Henry Rifle Forums

Rain all day today! Yuck. Years ago hunted all day in rain. Wooden ramrod swelled and would not come out. Fired off charge with a lighter held to nipple. I went to an inline later, but will not hunt bp on a rainy day. Also went to an aluminum ramrod. Deer don't seem to move much in rain has been my experience. Monday sb be better.

Sorry your day (and rifle) got soaked.

My cousin and I used to hunt Elk using inline BP rifles. We did this as the season was the first week of October and the bulls were still bugling and we could use this to help find them. We would take a week off work and hit it hard. Seems like every year that first week in Oct was the wettest week of the year. I used to joke it was like hunting in a swimming pool. Many times when we were done for the day I would fire my rifle only to hear “click”. Finally we gave that up and went back to modern firearms hunting where the weather didn’t matter for the function of the rifle. That season opens in Washington today so I’m hoping for all those out there to “get some”.

Good luck and good weather for you on Monday. Get some!

Never hunted Elk always wanted to. Have family in Colorado. Not sure heart would do high altitude hunts.

Yeah, that’s a concern. Interesting that Elk were originally a prairie animal who were pushed into the more mountainous areas with the westward migration of us people. Around here there aren’t many Elk but they can be found from the valley floors to the mountain tops, 2000 ft to 6000 ft. Locally we hunted around 3000 ft and when we were younger we hunted the Selkirk Mountains in NE Washington at 5000 - 6000 ft. Nothing like those massive mountains in Colorado however. That’s some big country down there!

PJM wrote: ↑

Sat Oct 30, 2021 9:57 am

Never hunted Elk always wanted to. Have family in Colorado. Not sure heart would do high altitude hunts.

decades ago I had the good fortune to hunt for elk somewhere between Eagle and Denver, Colorado .... I well remember waking up and being out breath by the time I got my boots on .. .. collectively our party did very well, I took one with a Smith Chief Special .. .. doing so has stood the test of time as one of the highlights among hunting memories .... I've never fired an inline BP rifle but can sure see the advantages .... mine is a 30+ year old, 50 Cal TC Hawken with set trigger .... its spent many a rainy hour waiting on a deer to walk by

Love those TC's. Have 2, and would never part with them.
One is a .54 White mountain carbine. and other is a .50 cal Hawken with a 32" barrel and 1in66"twist for patched ball and conicals.I know what you mean about Colorado hills. We were at Leadville, about 10000 ft and Pike's peak, around 14000 ft and breathing was tough.

Normally our BP season would open next weekend, but
with the CWD in this area. They have basically stopped it,
and opened it for all legal firearms.
You can still hunt with them if you like, but we aren't bound to them.
Like PJM, my BP rifles are percussions, a .54 cal. Renegade, .50 cal. Hawkens.
for small game I also have a .32 ca. squirrel rifle.

RP

Speaking of hunting, checked the camera that is beside one of the hunting houses.
This was just a couple days ago, about 8:30 pm.

RP