BLACK POWDER Third time was the charm for Allen Cunniff, here with the bull elk he took with a .62-caliber flintlock that immediately beforehand had twice produced a lot of flash but no shot.
TALES FROM THE HUNT (AND HOME)
Intrepid black powder shooter didn't hit the field last fall, but was there in spirit with fellow hunters who did. STORY AND PHOTOS BY MIKE NESBITT
M
aybe I should have gone hunting last fall; it was certainly the proper time for it. In addition to that, it seems like cottontail rabbits in the area are at a high point in their population cycle. Some fresh rabbit
would have been prime meat for my .40 percussion rifle and I can just about hear Ol’ Bearclaw (from the movie Jeremiah Johnson) saying, “You cook good rabbit, Pilgrim.” Even so, I did not take to the hunting trails last year, preferring to stay close to camp to do things like get a supply of firewood ready for winter, which still might be a real good cold one.
While I kept my axe sharp around camp, worrying about these old bones getting cold, some of my regular partners did go hunting and they came back with some good stories of success. One of them was Allen Cunniff, who used his Jaeger rifle in .62 caliber to “make meat” on a large bull elk, dropping it with one shot. The rifle has a 30½-inch barrel americanshootingjournal.com 95
