittish earlier but hideout when the boom-sticks are in high-dudgeon later on. They went over black powder in the Hunter Safety Course I took at the Isaak Walton League clubhouse. I just saw the gun, and dismissed it out of my head as a topic not to concern myself with. That it didn't really apply, or appeal, to me.
Part of it is, I am into shooting, but not to be a hunter, primarily. Notice, there is no black powder rifle on Master List. Not even considered.
I guess the hunting bug has bitten me yet. That might change if I get a deer, yes. If my purpose was to first and foremost GET a deer I'd be all over crossbows and black powder arms to maximize my chances.
Do I WANT to get a deer with the weapons I have? Certainly. But once I get one, if I get it with a shotgun, the next time I try to harvest a deer I'll drag my feet unless I can take the rifle out. I want to get better with the rifle, primarily, not have a freezer full of stew meat. The meat is just a happy consequence of the shooting.
If I don't get a deer this year, I will certainly TRY MBtGE muzzleloader. But I don't think I am ready to have a muzzleloader take up space in the gun cabinet. Of course I have dreams of maybe MAKING large parts of my own flintlock and using that. There are kits out there to help you do just that. A flintlock appeals to the romantic historian in me.
But next season we will try to scare up a rifle spot for hunting. If not, I will borrow the muzzleloader and try it. And we're both getting the hankering to get some land out in the boonies. A 50 acres spread. Maybe two next to each other.
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I was hiking Thursday, and nearly tripping over the deer...and this was mid-day, and I'm not stealthy. They must get together and vacation in the no-hunting woods all season.
Did it scare you? I hate it when a critter pops out of nowhere. Even a pheasant.
First one did, but then I got used to them. I actually could hear that sort of huffing-grunting after awhile, so I knew to look for them.
I didn't have my camera, and they were in a no-hunting park, so they were showing off, I know it.
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