Editor’s Note: Susie W.sent this into CVA’s National Sales Manager Terry Eby.
Brady H. and his Grandpa Tim W. were together on 9/26/2010 in Clayton County, Iowa during his first youth deer season, for the shot of a lifetime! Grandpa was watching the does when Brady spotted a buck then Grandpa saw it, not wanting Brady to get over excited, he said don’t look at the antlers, look for the shot, he took aim and he nailed it with a CVA ACCURA 50 caliber muzzle loader from 100 yards…dropped it like a rock! They are so happy they could share this life moment together!!
Thanks for making a great gun that made the shot possible and a reality!!! We have one excited 10 year old!!!
Editor’s Note: Good muzzleloading hunters can be better hunters if they don’t commit sins that decrease their odds for bagging any deer, especially trophy deer. This week, we’ll look at how to avoid the problem of being too anxious and overzealous to bag trophy bucks, one of the most-common mistakes even good muzzleloader hunters – sportsmen who have taken several deer and who have hunted for 4 or 5 years – make.
Many muzzleloader outdoorsmen want to be trophy hunters. Once a hunter gets into the sport of muzzleloading and begins to read about Boone & Crockett trophy deer and about the hunters who take these types of animals, he may set a goal for himself to become a trophy hunter. However, many of these sportsmen don’t put-in the hours or take enough deer to become good hunters ¬– much less trophy hunters. These hunters are making very-big mistakes and missing-out on a lot of fun. As a trophy hunter, the muzzleloader hunter may hunt all season with his CVA rifle and not even see a B&C set of antlers. A buck must have extremely-large antlers to make the Boone & Crockett book. A muzzleloader hunter may search his entire life for a trophy deer that’s B&C size and never find it. He’ll have to let numbers of nice deer walk-by without ever harvesting them. But bagging deer and enjoying the outdoors is what the sport of muzzleloader hunting is all about. Therefore the hunter who becomes a trophy muzzleloader hunter too quickly misses the best of hunting, because he’s so obsessed with taking a trophy. Too, if a muzzleloader hunter hasn’t bagged quite a few deer, he won’t be mentally ready to take a trophy, even if the shot presents itself. If the hunter ever will have shaking knees and shortness of breath before a shot and be so nervous he can’t hold his arm steady – it will happen when a big set of antlers comes into range of his CVA rifle. Only by:
* learning to deal with the emotional problems directly affecting the shot can the hunter expect to be successful; and
* taking numbers of deer can the hunter learn to control his emotions at this moment of truth.
The muzzleloader hunter who wants to become a trophy hunter should have bagged at least six to 10 deer before he tries to become a trophy hunter, and 20 deer will be even better. This idea of being a trophy hunter has been overplayed in my opinion. Everybody shouldn’t hope to be a trophy muzzleloader hunter. Trophy hunting isn’t the ultimate in hunting. I do it because I like it, and I’ve taken enough deer that I want to attempt to bag bigger deer, although I still enjoy taking a doe or a smaller buck. However, a muzzleloader hunter doesn’t have to become a trophy hunter to be a good hunter.
Too, many good hunters don’t harvest deer as often as they can, because they don’t know when to take their shots. They either shoot before they have good shots or wait for the best shots and never get shots. Experience is the best teacher a muzzleloader hunter can have, because a hunter must learn when he should take a shot. But my rule is that when an animal presents me with a good shot that I feel I can put him down with, that’s the time I shoot my CVA rifle. I don’t believe you ever should hurry a shot. However, also I’ve found that you shouldn’t wait on that best shot, because often deer won’t give you the shot for which you’re looking. I’ve waited around for that best shot before, never have had it presented to me and have watched a nice deer walk away from me. Don’t play with a deer, don’t watch a deer, and don’t take a head-on shot either. But when you’ve got a good shot with your CVA rifle, take the shot.
with Terry Oertwig and His CVA Muzzleloading Electra
Editor’s Note: Terry Oertwig, a member of CVA’s Pro Staff, hunts all over the world with blackpowder weapons. His muzzleloading rifle of choice is the CVA Electra, because it requires less cleaning, gives more-reliable ignitions than percussion caps and has unmatched accuracy out to 300 yards. While on a recent trip to Africa, he took a kudu and a warthog, and this week he tells our readers about his kudu hunt.
The kudu is known as the gray ghost of Africa. This animal weighs about 800 pounds and has horns that are often 50-plus-inches long. My kudu had 52-inch horns. Even as big as kudus are, they’re very elusive and can disappear in the bush very quickly. On one morning of my hunt in Africa with Mafigeni Safaris, we got up early to go out to hunt specifically for kudus. Finally, we spotted a kudu near a lake and planned a course for our stalk. We had seen this kudu before, and he was really a nice trophy. There were several kudus in the bunch that we were stalking. As we got within about 150 yards, fate dealt us a joker. A family of baboons spotted us, got up in the trees and started screaming and shaking branches. The action by the baboons spooked the kudu. My guide, Claude Kleynhans, said, “The kudus were coming to this lake to drink, and this is a relatively-small lake. So maybe they’ll come back here once they think the danger has passed. Then we’ll get another chance at the big kudu.”
We waited for about 2-1/2-hours, and even though I had plenty of opportunities to take other animals, we had decided that this kudu was the hunt for that day. Because we’d been sitting in the blind for so long and trying to stay as motionless as possible, my legs and back were beginning to ache. I decided to stand up. I made sure there was nothing in front of me before I started to stand. When I stood up, I leaned my CVA Electra against the tree. As I started to stretch my back and arms, I spotted the kudu coming toward our blind from behind us.
Apparently, when he had spooked because of the baboons screaming, the kudu ran all the way around the lake and now was approaching the lake from directly behind the blind. I picked-up my CVA Electra to try to get-off a shot, but African animals are not like white-tailed deer. They don’t stand in one spot, eat, move on and grab a bite of grass or bushes, while they’re walking. They keep their motors running and their engines in gear. At the slightest sign of danger, they can throttle-down and escape. As I tried to find an opportunity to take the shot, the kudu kept moving through the bush. Although I was within range, I never could get an opening to shoot. Before I could take the shot, the kudu winded us, shifted to high gear and left.
We sat at the waterhole for a while, hoping he might come back, and finally decided to leave, circle the area, and arrived at another location where we had spotted this kudu previously. However, before we got to the place where we planned to look for the animal, we spotted him standing about 400 yards from the place, where we had seen him earlier. He was eating and moving, so we moved in the direction he was going and got to within 70 yards before I took the shot. We had started hunting this kudu at 6 am, and when the gray ghost went down, I looked at my watch and it was 5:15 pm. The kudu weighed around 800 pounds, and the CVA Electra put him down very efficiently.
To learn more about African muzzleloadin safaris with Claude and Jill Kleynhans, go to www.mafigeni.com.
Editor’s Note: Susie W.sent this into CVA’s National Sales Manager Terry Eby.
