Well folks,life takes some interesting twists n turns.
A couple of years ago I thought needed to scratch itch with black powder,so bought blank barrel off @ homebrew .357 and got another great fella to do some magic in lathe so it fits into an old single barrel shotgun...chambered for the mighty old 45/70 WHY... same reason a dog licks its bits...because it can.
I bought some dies,some great big hunks of lead shaped into wonderful projectiles from @Shootersnz and even got really keen and followed recipe to home roll some smelly black propellant .....
with crude shotgun sights accuracy was definately challenging but consistantly within 6" from where aiming at 50 yards made me confident it was feasable to take animal with it.....the last 12mths havent seen the "hefalump gun" taken out much,did try for wallabies one sunny day ,fired a few rounds but no joy,the only hopper who sat still all day and Meg planted herself in between us!!!!!!
anyway...last weekend a good mate went for a wander in local spot and said he had seen half dozen wallabies some within 10 yards...
so I got my crap together and took bow for a walk...managed to break 4 broadheads,got one wallaby,but the delay in kill just didnt do it for me....got home and put bow up for sale... @Finnwolf found a buyer for it....
anyway..back on topic...
Today,got up,had breakfast,grabbed hefalump gun and away we went,back to same spot. got to carpark at 11 am and started hoofing it up hill,saw wallaby below track in the broadleaf at 20 yards,fanned back hammer,put bead centremass to try for spine and let rip...45grns smokeless powder from ADI and 400grn projectile did the rest...my wallaby simply died.... no other way to decribe it,it just died,didnt kick,didnt hop just fell over brown bread......WOW...that was easy. took photo and carried on with ears in pocket.
got up into open stuff,nothing doing as more people up ahead making racket..sat and had a wee break,then thought to self, bugger it lets try a sneaky wee stalk on clearing but approach from below...so into mousy mode I go, racing ashley gummies down into low low box and creap along.
into first wee clearing,spot wallaby through matagouri,confirm with binos...yes its 10-15 yards away but binos confirm...up and fire,CLICK..DAMN recock hammer CLICK...bugga bugga bugga,open action,drop metal rod down barrel to eject round, pick up and put in pocket,reload yip wally still there only moved 5 yards,wind is right and wearing camo BOOMFA. 60 grns of black powder in that round...spectacular,and there is a tail twitching in tussocks,again it simply died, opened hid up to have a look at terminal damage,it is weird...just a 1 inch hole with nothing in it...nothing at all,like someone has taken a core sample....
carried on and managed to bush stalk around for half hour before spotting another hopper this one about 40 yards away,it too just died on the spot.... the fourth and last one of day was steeply below me at about 30 yards,again my BP load didnt fire but on second drop of hammer away she went...I thought first BP round looked good,in dark bush it was really spectacular,wally dissapeared head over heels backwards...I get down there and round has entered side of nose/mouth and exited behind neck..not messy,just VERY dead.
get further down track and spot big black/grey blob ahead,through light vegetation screen,it looks like a wallaby,but what way is it facing???is it just base of tree??? nah looks right very round,move slightly to see better and FALLOW DEER stands up and off it goes..... umm THAT WASNT part of the plan..chuckle to self,my own fault for putting binos back in bag instead of keeping them out for ID....
so that was my day...4 shots four kills and Im as happy as a pig in poohs with results...it prooves the hefalump gun will be feasable for deer on wet shitty day....looking forward to seeing how @Seventy Six gets on with his.Attachment 170206
