Got bored with modern rifle & pistol hunting. {Not in any way bragging about my skills. But. > Just got to be too easy for me to kill any game large or small with either weaponry in my hand/s. And that becomes >BORING!! to a fellow like me.
Time to try pulling a bow was my thought. The 2 or 3 deer seasons {and a whole lot of practice time spent daily} hunting with a bow became fun & productive. A big 6 point & a medium size doe as I recall were harvested._ But those bugs were overwhelming gents. Far too many for my liking. Ish!!__Soooo.
Later that same Fall I hung out at my hunting shack for a couple days during one of this States first B/P deer season openings. Just a coincidence my being there. {Only drove up to the cabin with the idea in mind to close it down for the winter.} Funny thing though?
I only heard two shots during the short time I spent there. {Knowing that so few B/P hunted in those days >especially in my area. Was indeed a interesting & pleasing thought.}
I was immediately hooked, lined & sinker'ed on the idea to give B/P target shooting & deer hunting a try the following year.
(No more rookies. No weekend bushwhackers. No more sound shooters around to worry about and those other guys who know their way around in a forest without ever having the need of a good compass unintentionally walking by or underneath my stand.)
"Yup!! I always had someone traipsing thru or wondering around during modern rifle hunting season having that wonderful No Compass needed ability and YES they did occasionally ruin my hunts." as they knowingly or not? were on private & posted land.
"But I seen the light!!"
Finally piece & quiet in the woods while B/P hunting was in the back of this fellows mind. Yesiree!!
I didn't know what B/P caliber was best or which brand of rifle to purchase. Only one inline was being talked about in those days. {Tony Knight was just starting out down in Iowa.} Traditional side lock shooting was the usual back in those days.
A close friend and co-worker knew I enjoyed LLBeans Fall hunting catalog and for giggles gave me a year old Fox Ridge Outfitters catalog to read during my lunch period one day. When I got home. That same evening I ordered (5) T/C traditional rifles and their required paraphernalia from Fox Ridge to cover all the base's I could think of. _
I still have all those T/C rifles. I still hunt those same 140 acres and never once have regretted getting involved with smoke pole ownership. Funny thing. I still run into a fellow hunter occasionally looking for directions to get out of the woods with no compass to guide him. I wonder sometimes if their all related?_