Flintlock adventures

The snow makes your steps silent as you stalk along. As you near the edge, you find a tree and peer over. There they are. Several deer are feeding below on the bench.

You cock the gun. Quietly, you carefully raise the rifle to your shoulder. You center the iron sites upon a large doe's chest and squeeze the trigger.

At the clack of flint striking steel there is a bright flash and instantaneously flame erupts from the muzzle while the rifle loudly reports. A cloud of smoke hangs in the air, leaving the lingering pungent sulfur smell of spent black powder.

Next thing you know, you are on the blood trail of the deer, tracking it through the snow -- and there it is, piled up against a tree.

Seven years ago I decided to give the sport a try. Now, I yearn for the day after Christmas, almost as much as Christmas Day itself. Oh, to breathe in the smell of spent gunpowder on a cold crisp morning.

I was in college at the time and was only able to hunt one or two days during rifle season. However, due to a long Christmas vacation, I could hunt deer two and onehalf weeks during flintlock season. The choice was a nobrainer.

Hunting with a flintlock is a challenge. When you squeeze the trigger, there is no guarantee that the gun will go off. Theoretically, the flint strikes the steel frizzen, creating sparks. The sparks ignite the powder in the pan. The ensuing flash of flame travels through a small hole bored through the gun barrel, igniting the black powder in the gun to create an explosion. That propels the round or conical shaped lead projectile out of the muzzle.

It sounds simple enough, but a lot can go wrong.

Several years ago, I had a large doe in front of me about 30 yards away. When I pulled the trigger on this guaranteed kill, all I heard was "clack." There was no spark. The deer hightailed it out of there.

Twenty minutes later, I had another deer in my sights. I squeezed the trigger and "clack." Twice more I cocked the gun and squeezed the trigger on this deer only to hear, "clack." By now the deer was well out of range, but I gave it one last try.

I aimed about a foot above his back and squeezed the trigger a fourth time. I should have never taken the shot at that distance, but I never thought the gun would go off after four misfires.

This time, though, to my amazement I was rewarded with a loud boom from the rifle. I don't know if I was more surprised that the gun went off or that I hit the deer, but he immediately fell.

Whether because the flint fails to spark or because the powder in the pan took on moisture from the air, not having your flashpan powder ignite is the most common cause of misfires. However, sometimes the powder in the pan ignites and the gun still doesn't go off.

This happened to my cousin John Bickford on the opening day several years ago. John crept up on two small bucks and jumped them from their beds. As he stood there pondering their departure, he heard a noise right behind him. He turned around in time to see a nice eight-point stand up and commence a moderate paced retreat.

John cocked the hammer and brought his trusty flintlock to his shoulder, put the sights on the deer, and squeezed the trigger. There was a bright flash and a "poof," hen silence. Apparently the hole leading from the flash pan to the chamber was plugged. Sometimes the same result happens when the powder inside the gun itself takes on moisture.

Even though flintlocks are more prone to misfires, if you take certain precautions, usually everything works out well when hunting with a "smokepole."

If you haven't ever flintlock hunted, I would highly recommend it. There are plenty of avid muzzleloader hunters who would be glad to take you under their wing.

For the most part the woods are void of other hunters, and you are hunting undisturbed deer. Also, usually there is plenty of snow in which to hunt and track deer.

Furthermore, the challenges of flintlock hunting, such as keeping the powder dry, not being able to shoot long distances, and having no guarantees whether your flint will provide sparks, make any deer taken with one of these muzzleloaders a very memorable experience.