Joe Demko
Member
This week is Pennsylvania's early muzzleloader season for antlerless deer. In-lines are legal, unlike the later flintlock-only muzzleloader season.
I was using a Traditions in-line that takes the shotgun primers. The load was two Hodgdon Triple 7 pellets under a Thompson Center Maxi-Hunter 50 caliber 350 grain hollow point.
I shot the deer, which was facing directly towards me at a range of about 40 yards. The bullet entered at the base of the neck, penetrated the entire length of the body, and lodged under the hide in right rear leg near the ****. I recovered it during skinning. It showed a little deformation, but nothing that could be described as expansion.
This is the first deer I've ever taken with this type of gun. Other than the lack of a second shot, it was no different from hunting with a modern cartridge-bearing rifle, especially since this particular rifle wears a 4x scope. Certainly, it was radically unlike the flintlock hunting that I have associated with muzzleloaders to this point.
I was using a Traditions in-line that takes the shotgun primers. The load was two Hodgdon Triple 7 pellets under a Thompson Center Maxi-Hunter 50 caliber 350 grain hollow point.
I shot the deer, which was facing directly towards me at a range of about 40 yards. The bullet entered at the base of the neck, penetrated the entire length of the body, and lodged under the hide in right rear leg near the ****. I recovered it during skinning. It showed a little deformation, but nothing that could be described as expansion.
This is the first deer I've ever taken with this type of gun. Other than the lack of a second shot, it was no different from hunting with a modern cartridge-bearing rifle, especially since this particular rifle wears a 4x scope. Certainly, it was radically unlike the flintlock hunting that I have associated with muzzleloaders to this point.