Practice, Practice , Practice

While I was up north, I got some of my "tools" out and practiced with them. Deer season is here (at least in NJ and soon in NY) and i wanted to be sure I could hit what I aim at. Here's how things went (as I wrote to my friend and fishing/hunting buddy, Joe):

I took my bow out this morning and was happy at 15 and 25 yards but not at 35. A little wild at the longer distance but that might be partly the breeze that was blowing. It got pretty stiff at times and even when I tried to guess when it would be in a lull, the arrow clearly sailed in the breeze coming from about 10 o'clock.

I also tried out my new 50-cal. flintlock. (Terry says I've gone passed my 60th birthday and Christmas of 2010.) Not happy with the smokepole at all. The damn thing wouldn't fire more than half the time. And I'm not counting the flash-in-the-pan type of misfire. I was using FFFg black powder in the pan and an 80 gr load behind a 245 gr Powerbelt hollow point. Think it might be the fault of the flint. I used the same load in my in-line Knight and it fired every time I pulled the trigger. Very happy with that. Definitely switching back to powder instead of pellets. The pellets misfired 1 out of 5 times last fall. (Funny thing is, after cleaning all the weapons, I cocked and pulled the trigger on the flintlock half a dozen times. I got lots of spark each time. Definitely will have to practice some more with this one just to see if I can get competent with it.)

Then it was time for the shotgun,a new Remington 870 Express with a rifled barrel I bought last week. Nice black nonreflective composite stock, too. Joe, you SOB! Why didn't you warn me about the kick these Lightfield Hybrid EXP have? I just got off the line after shooting ten rounds and will probably have a huge black and blue patch on my shoulder. If they hit the deer that hard, no wonder they drop where they're standing! I would have shot fewer but I forgot the basics for lining up the reticule of the scope when I want to center it. Right now it's 2" high at 50 yards. In other words perfect.

As usual, cleaning the three long guns took almost as long as shooting them did. It's one of those chores that has to be done correctly and thoroughly, however.