Gunner500 just drove this one's whacker in the dirt with his .58 caliber muzzleloader! 140 grains FF KIK BP with a 280 gr. patched round ball! Way to go Gunner! CONGRATS!

49-C11932-222-E-452-F-A7-D7-486-A019452-D1 by Sharps Man, on [bleep]

The 'red spots' shown in photo ARE NOT berries; rather pieces of meat blown out the backside!!

Beautiful animal and a really cool plains rifle! It doesn't appear that there was much follow-up tracking involved.

Congrats Gunner. Nice buck

Sweet!
Nice job, ya need to find a outdoors forum to post this in where people have interest in hunting.

Noice!!

A .58 caliber Hawken! That is one badass rifle.
I have killed a dozen deer and hogs with my muzzleloaders, using a .50 round ball, and I always was impressed with how lethal the round ball is. Whatever the .50 will do, the .58 will do better.

140 grains of powder, and a 280 grain round ball, Good God! That thing is cranking out some foot pounds. I was using 80 grains of powder.

Congrats, very nice buck!!

Very nice, good job.

That's cool !

Congrats !

Damn fine deer!!!

Impressive!

That is a slick rifle too.

That would be considered a true trophy in my neck of the woods.

Good going Gunner500.

😄😄

There's a few of us that appreciate it here above and beyond the latest "favorite casserole" threads.

WOW!!!

Can't wait to see it all hauled out and a few more pics posted.

Awesome Buck!
Awesome rifle!
I’ll bet that load and a traditional Hawken buttplate will get one’s attention!!!

Great buck, Gunner!

Nice buck .. and with a .58 as well!! Sweet! Congratulations!

Congratulations

That's one hell of a deer! Congratulations

That's a damned fine animal. Thanks for sharing it for Gunner. Oklahoma or Arkansas?

Great buck by any method!

Congratulations Gunner500! Beautiful buck and rifle.

That's what muzzleloading should be, iron sights and patch&ball. Great deer!

Exactly what I was thinking.........foot pounds and recoil.

One of my old muzzleloading teachers had a saying for that..............."Kills at one end and wounds at the other".

Nice deer Gunner.

Geno

Amen. A REAL muzzleloader.

Many Thanks for all the congrats Men, it was a hell of a brutally cold hunt up in Kansas, but dang worth every minute, if one ever needs to fly a kite, that state will certainly NOT disappoint.

FWIW, this old bruiser has a 20 inch inside spread with 12 and 12.5 inch G2's, 5 and 6 inch eyeguards, old Bud said he'd score 160 or a bit more if that means anything, best we can guesstimate he weighed near 275 lbs on the hoof, an old bruiser, I'm very proud and feel blessed to be a part of getting to hunt him.

That big 58 cal round ball was still carrying enough heavy freight to blast completely through the ribs at 133 yards, exit wound was a silver dollar sized hole, he had coughed up all kinds of chunks and blood while dying, as macabre as that may sound to some it was all over really quick, he never got his running gear back under himself after catching that 58 cal ball.

👍👍👍

It doesn't look like you were handicapped the least bit with that smokepole. Awesome buck, congrats.

Hard to get my mind around those midwest whitetails.

160lb-175lb is a large, heavy Tn buck. 😄

Great job! Rut in progress there?

Thank You slumlord and roundoak, no handicap whatsoever, that rifle is a purpose built exact copy of an S Hawken percussion rifle, it's load of choice is 140 grains of 2F black powder under that 58 cal ball, iirc it leaves the rifle at near 1800 fps.

You bet Slum, a 175 pounder is about average around here for a mature white tail buck, something in the dirt up that way Buddy ; ]

1minute, Yessir, they are after the girls that didn't get bred the first time around roughly a month ago, the bucks I couldn't get next to were ALL with yearling doe that had just came in, the great big long tall girls were already bred.

That's just badass cool.

Thanks Gringo Loco ; ]

Holy chyt!!!
That buck is a brute!!!

Congrats man!!!!!

Thanks renegade50, I damn near tore the dump bed off old Buds Polaris Ranger getting that pig loaded up!

Back in the day my old school 50 renegade would put a thump on deer.
Most times the round would lodge under the opposite side hide beyond 75 or 80 yards.

That 58 of yours gunner waylayed that buck!!!
Especially at that range.

Congrats!!!!!


I got 1 buck tag left .
You just gave me some motivation again!!!!
I need ta get the fugg out in the woodline.
Aint been since last sunday.

OUTSTANDING!!!!

Kudos. A real find buck with a REAL muzzleloader

Cool Buck Gunner. Nice Smokepole. No Sabots

LOL, yes, same thing Sharpsguy told me, a 50 would exit about half the time, a 54 a little more, my 58 has exited everything so far, I wont lie and say I don't cast those balls a little harder at 20 to 1 alloy, I'm looking for an exit regardless of what I hunt with, I like two bleeder holes, bet most do.

Good luck and get out there and bust one Buddy.

Thanks Charles, and yes, no plastic in sight ; ]

Interesting side bar
Most of the deer restocking on ft campbell in the late 60,s and early 70,s were oklahoma bucks and Wisconsin does in addition to existing tn and ky deer.
Then TN also used Ft campbell deer for restocking also.
So ya got oklahoma, wisconsin, kentucky and Tennessee gene,s running around this upper middle tn and southern middle kentucky area.

Thanks Mr. Zihn, that 8 bore I have You built would do the same on American buffalo, moose or elk, I have no doubt.

Hell of a bloodline there Rene.

Its rifle here, I need ta bust the cherry on my 8mm.
Gawd knows what it has killed in previous hands.
Just concerned about mine.

Lol!!!

You'll get it done, I have faith ; ]

Wonder how many Germans my swede has ventilated.

It's sent several deer to Valhalla. 😄

awesome buck gunner! and that assault rifle is the cats meow!

Thanks deerstalker, it sure puts the numb on em ; ]

Nice buck, very cool rifle and a very cool way to hunt. How much does that Hawken Rifle weigh?


mike r

Thank You Mike, that rifle weighs a bit North of 12.5 lbs.

I dont even wanta think about the history of a 1939 K98 before it got sporterized into a hunting rifle by Sako after the war.

Nice buck! Congrats.

Thanks Squidge.

does his right side match his left, or is he non-typical?

Yes, he's a big old typical deerstalker, his right G4 is broke off a bit from scuffling.

Those old Mil rifles have no doubt caused more than a few to holler eeeeeeeee FAAAKK!!!!! that hurt ; ]

I need to put that to the test with my Lyman Deerstalker. It's a .54 cal flintlock that's only exited paper so far. Never done any casting but have only shot round balls to date.

You bet, a 54 is a high speed killer Gringo Loco, iirc someone told me they run in excess of 1900 fps with a round ball, speed being what it is, and pure lead being what it is, i sure like a bit harder alloy, especially hunting out of state where the only shot may be a fleeing buck going in at the last rib, I need to get into the oxygen tents and pump house my friend ; ]

Great deer and rifle Gunner. Congratulations. Love to see traditional muzzeloaders getting in some work.

My best deer was taken with a .54 Renegade. I will confess to using Maxi's though. I've never considered it a handicap to use. Even though I've got modern muzzeloaders and use them, if push ever comes to shove, the .54 will be the one that stays.

Congrats!

That is a beautiful buck, Congratulations.

Great looking buck and beautiful rifle. My favorite kind of deer hunting. My first black powder rifle was a kit-built CVA .50 cal Mountain rifle. Still have it and have added four more, including two flint locks in .32 and .50 cal. Good to see you out using an historical and true primitive rifle.

Wow man awesome rifle and fantastic deer congrats to gunner!

Wow great rifle and Buck! Thinking that sure puts out a cloud of White smoke!

Congrats on a fine buck and a pretty cool rifle.

Kansas Hawken

Good job, Gun.

Wonder buck!

Whats the 58 cal ball weigh at that mix?

Sounds terrifying!

Thanks again Men, Nice Stick and Blade there EE, they're a blast for sure.

Well done, Gunner!

LOL, around 270-280 grains Jim, I take it you're not laughing at our 'old' equipment, never discount 'the ball' Slim Jim, the 58 is a rough customer, I have dropped four buck deer where they stood this year, from 22 to 133 yards, they all fell, my 8 Bore is that and much more, a pure lead ball and 300 grains of black powder for standard game, or a hardened alloy ball North of 800 grains, then rolled across flat files to score it so it wont slip the patch, then booted out by 400 grains of black powder is what the old time African Bore Rifle hunters used on Buffalo, Rhino and Elephant.

They worked back then, and they work today.

Many Thanks Jorge, I still have one Arkansas buck, and several doe tags left for the three day Christmas hunt, but, guess I better use that old original 45-110 buffalo rifle on one of I can find it.

Good luck. I have a 54 cal Hwken replica but I'd like to get a nicer rifle than this italian rig. Any suggestions?

Yessir, go down to the Muzzle Loader forum and buy Sharpsman's [Rick] 50 cal custom Flinter, it's a beautiful rifle at roughly half price.

Dang!

No, that's what you say AFTER you pull the trigger EE.

lolol

I bet that load could be lightened quite a bit and still kill on both ends.

I likey! Congrats!