Flintlock Buck!

[KLRKeith]

Well I was able to take two days vacation and head out.  I had a great morning; saw over ten coyotes lots of Muleys then moved into the bedding areas around 9:00 am.  I found this guy bedded down and took him with a .54 caliber patched round ball out of my Lyman Flintlock; great plains rifle; 75 yards.  Shooting Goex black powder.  I put a new frizzen on the pan about a month ago and have gotten 99.9% ignition; that's great for me! Well when I went to field dress this buck, he smelled like a gut pile.  I started field dressing him and yellow fluid came out of everywhere.    Under the skin; inside his chest cavity, etc.   I finished gutting him and hauling his heavy carcass about 1/4 mile so I could get the truck to him.  I figured I would bring him home finish skinning and figure out whats up; suspecting a unseen wound.  When I get home and started skinning him he had a huge hole in his side where a pure lead bullet had gone in high on the shoulder; missed all vitals and I found it on the off side hide.  Now the crazy part; the wound was full of maggots and all down his spine to his mid back they were actively feeding.   Every quarter of meat had that yellow fluid inside, smelling like a rotten gut pile.  I couldn't find any meat not smelling.  No wonder he let a clumsy fellow like me sneak up on him.  lol....Oh well I actually felt bad for him and even without any meat felt good to have notched that tag; that *censored*z had to hurt him...
I still have a Elk tag but I'm on weekend hunts only for the early season and I drew a late season anterless tag for muzzleloaders too; soo I should be able to get some meat then...

[BoomWhop]

Nice Buck way to go old school.

[losdaddy7]

Nasty!...   

[Ridgeratt]

I think if you contact Region 1 and talk to them they may just issue you a replacement tag if they see the animal. Some years ago we had something like it and they did.

[buglebuster]

Sorry to hear about the meat but congrats on the buck

[Lcl 66 Tinner]

It's good to see some people still muzzleload the way the season was intended. Traditional rifles, patched round balls and real black powder not this inline B.S.

[Michelle_Nelson]

Good looking Buck!  Congrats!

[PolarBear]

Good job doing it old school!  Congrats!  Too bad about the meat.

[Miles]

I think if you contact Region 1 and talk to them they may just issue you a replacement tag if they see the animal. Some years ago we had something like it and they did.

    

[Machias]

Nice job Keith, very sorry to hear about the meat.      See you back at work next week.

[Idabooner]

It's good to see some people still muzzleload the way the season was intended. Traditional rifles, patched round balls and real black powder not this inline B.S.

     
 

[Huntboy]

Nice buck.

[CMG]

Congrats, Nice buck! Like others, sorry to hear about the meat
  Reading your story leads me to believe you would have put him down and ended the suffering even if you had known before the shot. Thats a true sportsman, I tip my hat to you! Carma will come back to you ten fold   

[blackveltbowhunter]

Definintley contact WDFW if you have some of the meat. I know of a buck killed last year, after hanging the hunter went to cut up the meat and found it full of parasites. After contacting the department they issued a new tag. Might be worth checking into anyway. Congrats on the buck!!! Great looking animal!

[KLRKeith]

Yep thanks everyone.  I felt pretty bad for the fellow...must be getting more sympathetic in my old age..lol...It certainly makes me think about risky shots in the future. 
On another line of thought I've been very impressed with a patched round ball.  I've had a few coyotes make it 40 yards after being hit but every deer has either dropped in it's tracks or showed a definite sign of being hit.  Under 100 yards not too many animals on four legs are safe from a patched round ball. 
Good luck this weekend everyone...I'm out with the wife for the weekend...to buy me some time later in the season..lol...