A Christmas Day bonus was in store for me this morning as I left the house at at 6:30 am to hit the tree stand. Temps were about zero here in north Iowa and the wind was brisk out of the northwest bringing the windchill down to -13. This kind of weather makes a hunt a lesson in survival. Dressed properly for the 1/2 mile walk in with an inch of snow on the ground was noisy, for those of you that know winter hunting, i am talking squeaky snow. Not the kind of approach that one would like to start a morning hunt with but, one I had no choice and couldn't change. Once at the stand I dressed for sitting and put on heavy wool bibs coat, climbed into the stand and prepared for the dawn. Legal shooting light came at 7:15 and my anticipation was high as my wife had killed a booner sized doe from this hilltop 5 days earlier with her gp-100. I had hunted here 4 days prior and and seen 11 deer but a comedy of errors of trying to film and shoot saved the deer's life. today any legal deer was in serious trouble if in range as i had already made up my mind that if it was brown it was down. sitting quietly in my stand I had it all figured out and the deer would be coming from over the hill or around the hill directly in front of me. Then when the deer forgot to read the script, they came in directly downwind on the edge of the field. The Field edge is 25 yards away and within my effective range of the given handgun. Most of you would be saying "drop shot" at this point but not for me with this pistol. I was hunting with a percussion great plains .54 caliber muzzleloader. Read "old school", this gun is very accurate with groups of 1 1/4" at 25 yards and 2 3/4" groups at fifty yards very common. Those groups were shot in the fall when it wasn't -13. the deer getting downwind decided to start out into the field to get away from the stinky hunter that couldn't be seen,thus putting even more distance between me and them. After what seemed like an eternity, the lead doe stopped after stepping from behind the trees hiding her vitals and the Lyman barked in the frigid cold. The doe mule kicked and spun to run in the direction that she had come and in doing so it looked like i could see a blood spot on her opposite side. She and her partner ran from sight dropping over a terrace and into the bottom of a bean field. When the deer reached the bottom where i could see them again there was only one. I waited for about 5 minutes and then went to find my prize. Pacing off the shot was 33 yards from tree to impact. I was surprised when I didn't find any blood within 20 yards of where she was hit, however when i topped the terrace, i found that a blood trail was not necessary,as she had died with in 50 yards of the hit sight at the bottom of the hill. I believe that any deer is a trophy and doing it old school makes it even sweeter. I couldn't figure out how to post the pictures (computer illiterate) but will see if my daughter can help me post them.

Congratulations! Nice story.

My computer literate son in law fixed me up to get the photo

That?s a sweet pistol.

Congrats. I agree, cool pistol.

Great story, great pistol, and a great hunt all around. Congrats, and Merry Christmas.

Very cool! Congrats and good shoot'n

Thank you all, Merry Christmas

Congratulations!!

That is some old school BP shootin'. Congrat's and thanks for sharing.

Congrats and good looking gun.

OLD, OLD SCHOOL FOR SURE, CONGRATS.

Thanks for sharing you're hunt. Congratulations on a fine harvest!!

Now that's got to give you some well-earned self admiration.

I tip my hat to you, sir ...

Grats!!

Good shooting and nice Great plains pistol in a proper caliber. Round ball or bullet?

vary nice

That's awesome. Congrats.

PsTaN- .535 round ball patched with .010 linnen pushed by 50 grains goex FFFg

Very cool! Congrats!

A super trophy with your old school handgun. Congratulations.

Ball should be about the size of a nickle and stopped under the skin on the off side. Yes they are all trophy's. Especially done with a muzzle loading pistol!!!!!! Nicely Done!!!!!!!!!

Nice looking pistol -- well done!

Good for you Dave.....

Great looking Pistol and I am well pleased with your shooting and harvest. WTG Dave !

Love the BP pistol! Congratulations!

Outstanding! I love hunting with smoke sticks!

it has taken a long time regress to this level. I really like to be successful so it was not easy to take only one handgun to the stand. i have killed over 25 deer and a couple bear with modern pistols 6-7 with a cva optima inline .50 cal pistol but this commitment was tough to stick with

Kudos to you for hanging in there and staying the course! Those Great Plains pistols hang in the hand nice.

I know what you mean. I've been hunting all season with my new TC Patriot, trying to christen it. I've seen several deer, just haven't had them where I want them with the Patriot. Could've limited out already with any modern handgun.

Kim- I have seen your videos of your handgun hunting exploits- the TC Scout had to be pretty cool along with the old army. What caliber is your Patriot? had a friend who had one in .45 and it was a tack driver. this old school pistol thing ain't easy mentally. physically the same, maybe just a shortening of range,but staying the course like junebug said is the hard part.

You and Junebug are correct.
Mine is .45 cal as well as a tack driver. I was getting 2.5-3" groups at 50 yards using a patched ball and 35gr of 777. I'm just not real convinced that 127gr ball has what it takes at 50, so I'm limiting myself to 40 yards. After I Kill one, I'll make my decision base on ball performance. I've been taking along my Scout as a backup plan, but haven't brought myself to use it yet - I've had plenty opportunities with it. I may go ahead and smoke one with it tomorrow if the chance arises. My vacation is coming to an end and I haven't got one yet.

Kim that 35 gr load is not pushing that light ball very fast and you are right to limit it to 40 and in[preferably in side 20]The round ball is a very inefficient projectile at best[as you well know].Have taken several deer from 80 yards in with my .40 flintlock rifle with a stiff 80 gr charge of 3fff and you do not get two holes and slim blood trails.Bullet gets to dime size and stops in the hide on the off side. Similar results with a .54 round ball not always two holes and stops under the hide on the off side.You have to be very disciplined with a round ball M Z pistol to wait for that perfect shot, and place it precisely.
Good luck,Aim Straight, And May the Angles not Piss in Your Pan!

For those who don't know its and old well wish for luck and dry priming when you NEED it.

That challenge makes your success that much sweeter,WTG!

Junebug,

You are speaking from behind a grey beard! The 40 yard limitation is for the "Perfect" situation, but I've been leaning more on the 25 yard and in. I've had a few 30-40 yard shots presented, but I didn't feel comfortable with the whole situation, so I passed.
I've kill quite a few whitetail with smoke poles and a few with smoke sticks, but not using patch'n ball. My first round ball kill was a Ram with the Old Army. It was shoot'n the same 35gr load of 777, but with a .457 ball - not .440 ball. The difference is about 30 gr weight - which everyone knows, makes a difference with penetration. The Ram was shot at 20 and then 30 yards, both with full penetration through one shoulder; which surprised me. That hunt gave me a little more confidence in the round ball performance, but it's still not a bullet.
I tried some mini-balls and 220 gr bullets in the Patriot, but the twist rate is way too slow and wouldn't stabilize the bullets. I'll experiment more during the off season, but for now I'll stick with the extremely accurate balls (The Patriot was actually designed as a competition target pistol, not a hunting pistol). I'm determined to kill a deer with it, just gotta' get that shot I'm looking for.

Dave,
Sorry for the highjack!

no worries, i am learning as you guys are discussing- I appreciate the knowledge

Great story, cool photo and pistol! Congrats!