By Tom Kovalak

December 26, 2012

I shot my first traditional muzzleloader deer tonight and have now harvested a deer with almost every type of weapon. I have been fortunate enough to have taken a deer with a rifle, compound bow, longbow, shotgun, single action pistol and now a traditional muzzleloader.

I just bought a nice, used Lyman Great Plains Rifle with the 1:60" twist barrel. I used a .490 Hornady round ball, a pre-lubed .015 patch and 70 grains of Goex FFF black powder. I was hunting from a tree stand when two does walked within 45 yards. I took aim at the larger of the two and "click"...misfire! Both does looked my way, watched for a while, but went back to looking through the snow for something to eat. I was able to fish another cap out of my pocket and put it on the nipple. This time...fire! The doe never moved and fell over like she was hit by a brick.

It's so funny the bad things I've read about the ineffectiveness of round balls on deer. How wrong! I'm not sure how much deader a deer needs to be for them to be considered effective. I know I'm going to keep using my Lyman and Hornady round balls.