Every year we all get out for the mid-October Kentucky Early Primitive Weapons Season and use it as a dry run for the coming Rifle season. Some might think this is a waste of a weekend. It actually has a point– in fact, several.

First off, this gives everyone at camp a chance to be there while the weather is still fairly nice. We can enjoy Deer Camp without feeling like we need to fill freezer space. We are out, we are really and truly deer hunting in usually ideal conditions.

Secondly, Early ML acts as a dress rehearsal for the big show. We get a chance to try out gear, test the stands, and clean up any problems with just slightly less than a month to go before the Rifle Opener.

Third, I think we all enjoy hunting with front-stuffers. Most of us have taken deer with our muzzleloaders. There are just. . . well, a lot of complications involved. Not the least of these is finding a processor that is open this early to take a carcass. I would much rather spend the latter part of November getting the job done, when everything is set just right and the deer are at their most cooperative. The weather is considerably cooler and processing a deer is much less hurried.

This does not mean we do not take muzzleloaders seriously. We have all spent our time at the bench. Moose and Angus spent the latter part of Saturday and Sunday getting their smoke poles working.

I had to finally stop playing with my Brown Bess and make some hard decisions. I’d been messing with ball size, patch, and lube every trip out to camp since I ended my Chemo treatments. None of what I’m doing is particularly Period-correct, but I’m not all that worried about that at this point. I just want something that goes Bang and scares the deer.

In regards to the load, I settled on a .69 cal ball in a paper patch made of cooking parchment. What I did was simulate a paper cartridge and just lopped off the top inch or so. I dip the ball and parchment in a 50-50 mixture of beeswax and lard. This holds the whole arrangement as well as tying with string, and it is far less greasy than using Crisco. It also uniformly fills the gap between ball and barrel. I’m using pre-measured charges of 3F Scheutzen in vials. 90 grains put me on the target at 50 yards, and kept me on a pie plate. I will prime from a small brass flask.

I have a really nice leather possibles bag and horn combination that I’d been fixing to use. However, when it came time to pack all the essentials, it was just a hair too small, and the pre-measured charges negated the need for a horn. That’s okay. I’ll just use the bag I normally use for deer season and keep working on the problem.

The Chemo left me with peripheral neuropathy. I can’t feel my feet. That makes still-hunting out of the question. I’ll hunt out of a stand. I had a trip to the oncologist this week, and he gave me a clean bill, so at least the Chemo did its thing. That’s a fair trade. I practiced going up and down ladders in the meanwhile.

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