1st blood with new rifle

Jake

Bandera, Texas
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A few months back I found a gem on consignment in a local gun shop and picked it up for a fraction of its value. It's a .54 cal mountain rifle custom built by Chris Hirsch who once presented a Kentucky rifle to Ronald Reagan. It has proven to be a phenomenal roundball shooter with it's 38" Douglas XX barrel. This season I've been way too busy for daytime hunting but finally got tired of hog backstraps and took this spike today. He just joined us at the dinner table and tasted amazing, even for a family typically spoiled with axis.20161205_154026.jpgrifle 001.JPG
 

theblakester

Got a black belt in keeping it real.
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Nice congrats! "Even for a family typically spoiled with axis" lol
 

Ratdog68

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Beeeeeautiful Smoke-Pole !!! Shooting the holy black is some of my favorite shooting. Very relaxing, all the time between trigger squeezes... doing all the little routines.
 

RattlesnakeDan

San Antonio Texas
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Beautiful gun. How far? What's the story? Love a muzzleloader hunt!
 

JPK

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Very cool. A round ball is an underrated killer, especially in 54. Did you recover the ball? If so, was it flattened like a silver dollar?

JPK
 

Jake

Bandera, Texas
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Beautiful gun. How far? What's the story? Love a muzzleloader hunt!

Thanks everybody!

Dan I would love to give you an epic story of a hunt with man and muzzleloader vs beast but truth is I can't. I've been watching this spike come in and bully the other deer at the feeder by my house. With the nasty weather I was stuck indoors watching my two youngest girls 2 and 3. Like I said I just haven't had time for daytime hunts and I finally said enough! Time to break in the new rifle. The girls were super excited so I stood them up on the window sill to watch and snuck outside onto my front porch. I leaned the .54 up on my porch post, took a fine bead, and settled the front sight in on the base of the spikes neck at 65 yards. I heard the hit and saw him kick as the smoke cleared. The kiddos were giggling away behind me. I took them down and they got a great blood trail lesson, following it to the spike about 20 yards down the trail. I had hit him a little lower than planned but the ball tore through the front of the chest and shattered the opposite leg on the way out. I do mean shattered, the humerus was cracked in multiple spots 4" either side of the hole.

Jp, I didn't recover it as it kept on trucking but the ones I have recovered were flat faced but didn't flatten completely. I've switched from Speer to Hornady balls because they seem to be a lot softer and I think they'll flatten better. I'm stoked that the girls got to be a part of the whole process- shooting, cleaning, cooking, and eating. They loved every minute.
 

RattlesnakeDan

San Antonio Texas
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That was a better story than I expected! Good job with the girls involved!
 

Ratdog68

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Excellent tale!! How great is it, being able to bag a buck from the porch with the kiddos' noses pressed against a window?!
 

JPK

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Great story with your girls.

I had a farmer bud whose favorite deer stand was his kitchen. There was a fence that separated farmhouse yard from fields about 70yds away. We would be drinking morning coffee and when he saw his target he'd open the top of the Dutch kitchen door to shoot. (A Dutch door, as I am describing it anyway, is a door with a sperate top and bottom, so you can open the top part for airflow in the summer while keeping the bottom closed to contain kids, dogs and prevent critters from coming in.) His young kids would love to join the "hunt."

JPK
 

FrankT

Destin FL
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Just a beautiful rifle Jake, congrats
 

Ratdog68

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Agreed !!! Old School smoke poles is where it's at !!! This new crap just doesn't do anything for me.

54Range004.jpg
 

slim_shady

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That is one sexy riffle! looks like your spike was as big as my 8 point. congrats!
 

Jake

Bandera, Texas
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It's great to see someone use a real muzzle loader and round ball instead of these new fangled things they call muzzle loaders.
I hear ya!
 

Jake

Bandera, Texas
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That is one sexy riffle! looks like your spike was as big as my 8 point. congrats!
Ha thanks bud, yep she's purdy. It was love at first sight.
 

Jake

Bandera, Texas
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Agreed !!! Old School smoke poles is where it's at !!! This new crap just doesn't do anything for me.

54Range004.jpg

Yep, I just don't understand the inline thing RD. Nice shooting renegade there
 
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