Blackpowder Skinnys

[Skinny Shooter]

Took my 54cal Pennsylvania Longrifle to the rifle range yesterday for some much needed range time. She's still getting broken in even though I've had her for a couple of years now.
Decided to take a quick spin by some farms and maybe draw first blood with her. And had my 308 and TC 223 along, just in case.
Checked out a spot that Rocky and I had hunted where you could shoot long out to 650 yards or so.
Well I saw a chuck feeding just out in the field and decided to try for it.
Was able to put the sneak on it with good cover and was so excited to drop a flint on this guy that I missed the first shot. LOL It even stood up, I looked right into the whites of its eyes and still missed.
Had to go back to the blazer to reload and the chuck was still there. Didn't miss the second time and that ball did a messy number on it.
If you saw The Last of the Mohicans, Hawkeye shot the Brit Major before he could be burned to death. The echo of my longrifle sounded exactly like his flintlock in that scene. Pretty cool with the echo and all.
If I had my 36cal flinter along, I would have been loading from the pouch. With this new gun I'm not quite up to speed yet with a loading block, have to make a new powder horn, etc.

She'll be coming along for more excursions.

Stopped at another farm where I had snuck up on a sleeping fox in the middle of this huge field and proceeded to miss at 35 yards. Sound familiar? That buck fever is awful.
You can shoot across this field out to 750'ish yards and then off to the right it goes out to almost 1000yds. Since I'm still working on drops with the new Wildcat bullets for the 308, figured I'd take a sighter round at 649yds into a groundhog mound on a dirt bank. Dialed in 18moa and the elevation was good. Spotted a chuck off to my right, lazed it at 350 yards as it went for it's hole and never got a shot. I caught a speck of something to the right way out there by a clump of trees in the middle of the field. Got the binos on it and its a chuck. The laser didn't range those trees but I did get a hit off a barn roof at 1150'ish yards in bright sunlight. Later I drove over to that spot and lazed the barn from that clump of trees and got 251 yards. That hog was right around 900 yards. Maybe next time.



Allen