Wet Powder
Every flintlock muzzleloader hunter knows that there are a multitude of things that can keep your gun from firing. Not enough spark, not enough powder, fouling or debris in the ignition area, and the list goes on. Topping that list however, is wet powder.
Muzzleloader powder has to be kept extremely dry in order to ignite properly when the spark is made by the flint striking the frizzen. This is something I have known for a long time. However, that didn’t stop me from making a fatal mistake a few years ago.
A few days after Christmas, myself and my two high school friends and hunting buddies, Brandon and Coulter, headed up to camp for a “college weekend” of muzzleloader hunting. We were all on our winter breaks, and we were excited to do some late season hunting in the Alleghenies.
I drove down to camp from a skiing trip in New York and Brandon and Coulter were driving up together the next morning. I woke up and could easily tell that the roads were slick as snow was coming down inches at a time. Still, the guys were planning on arriving any minute.
Minutes later I got a phone call…
“Hey, we’re stuck at the bottom of the hill”
Now, Coulter was driving his Tacoma and pulling behind it his side-by-side and my ATV, and apparently the load was too heavy for the slick roads. I had my Chevy Cruze at the time, so I clearly wouldn’t be much help.
“Hang on, we’re gonna take off the side-by-side and try to drive it up separate to lighten the load”
This didn’t seem like a great idea to me, but I thought hey, its just a short distance up the hill and the alternative of them turning around to go home didn’t sound all that great either.
Not long after, I saw a side-by-side buzzing up the road through the hammering snow, thankfully, followed by a truck with a trailer. Arriving in style, I thought to myself.
As we sorted everything out and laughed off their arrival misadventure, we took the ATV and side-by-side out in the field next to camp. We had a good day catching up but we were all anticipating heading into the woods the next day.
The next morning came early, and we were out the door and headed for the wilderness. I dropped off Coulter and Brandon at the telephone line and I drove to our normal parking spot. Our thought was, we would ease our way down together, hoping if we spooked deer they would head to the other hunter.
I bumped a few on the way down, but they never made it to the other guys. Coulter did almost get a shot on a doe off the left side of the telephone line, but it spooked just in time. When we met up at the bottom after a couple hours we decided to come up with a new plan.
After a bit of talking we decided to hunt our way out before heading behind camp for the evening hunt. The snow was still coming down heavily allowing us to sneak quietly, so we still had high hopes for a chance at a deer.
We didn’t see anything on the way out so we headed back for camp. After a quick bite to eat we went back out into the woods. I was on my way to set up in Vince’s stand while the other two guys worked the pipeline area.
After an hour or so in the stand, I looked to my left and thought:
“Damn…that’s a good deer stump”
This stump had continuously grabbed my attention and started me thinking it was a deer. After a few minutes, I came across it again.
“That’s a DAMN good deer stump”
I peered around through the blizzard-like snow for a few minutes before circling back. Just then, I saw it move.
“DAMN, THAT’S A DEER!”
With the snow coming down so hard, I had mistaken an actual deer for a stump! Nevertheless, I quickly shook it off and focused on the deer. After watching it for a few minutes, I realized it was a doe. She was about 100 yards away, and was clearly too far for a flintlock.
I decided my best chance was to climb down out of the stand, hoping that the heavy snow would conceal my sound and movement. Just to be sure, I let out a few doe bleats. Nothing. I grabbed my gun and slowly climbed down.
*PAUSE: Looking back, this is where a smart and experienced hunter would have taken a minute to check his powder to make sure it was dry. But, I didn’t. It didn’t even cross my mind. I was too excited I may finally get a deer with a muzzleloader and down I climbed*
I moved from tree to tree, slowly closing the distance on the doe. Finally, I got to 60 yards and rested my gun against the tree. I set the crosshairs on the bedded deer and let out a bleat in hopes of getting her to stand. She looked at me, then back down.
I moved to 50 yards and repeated the process. Nothing.
I walked up another 10 yards to a tree and tried again. Nothing.
Finally, I got to 30 yards (!). That’s right, a muzzleloader hunters dream. 30 yards. Gun rested on a tree. Crosshairs behind the shoulder of a bedded deer. I was not comfortable with the bedded shot still, so I let out a loud bleat and FINALLY, the doe stood up and looked at me.
Crosshairs behind the shoulder…pull the trigger…click…and off she ran. The dang gun didn’t go off! I opened the pan to see wet powder in it. Shit. Turns out, all those time my dad and uncles talked about needing SUPERRR dry powder for the gun to go off, I should have paid more attention.
I watched the deer trot off in front of me as I frantically tried to dry out the pan. She was moving slow, and I soon found out why. I walked up to where she was bedded and found blood. I couldn’t tell what from, but she was injured.
I got the other guys and we followed her for about an hour until we hit a private property line. That’s all the farther we could go, and it left me bummed out.
Not only did I miss a fantastic chance at a deer, but if I was using my wits, I would have checked the pan and could have potentially put her out of her misery. Granted, she looked to be moving okay and I doubt what had wounded her was fatal, but it stung nonetheless.
The guys and I enjoyed the rest of our snowy weekend in camp, and to date, that is my closest flintlock encounter and one that may haunt me until I am able to get my first PA flintlock deer.
