CONQUERING CACKLERS WITH BALCK POWDER GUNS

An explosion of vividly colored feathers rises from the grass. A cackle is emitted as if to say, “You can’t get me!” A report from my gun and the air is fills with smoke. I peer through the smoke to see if I have taken one of our favorite game birds.

There is something about the cackle of a pheasant that gets the juices flowing in the most jaded of upland game hunters. Combine that with a weapon from the past. It is a way to maintain contact with the old way of hunting in our modern high tech world.

Smoke pole pheasant hunters usually prefer to hunt over dogs that work close. At the approach of danger, pheasants can drop their head and tail to the ground and sneak off. They disappear even in the thinnest of cover. Pressured by a dog that works far out, pheasants can be seen zipping down a fence row like road runners.

In addition to hunting close to the dogs, it is advisable to work slowly and stop often. Pheasants are nervous birds and if you stop, they seem to think they have been spotted. These kings of the prairie just can’t stand to sit tight if they think they have been spotted.

An advantage of hunting pheasants with a muzzle loader is the lack of recoil. Due to the relatively slow burning of the black powder or Pyrodex, the recoil is significantly reduced.

Problems can appear when hunting with other partners. There is the rib about the amount of time it takes to reload, even though it is just a matter in minutes. Using speed loaders, one can reload rather quickly, but still not as fast as with shotgun shells.

Another problem is with the amount of smoke emitted by the muzzle loader. Like most hunters I like to see if I hit the bird and where he lands. On a windy day the smoke disperses more quickly. But on quiet days it can be a nuisance. On windy days I find that shooting into the wind requires keeping my mouth shut. The smoke tastes terrible.

Modern muzzle loaders add a new dimension to pheasant hunting. Hunting pheasants with my Cabela’s 10 gauge, double-barrel muzzle loader is great fun. The factory installed choke tubes work well on all kinds of small game hunting. Finding the right shot pattern and load for a black powder weapon is not difficult. It just takes a little time.

The three chokes that come with the gun are: Extra-full, Modified, and Improved Cylinder. Other chokes are available on order from the company. Having various chokes can present a problem in that one sometimes has to develop a different load for each choke. Each choke presents a different pattern with the same load.

Patterning a shotgun goes a long way toward hunting success. It allows me to know where the shot is going to hit. Patterning is a simple and inexpensive way to make sure that the gun is shooting where I aim.

What I use in addition to the gun, powder and shot, is a sheet of plywood, some large target faces, safety glasses, and hearing protection. A bench rest, or sandbags, is helpful in being consistent from one shot to another. Target faces should be about 3 foot square so as to help see where all the shot is going.

The mix of pellets from different sizes and different chokes quickly become apparent. If I aim at the center of the target and the bulk of the shot is consistently hitting off to the side, then perhaps the fit of the gun is off. A gunsmith can quickly fix that problem.

If the bulk of the shot is just a little off from center, then I can adjust my point of aim to compensate. Although a few pellets can kill a pheasant, the goal is to deliver the bulk of the shot in a pattern that will humanely down the bird.

By experimenting with the various chokes, I can see quickly which choke delivers a pattern I desire. For example, an Extra-full choke works very well when hunting turkeys. But, it is not as effective on pheasants. Extra-full chokes have a .040 constriction of the barrel and is good for 55 yard shots. Improved-modified has a .015 constriction and is most effective at 30 yards. The Improved cylinder has a .010 constriction and is for shots at fewer than 25 yards, which are frequently encountered in hunting upland birds.

A good combination for the double-barrel shotgun shooting could be the Improved cylinder in the first barrel and Extra-full choke in the second. In that way, the close shot can be taken at the rising pheasant and more time can be taken in aiming for the second shot at a greater distance.

In patterning, I pattern the barrel with my chosen choke at the distance mentioned above. Each choke/barrel combination can be shot with varying loads of powder and shot. Every gun comes with charts of recommended loads of shot and powder in a range. There are differences between black powder and Pyrodex data. For instance the 10 gauge with Pyrodex might be recommended with 1 ½ ounces of lead or steel shot and 88 grains of powder. The same gun using black powder and the same amount of shot might require 110 grains of powder.

My muzzle loaders are percussion guns. The ignition of the powder is achieved by the hammer coming down on a percussion cap mounted on a nipple. The resulting fire passes through the nipple into the barrel of the gun causing the powder to ignite. The resulting explosion forces the shot up the barrel and out the muzzle. With my double-barrel guns there is a slight problem with the cap on the second barrel often falling off the nipple by the recoil of the first shot. I solve by slightly squeezing the caps before mounting them on the nipples. The slightly tighter fit helps keep the cap in place.

Modern muzzle loading shotguns allow me to take birds for the table and still enjoy the romance of using a weapon from the past.

                                                               Don Gasaway - The Upland Hunter
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