BLACK POWDER: TALES FROM THE HUNT (AND HOME)

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.

BLACK POWDER

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

Maybe 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

with a Chambers Jaeger lock, and Allen loaded it with 60 grains of Olde Eynsford 1½F powder under a .600inch patched ball, patched with .018inch pillow ticking.

Like a typical gunsmith, Allen gave me more details about the gun than the hunt. Even so, after some badgering from me, he did tell me that they were hunting in damp weather conditions, perhaps in a light falling mist or even some fog. When he saw the bull elk at a fairly close distance, he held for the shot he wanted and squeezed the trigger. Allen says the damp conditions led to a flash in the pan for his first try. His second try was also a flash in the pan. Each time, he ducked behind a tree and reprimed the rifle. The third try was the charm, but that was after a long two-second hang fire, which at that time seemed more like an hour! Maybe Allen could hear some sizzling in the pan. Anyway, he held his aim as well as he could, looking through the smoke from the priming pan as the elk moved forward, and was rewarded with a real roar from the short-barreled rifle and the elk took it through the liver.

The elk moved very little, about 20 feet, after taking the hit and soon afterward Allen’s partner was able to take the picture included here. A very successful hunt and Allen has shared some of the meat with this child so that I too could enjoy the “taste of the hunt.” THEN MY OL’ duck hunting partner, Mike Moran, went out and got a deer almost right away. He was hunting with Doug Teakell and both of them are members of the American Mountain Men, so they were hunting primitive, in buckskins. But Mike had hurt his left knee so he was taking things rather slow, with that knee all wrapped up to make sure he was going slow. They were hunting near Carnation, Washington, in an orchard area. When they arrived at the spot where they’d make camp, they got things all set up so they could settle in for the night.

Early the next morning, as they got ready to head out, Doug told Mike to get going because Doug would catch

A cottontail rabbit sorely tempted author Mike Nesbitt, but in preferring to “stay close to camp” this past hunting season, he decided against harvesting it, leaving the pursuit of small and big game critters to fellow black powder enthuasiasts.

up a bit later. They were going to hunt a clearing between some fruit trees on a farm. Mike slowly made his way to that clearing and had just started to look around for a place to sit, when he spotted a doe on the edge of the clearing just 25 yards away. He froze! The doe, just what he wanted, was broadside to him, facing to the right, and there was a 12-inch-diameter tree right in front of her. She took two steps forward and stopped with her head behind that tree. That gave Mike the chance to bring his rifle up, with the hammer at full-cock and the trigger set. Then she took one more step forward so her head was in the clear but her vitals were still behind the tree.

“Two more steps,” Mike whispered to himself under his breath, and just as if she had heard his request, she took those two more steps and stopped. That’s when Mike shot, but then he couldn’t see where she went because of the cloud of white smoke that was in front of him. The deer was easy to follow because Mike could hear her crashing through some brush.

Doug was almost to the clearing when Mike fired, so he came running. Then while the two of them were standing in the middle of the clearing, about 30 feet between them, another doe made an appearance. This one gave them an almost 10-minute-long staring contest before she offered a good shot. Doug took that shot and the second doe went down.

Both deer were hit with good shots, both animals traveled less than 30 yards before falling, and both were very easy to locate. So, in less than 10 minutes of actual hunting, both partners had gotten their deer. They dressed the does out and got them back to camp, skinned them and had the meat hanging in short order. Mike said it all seemed too easy.

But they didn’t mind how easy it was. That was underlined with what they had for lunch that day – slices of fried heart and liver with onions. That makes me wish I was there.

MIKE MADE HIS shot with his .54 Tennessee Valley Muzzleloading Leman flintlock, shooting a .530-inch ball wrapped in a .015-inch patch over just 60 grains of GOEX 3Fg powder. He said, “I’d love to tell you that I cast that ball and made the patch lube, but I didn’t.” The patch was simply lubed with spit.

“That Leman .54 has a coned muzzle and with that patch and ball combo, I don’t need a short starter,” Mike continued. “The pan was primed from the powder horn, which was one of my first things I made when I got into muzzleloading. That powder horn has a plain pine butt plug fitted to the natural shape of the horn, with a fiddle peg for a stopper and a strap made and gifted to me by Rich Pogue. The pouch was another early project of mine

Mike Moran in “full uniform” just before his muzzleloader hunt for a blacktail deer in farmlands about 20 miles due east of Seattle.

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The doe that Moran dropped with one shot from his .54-caliber Tennessee Valley Muzzleloading flintlock (both below) soon yielded a meal of venison heart and liver with onions (this image) for he and his hunting partner, as well as a hide that Moran stretched (right) for tanning. that was good enough; it has yet to be replaced with a better model.”

Mike does his own brain tanning, so he’ll be busy for at least a little while, getting that doe skin all done and ready.

Yes, both Allen’s and Mike’s tales of their hunts were good to hear and they certainly tell me that I missed some good hunting, but I already knew that. And shortly after they told me their stories, I had to gather my rifle, horn and pouch to get ready for the first match of the season at the Paul Bunyan range. That’s where I’d use my .40 percussion Leman again to see if these old eyes could see well enough to shoot.

I would have loved to be on those hunts with either Allen or Mike, for sure. But we’ll have those future trips and adventures just a little later. In fact, I went to a shoot where Mike was also shooting, using the same .54 TVM flintlock that he got his deer with. We both turned in some pretty good scores in the match, but there’s nothing like taking game. 