Pennsylvania Game News - January 2010 - 60

roundball with lethal results, and meat was made the old fashioned way. Backstraps would sizzle on the grill back at the old board and batten cabin, and a smiling CMB would relive the hunt in fireside stories. Bill Nester and I have been hunting whitetails with flintlock rifles since the inception of the special season in 1974. Bill began his smoky pursuit with a T/C 45caliber Hawken; mine was a .50. With limited success hunting deer and other critters, experience pushed us to try other bore sizes and lengths of barrels. While Bill added a Green Mountain 50-caliber barrel and fiber optics to his original rig, I moved on to a 42-inch barreled Pennsylvania Longrifle in 45-caliber. Black powder shoots and competition helped us to improve and more flintlock rifles followed. The 45-caliber flintlock is a joy to carry and shoot. Lightweight 7/8-inch barrels are fed lighter charges of powder and smaller roundballs than in the .50. This results in guns that are easy to carry and quick to point on target. While the small, 127-grain pill of lead isn’t a giant in transferring energy, its accuracy makes up for its lack of brawn. As long as 50-yard shots are taken, not out to 100 or more yards, the gun quickly dispatches the average whitetail. Over the years, my 45-caliber flintlock longrifles have accounted for 11, including a 130-class 10-point. Nonetheless, I know that the smaller bore of the .45 is not a hammerin’ Hank. It’s not designed for shooting across large fields, nor can it produce the minimal 500 foot pounds of energy required for deer to 150 yards. Heck, most guys can’t even hit a pie plate offhand at 100 yards with open sights, let alone accurately take a deer at 150 yards. In my experience, those who use the .45 don’t make excuses; they just limit their shots at deer to under 50 yards, and they bring home the venison. Hunters who love flintlock deer season, long for the late season. The challenges of mastering a historical gun, the limitations of the ballistics, the nostalgia of this heritage hunting method, not to mention the always inspiring bad weather, create a “you gotta luv it” situation. It takes a gritty hunter to be up for this challenge. The warm and dry crowd hung up their gear months ago. Now is the time for fun. Part of the fun in any shooting sport is in the challenge of trying something new. Back in 1993 when I wrote the book, Black Powder Whitetails, I titled one of the chapters “How to choose that first muzzleloader and the next dozen!” for a reason. No hunter ever ends his or her career or reaches the happy hunting ground with the same bow or gun they started with. Do we ever really find the answer to the question: “Are bigger bores better?” America is in love with the 50-caliber. The half-inch bore seems to be the only choice on the shelves in many of the chain stores. Why? Perhaps the bullet industry is, in part, the reason. There are more offerings for muzzleloading bullets in the 50caliber than any other bore size. But there are other choices. If you are a primitive hunter and the patched roundball is your choice, consider the fact that the only way to increase your FLINTLOCK HUNTERS using patched roundballs need to remember that the only way to increase energy is to increase bore size. GAME NEWS

Pennsylvania Game News - January 2010

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pennsylvania Game News - January 2010