When it comes to muzzleloader hunting, I'm like a football player that looks great in practice, but who can't get it done on the field.
I usually kill one deer a year with a muzzleloader, but I miss a lot more than I hit, and they are clean misses, too. This year was the exception. I missed all three deer that I shot at, and I missed two last year. Among those were two mature bucks.
Though I'm not entirely sure when my muzzleloader yips started, I think I can trace it back to a range session several years ago when the recoil from an accidental double charge plunged my scope's eyepiece into my forehead. That was a prime example of why you should never get distracted when handling firearms, especially if your mind wanders the way mine does.
I loaded the T/C Omega Z5, got called away for something and promptly forgot what I'd done. I loaded the rifle again and fired. The blast and recoil were stupendous. I was bewildered, but when I checked the target, it was clear what had happened. There were two holes in the target.
That was about the time I touched my forehead, and then my cheeks and nose. My face was drenched with blood.
You can't let an opportunity like that go to waste. I found my youngest daughter Hannah, held my arms open wide and cooed, "Give Daddy a big hug!"
There's not a defensive back in the SEC that could have caught her.
As much as I practice shooting my smokepoles, I didn't believe the experience affected me, but apparently it did, but only when hunting.
Interestingly, I never flinch when shooting centerfire rifles or handguns. I only do it with muzzleloaders.
On the shooting bench I'm flawless. My hold is solid, my trigger control is steady, and my follow-through is proper. I'm as good on paper as I can be.
I have trajectory tables for various loads out to about 200 yards, but my Omega is zeroed to hit dead on at 75 yards, which is about the longest shot I get to take in Arkansas.
In the 2015 muzzleloader deer season, I missed a doe broadside at about 30 yards from a hanging stand with a Knight muzzleloader. Later that afternoon, in a different stand, I missed a mature buck at about 20 yards with the Omega.
During the 2016 season, a hangfire caused me to miss a mature buck at Madison County WMA. That one really hurt because I know I did everything right until I lifted my head during the interval between the primer and charge detonations.
A few weeks later, I missed a doe at about 15 yards. I don't know how that's possible, but I did it.
Finally, as a sad coda to an otherwise fine season, I missed a doe at about 40 yards. That was on Dec. 31, in the closing minutes of our final muzzleloader season. I thought that was a good shot, too, and I searched a wide area in vain long into the night.
The penalty for those misses was failing to qualify for my first Triple Trophy Award.
One of two things is happening. Either the memory of the scope smack makes me flinch, or I pull away to try to see my target through the scope.
Right now, it's in my head pretty bad. My scouting and preparation put me in position to succeed, but poor execution nullifies all my hard work.
There is only one remedy, and that is intensive practice and repetition. From now until October, I am going to burn through a lot of powder, primers and bullets to set things right.
I'll spray stick-um on my stock to glue my head down if that's what it takes.
I enjoy muzzleloader hunting too much to suffer that much disappointment.
Sports on 01/05/2017