Well, I will start by saying this is my first season hunting with a Muzzle loader. That being said I think I did most things wrong save one. Filling my tag, so maybe I didn't do things THAT wrong.
Ill tell you that I have a CVA hunter in 50 cal. It is a gun that I obtained from a friend. His stipulation, If I kill an Elk share some meat with him.
We hunted OUTSIDE Hancock in NF land and some private ground for the first several days without so much as a sniff!
Then the critters moved around to our favor. On Friday morning we got on a group of Ten cows but alas, no blood. We moved out of the area not wanting to push them to hard. Went over to another piece and split up, buddy went up I went down. I sat on a clearing watching for about ten minutes. Looking up on the hill behind I see an Elk, my eyes don't believe it so I check with binos. Yup its a nice Cow. I don't range it but can see it was about 130 yards give or take. I haven't shot my gun over 100 yards and although I was able to put it on the spot I was nervous. I said to myself yea you can do this. I took aim through the peep, squeezed and hoped for the best. The smoke cleared and I saw her spin and disappear.
Well she disappeared for a reason. The shot went through and through with the bullet lodging just outside the body under the skin. Front should bone and ribs missed, lungs taken out opposite shoulder bone and ribs missed.
The joy started, then the work began. I called my Buddy on the Garmin, and we both sighed thinking, lord almost a mile away from the truck. He said "Why do you ALWAYS kill something a long way away!" I just replied "Oh well" Here are the results
CVA Hunter 50 cal,
295 grain Power belt
100 grains (in pellets)
1 dead Elk
