Just returned from my Annual Last Week of PA Flintlock Season Hunt.
Hunted Sullivan County Wyoming & Tiadaghton State Forests. Hunted Tuesday (PM), Wednesday, Thursday (Bagged deer late PM), Friday (drug Deer out) & Saturday returned home. 4 days in woods and saw NO Hunters...either in woods or where parked. Hunted fairly deep approx 1-2 miles from truck least what GPS said anyway. :grin:
Saw 5 deer Tuesday including 2 button bucks & one nice rack buck in thick scrub oak not offering shot I was comfortable with. Wednesday had alot of rain startin about 11 am. Had a clear shot at a big doe but misfire due to dampness. Saw 6 other deer not offering clear shot. Thursday weather was beautiful! Saw 2 buttonbucks(AM). Both were very small deer and obvious bb's and 3 other deer (tails sighted only). Also saw 3 turkeys (AM).
Thursday about 4:45 PM I was watching a ledge(already planning Fridays hunt in my mind :grin
and below me & a large deer appeared out of nowhere. I looked thru binos & saw it was a decent size doe. Looked like a long shot but I did have a clear view for placing a shot. I raised my TC Hunter Flintlock & steadied on my knees & squeezed off. Seemed like the whole mountain lit up! Through all the goex smoke I saw deer reel and sorta tumble & regain to bolt to the right. It was just starting to get dark so I only waited a few minutes & headed down the ridge to ledge. I was where some leafs where scuffed-up in area of shot but no blood or hair. By now I had my flashlite out. I followed leaf scuff kick-up's & then I saw some brite lung blood!!!
Thats the good news! I put a surveyors ribbon where i first saw blood and every other place where last blood found. Trailed blood for about 50 yards & trailed headed to large reveen and straight down a severe clifflike side of the mountain. Worst place possible for a deer to go...but this one did. I trailed blood down over steep side of mountain for about another 100 yards to creek bottom & deer was laying on edge of creek dead.
It was now pitch dark so i gutted deer under dim light flashlite and marked location with ribbon & decided to head back to truck & come back in morning to get deer out. I was approx 1.5 miles from truck. My concern was that yotes or bear may find deer before me but had no other choice. I did garbage bag-up gutts and disposed of far from deer. Its the type of steep mountain thats its tuff gettin up yourself (w/o a deer) so I knew Friday would be a day to test what ole Loggy has left. :grin:
Next morning (Friday) I was there at daybreak. Deer was fine. Took my deer cart back to top of steep raveen to use after I got deer up out of the reveen. It took me 2 hours to get deer out of reveen (a few feet of pulling at a time) and another 2 hours back to truck. No need for a stress test this year! :grin:
Shot was approx 105 yards (Loggy paced :grin: & my longest Flinter shot so far). Gun & Load was TC PAHunter Flintlock, new drop-in 28" 1-28 Green Mountain Barrel, 100 grains 3fg Goex pushing a Hornady .452 300 Grain HP/XTP w/Short Black MMP Sabot. Hit was on the low side of chest & did break frt leg & complete lung pass through. About 4 inches higher deer likely would of dropped. Tremendous expansion on exit.
This as every other flintlock taken deer always gives me so much thrill & enjoyment as other flinters can certainly agree with. A great final week in PA's Late Flintlock Season for the Memory Book!
DEER, CART & PA HUNTER FLINTLOCK(Taken at Camp)
ME & DEER
Hornady .452 HP/XTP Exit ( low hit-3" above breastbone)
Hunted Sullivan County Wyoming & Tiadaghton State Forests. Hunted Tuesday (PM), Wednesday, Thursday (Bagged deer late PM), Friday (drug Deer out) & Saturday returned home. 4 days in woods and saw NO Hunters...either in woods or where parked. Hunted fairly deep approx 1-2 miles from truck least what GPS said anyway. :grin:
Saw 5 deer Tuesday including 2 button bucks & one nice rack buck in thick scrub oak not offering shot I was comfortable with. Wednesday had alot of rain startin about 11 am. Had a clear shot at a big doe but misfire due to dampness. Saw 6 other deer not offering clear shot. Thursday weather was beautiful! Saw 2 buttonbucks(AM). Both were very small deer and obvious bb's and 3 other deer (tails sighted only). Also saw 3 turkeys (AM).
Thursday about 4:45 PM I was watching a ledge(already planning Fridays hunt in my mind :grin
and below me & a large deer appeared out of nowhere. I looked thru binos & saw it was a decent size doe. Looked like a long shot but I did have a clear view for placing a shot. I raised my TC Hunter Flintlock & steadied on my knees & squeezed off. Seemed like the whole mountain lit up! Through all the goex smoke I saw deer reel and sorta tumble & regain to bolt to the right. It was just starting to get dark so I only waited a few minutes & headed down the ridge to ledge. I was where some leafs where scuffed-up in area of shot but no blood or hair. By now I had my flashlite out. I followed leaf scuff kick-up's & then I saw some brite lung blood!!!Thats the good news! I put a surveyors ribbon where i first saw blood and every other place where last blood found. Trailed blood for about 50 yards & trailed headed to large reveen and straight down a severe clifflike side of the mountain. Worst place possible for a deer to go...but this one did. I trailed blood down over steep side of mountain for about another 100 yards to creek bottom & deer was laying on edge of creek dead.
It was now pitch dark so i gutted deer under dim light flashlite and marked location with ribbon & decided to head back to truck & come back in morning to get deer out. I was approx 1.5 miles from truck. My concern was that yotes or bear may find deer before me but had no other choice. I did garbage bag-up gutts and disposed of far from deer. Its the type of steep mountain thats its tuff gettin up yourself (w/o a deer) so I knew Friday would be a day to test what ole Loggy has left. :grin:
Next morning (Friday) I was there at daybreak. Deer was fine. Took my deer cart back to top of steep raveen to use after I got deer up out of the reveen. It took me 2 hours to get deer out of reveen (a few feet of pulling at a time) and another 2 hours back to truck. No need for a stress test this year! :grin:
Shot was approx 105 yards (Loggy paced :grin: & my longest Flinter shot so far). Gun & Load was TC PAHunter Flintlock, new drop-in 28" 1-28 Green Mountain Barrel, 100 grains 3fg Goex pushing a Hornady .452 300 Grain HP/XTP w/Short Black MMP Sabot. Hit was on the low side of chest & did break frt leg & complete lung pass through. About 4 inches higher deer likely would of dropped. Tremendous expansion on exit.
This as every other flintlock taken deer always gives me so much thrill & enjoyment as other flinters can certainly agree with. A great final week in PA's Late Flintlock Season for the Memory Book!
DEER, CART & PA HUNTER FLINTLOCK(Taken at Camp)
ME & DEER
Hornady .452 HP/XTP Exit ( low hit-3" above breastbone)
