Vintage Hunting

[Rowdy Fulcher]

Howdy Pards
Do you enjoy Hunting with classic weapons and like to use Black Powder loads .
Is there a place in NCOWS for this . Turkey season will open in about a month , How many people are planning on Hunting .
Now Do we have any Coyote Hunters  out there ? How many can say they shot a coyote with a 76 winchester or a trapdoor carbine or a 1873 Winchester . Do we have anyone who has taken a Buffalo with a Sharps ? Do we have any Vintage Hunters out there ?

[Cuts Crooked]

Love huntin' wif my old fashioned gunz! Here's a pic of last years turkey taken wif my sawed off 97 "Norchester".  I've been tryin' to werk up a load fer SxS but it's chambered fer 2" shells and I cain't git enuff shot in em ta give good pattern at 20yds. Gonna use my frontstuffer instead...2oz of #4 over 70 grains of 2F gives me a pattern that's jist AWESOME!!! (kicks like the wrath of God, but ...what a pattern! )

[Tjackstephens]

Rowdy, I've taken a deer with my 44/40 Marlin rifle, one also with a Remington cap and ball revolver 44 cal. 500 plus pound bear with my 35 Rem. Marlin lever(that may not be vintage) my dogs had him treed and he was a mean one. Felt a little like Ben Lilly. It was fun hunting with those weapons. The animals didn't know if it was a 44/40 or 30/06 same results, meat for the table. In case you don't know, a young bear is very good eating. The 500 plus pounder, pretty tough. Had to be tenderrized and used in stew and chopped Bar B-Q. TJ

[bear tooth billy]

I shot a 1800 lb buffalo with a Sharps 45/90 and last Nov. a 1600 lb buff with a 50/90, both with
real black powder and my cast bullets

                 BTB

[Montana Slim]

Interesting reading....I'll add a few of mine:

Been two or three years ago, but i used my 20" Hammered coach gun out after pheasants. I managed to get two birds that afternoon. One was real close and I hammered him. The other got out a long ways...I took a poke and was as surprised as he (i'm sure) when he dropped. Black powder #4's in paper hulls that day.

As a youth, I borrowed my Dad's old guns....pretty comical as I learned to hunt with his ol' hammer SxS guns. It took a (long)while before I learned to squeeze the correct trigger to match the barrel I had cocked. Also as a youngster, used a .44 C&B to successfully hunt small game like rabbit, squirrel and groundhogs.

I've also dispatched a number of other critters at the family farm. I've found the .44 WCF cartridge to be far more effective than modern roounds such as .45 ACP and .357 Mag.

Always dreamed of hunting bear with a dragoon revolver and trusty knife. But if I ever get the opportunity, I'll likely opt for a larger weapon (but I have the Dragoon and knife put away, just in case).

Keep em' comin'

Regards,
Slim

[Trap]

   Have shot 5 Buffalo and a Couple of deer with .54 flintlock. Also a buffalo with 45/70 sharps.

[Ol Gabe]

Great topic!
Way back when, I used to go hunting with my Navy Arms kit-made 12 ga SxS and over the years harvested many rabbits, pheasants, ducks, geese, quail and woodcock. Woodcock in a swamp with a m/l, now that is some tough hunting! Everybody said I was just lucky because I 'camo-ed' the barrels, I used Birchwood-Casey's Plum Brown, ooooh, it was purty and did look like a brown branch!
Used a Curly Gostomski (sp?) Flintlock Trade Gun, CVA kit-made Caplock or a Pennsylvania Flintlock I traded for on deer. Had a chance to get an original 50 cal. Hawken style m/l made in the late 1800's from a friend and used it for coyote, they rolled over before the sound got to them!
Got hooked on 'stick & string' primitive archery and hunted with a 50 lb. snakeskin-clad bow for several years, even made my own flu-flu's for small game and suchlike, dumping pheasant and quail with a bow is a real hoot!
Hope to harvest a turkey sometime with BP, wiley critters they are, they keep just out of range, and I'm gettin' to old to chase them.
Best regards and good shooting!
'Ol Gabe

[Rowdy Fulcher]

Good Morning Everyone
I am glad to see there are lots of Vintage Hunters out there . I have been hunting the last 17 years with lever action rifles .
I have taken several deer , a few coyotes with the lever guns . I have been turkey hunting with hammered shotgun and black powder shells for the last 3 years . In the beginning we had to develop a load which was very interesting . But three years later we are still tweking our load . Now spring Turkey season is only a month away and I am ready to hunt . I hope that everyone has a SAFE
and productive season . Don't forget to take pictures and tell a little hunting story that way we can all share in your adventure .

[Ol Gabe]

Well, as long as you asked for stories, here are a few of my favorites...
I was hunting deer with the 50 m/l, it was a bitter cold Iowa Winter day, fierce winds but sunny. I was snuggled back into a brushpile at the top of an abandoned road long sunken into a hill down by the Wapsie River. I was using a stick to beat on the brush to make it sound like two Bucks bashing heads when something caught my eye, I turned slowly and up the sunken road came 10 big Turkeys. They made the top of the hill not seeing me, turned back, gobbled and then proceeded to strut past me into the picked corn, they were only 10 feet away as they went past. I could hardly contain myself, but then I looked back and up the sunken road came the rest of them... 5, now 10, 8 more, ten more...OK you get the picture. After counting to 85 I figured I needed to get a license or a big net the next Spring!
Never did get one in range that Spring but the next Winter season I took the bow and set under a huge tree down in a gully, the branches were 'thick' and holding snow from the overnight storm. Every so often some snow would drop on me, there was no wind, so I stood up to see what was running through the branches thinking it was a Squirrel. You guessed it, the tree was full of roosting Turkey, all covered in snow from the overnight storm they looked like thick branches! As they were waking and getting ready to move they would shake off the snow. I was in Heaven I thought, so many easy targets. As I drew back the bow they all decided to leave and it was like I was caught in a white-out snow flurry, it was comical as I never got a shot.
The next Spring season had my Pard and I both bowhunting turkey with decoys and homemade calls just for the fun of it. We had setup on a grassy slope facing East with the decoy in the sunshine. My Pard says "Is that an Eagle?" I looked up and here it came diving down and grabbing the decoy. It lifted back up into the air, shook the decoy and dropped it from it's claws. The decoy landed halfway down the hill. We laughed. Soon two other hunters passed by, after telling them the story they showed us their decoy and said the same thing had happened to them an hour earlier, HAH!
Best regards and never think that Mother Nature won't play a joke on you!
'Ol Gabe

[Rowdy Fulcher]

Gabe
Great stories I can see that eagle grabbing the decoy , he was thinking turkey dinner .
What weapon are you planning to use this Spring to Turkey Hunt with .

[Ol Gabe]

Rowdy,
Setting here with bad knees I'm hoping to get a 'Stand' under the same tree and putt-putt them into range so I can take one with the bow. Of course weather and work will determine if that really happens, sigh. Retirement is a few years away, but then look out Mother Nature, I'm goin' in with the 'Bucket List'!
Best regards and never say you can't, it just may take a little bit longer but the memories and style points will still rule!
'Ol Gabe
P.S. I'm envious of Trap and B.T.B. and the Buff they took, someday maybe...   

[Ottawa Creek Bill]

I've taken a couple of Elk, Deer, Turkey with a .62 cal. English flintlock trade gun I built about ten years ago. Hope to take an Elk with it in Kentucky this fall.......if I'm drawn.

Bill

[HorsePen Henry]

I have taken all kinds of waterfowl and upland birds as well as small game with a flintlock trade gun. Taken deer with Hawken rifle as well as Sharps 45-90. They all tasted great. Couldn't tell the difference between the Hawken kill and the Sharps kill.
The stuff I took with the Northwest gun tasted best though.
Horse Pen

[Rowdy Fulcher]

Howdy
Ole Gabe if you get the chance to use a pop up blind that might be the ticket for you .
OCB ,Best of luck getting drawn for the Elk Hunt , I hope I get drawn myself .
Yesterday , I grabbed my double barreled shotgun and put out some clay birds at 50 steps I was able to break them at 50 steps  I was tickled to death to see the pattern was still tight enough to hit a small bird . And there was lots of SMOKE .
I hope everyone who kills a turkey will send a picture to the Shootist .Maybe there will be enough intrest to have a Vintage Hunting section in the Magazine ??

[Steel Horse Bailey]

I guess I'm the beginner here.

I went deer hunting this past deer season for the first time.  Due to the EXTREME cold, and the fact that I don't have period clothing for the cold, I was in modern get-up.  HOWEVER, I did have my Win. '66 loaded up with a 250 gr. bullet pushed by nearly 38 grs. of Goex FFFg.

By the way, all I saw was a dog.  OH - and another fellow's deer while he was gettin' it ready for the freezer.


I plan to try again this coming season.

[Ottawa Creek Bill]

This morning I killed one of the first black ants of the spring with my primitive wooden spoon....does that count? Now I've got to find me a taxidermist that would want to handle this monster 

Bill

[River City John]

Bill,
all this talk of huntin'!
I went to the butchers and with my vintage Visa snagged me a buffalo roast this morning.

It's boiling on the stove in the BIG pot along with onions, carrots and taters.

[Ottawa Creek Bill]

Bill,
all this talk of huntin'!
I went to the butchers and with my vintage Visa snagged me a buffalo roast this morning.

It's boiling on the stove in the BIG pot along with onions, carrots and taters.

John.......

I was gonna cook this one up but I didn't have a pot big enough

Bill

[Dirty Brass]

I'm pretty much in the same boat as SHB - Carried my 76' in 45/60 around for a couple of days this past season, but never saw anything bigger than a grey squirrel. Unless you count the 10 turkeys that flew out of the maples and oaks early one morning on the way into the woods  I did let lead fly at one of te squirrels tho - pret-near turned him (I think it was a him) inside out with the 300 gr. bullet quartering away. Didn't register it though - no horns, and all the rest of the identifying parts were gone 

Congrats to all you taht have been successful - hope to join your ranks next season with my newly shortened 45/75!

[Tjackstephens]

Bill, was that a buck or doe? You could be in trouble with fish and game. Of course you could plead self defense. It could have been attacking you. At any rate, do hope you can get away with it. Might ought to wait and not get it mounted, they might report you. TJ