I thought this would be appropriate as a picture since it’s October and all!

Well, you have read all the events of our muzz deer hunt and now I need to tell you the rest of the story.  I’ll embellish it some because it needs it!

For many years we have had the Boobin Baby Board in our camp:

It’s a symbol of shots taken and the bucks didn’t make it back to camp…many excuses befall the shooters who miss and we hear them all.  Just like this sign says, the shots go high, the shots go low, the shots go behind, the shots go in front of the animal…all of us who have taken the shots have seen that ill fated bullet hit somewhere other than the animal.  It’s a sad thing actually.

You all know my bullet of choice is the Hornady Great Plains conical with the hollow base and hollow point.  In my caliber of rifle, .54, that bullet weighs 425 grains and I push it out the barrel with 90 grains of good old ffg blackpowder.  My rifle doesn’t print the bullet holes one on top of the other, but they are usually within a basketball size group.  Well maybe closer to a soccer ball group…hmmm…that doesn’t seem right either, maybe a grapefruit size group and these are at 100 yards.  In my eye, that’s close enough.  I don’t have one of those fancy “lead sleds” to strap my rifle into and shoot without my interference, but my confidence leads me to believe that if I did have one of those machines, the rifle would print bullet holes one on top of the other.

So, there is my “go to” bullet and load and my rifle likes it.

What is your “go to” load?  Only you know, but I have a couple of friends who like something different.  Both Crock and Dry Dog like the Thompson Center Maxi ball bullet and both of them push them out the barrel with loose powder.  Crock might use P-P-P-Pyrodex (I always studder when I say that word) I’m not sure, but Dry Dog uses good old honest and true blackpowder.

Now both of these gentlemen are good shots, don’t get me wrong.  They usually bring home the venison on the deer hunt and for sure they have plenty of opportunities each year.  A quick glance at most of the Boobin Baby Boards of years gone by shows their names are pretty regular names on it.  Right boys?

It’s an awfully bad year of deer hunting if these two don’t get at least one shot during the 9 days the hunt is open…one shot each that is.  Their untold moto is “If it’s brown it’s down” and all you have to do is verify there are antlers on the animal and the shots are going to be fired…10 yards to 3,000 yards, it really doesn’t matter.

OK, so to my point.  These two really should go to the range with a variety of bullets to choose from and they both should shoot something other than their preferred choice of today.  I say this because their choice of bullets, the TC Maxi ball is a “Misser”!  I call it “The Missing Bullet”!  And had I told you that upfront on this writing you would not have understood and would have probably thought I was writing about looking in the box of bullets and not finding what I was looking for.

“The Missing Bullet” is one that has a mind of its own.  Once it leaves the muzzle of the rifle it goes where it wants to go, not where the shooter wants it to go.

Take this year for example.  Now I was not there with these two hunters to know exactly where the missing bullets hit once they were fired, but I did hear the stories about shooting at deer and the deer not coming back into camp…thus another dollar in the biggest buck contest and a sad story to be heard throughout the camp.

In Dry Dogs case, he shot 3 missing bullets before finally taking down a nice buck on his 4th attempt.  AND I might add, that 4th shot almost missed.  I think the buck had a premonition the bullet was going to miss and moved its neck up so the bullet would hit it.

In Crocks stories, he too had several shots this season, and just like Dry Dog, all of his shots missed.  He was not so lucky as to have a suicidal buck to shoot at and so he is eating tag soup at this moment, just like me.

As for me;  The day we got our camp set up and ready for the hunt, almost all of us decided to load up our rifles while things were still in control and the weather was still dry.  I made the worst mistake of my entire life on that day.  I let Dry Dog talk me into loading my rifle with a missing bullet!  I have NEVER shot a missing bullet out of my rifle!  It likes the Great Plains and it shoots them very well.  I must have had just enough bubbly in my system to allow Dry Dogs sweet talking influence me into thinking my rifle would shoot a TC Maxi ball as straight as the Great Plains bullets go….what a mistake on my part!  (put a sad face smiley here)

So, when that big buck finally presented me with my shot (the only one for this season) I took careful aim like you know I am capable of, and when the cap set off the powder charge and the bullet went flying down range, the mind of that missing bullet took over and purposely flew where it knew it would not hit the deer….my case of “The Missing Bullet”!  Never again!

If more people would read and take to heart this story, there would be a marked increase in TC Maxi ball bullets at garage sales throughout the land and Crock and Dry Dog would have a field day picking them up for little to nothing.  Some traditions just have to continue and I’m certain these two will continue to use “the missing bullets” until they die.  Maybe they just like to see their names on the Boobin Baby Board.

Bears Butt

Oct. 9, 2013