The day after Christmas was the start of the Pennsylvania Black Powder Season for flintlock rifles.

The season allows hunters to use their buck tag for any deer and their doe tags for just antlerless deer. The special Late Season Elk hunt began right at the start of the New Year from Jan. 1 through Saturday.

My good friend Brian Rumsky is a licensed elk guide up in the Pennsylvania Wilds region and he was preparing for a guided hunt with one of the lucky elk hunters who received the coveted PA elk tag. According to Brian, the bulls are easier to find than the cows, but most bull hunters are seeking a record class animal.

I remember my first days of muzzleloader hunting and it certainly was a learning curve for me and my friend Anthony, who talked me into trying out the black powder hunting. We didn’t know much about muzzleloader hunting, but anything that would allow us to extend our hunting days was alright by us.

We were just out of college and didn’t have much money to splurge on firearms or black powder supplies, so we shared a lot of the powder and round balls for the hunt. In fact, we would load up at the car and each take one extra shot (just in case) for a backup. An old aspirin bottle carried some extra flash pan powder to keep the spark fresh.

We hunted over by the Slippery Rock apartments, which at that time was all woods and farm lands. The area was full of game and it was one of our favorite hunting areas. Now it is called Poplar Woods and filled with high end homes and the hunting has ended because of the safety zone areas.

I guess the changes in old hunting stomping grounds has changed in many places over the years but I still recall it fondly as a great place for a walk about! Anyway, back to our hunt many years ago …

I arrived for the hunt before Anthony and I had the supplies, so I loaded up my flintlock and put a fresh charge of powder in my pan. I would work my way through some trails that winded through the slashings and thickets.

We slow hunted in those days, hoping to catch a deer bedded down or not too alarmed, allowing us a reasonably close shot. Flintlocks are decent rifles out to 100 yards and closer and that was the range that I planned to limit myself with if I had an opportunity. Late Season Small Game was also in at the same time and as it would go, I saw plenty of squirrels, rabbit tracks and heard some grouse flushing, but no deer.

This was about to change as I approached a clearing, a really large ruffed grouse was picking red berries off a shrub and was about 50 yards away. I thought that I might take a shot at him and see if my aim would be steady enough to bring home a grouse! He either saw my movement or sensed me and stepped around the bushy edge, forcing me to stalk up a little closer for a clearer shot.

Slowly I stepped, carefully putting down each boot stride in a quiet and deliberate walk. As I closed the distance and peered around the thicket, I saw my grouse … but he had led me to a more prized quarry … a whitetail deer.

The deer was well within my range and I mentally went through each step that I needed to complete to make this shot go as planned. My pan powder was prime and I cocked back the hammer to give the flint a chance to do its job … hit the strike plate and throw some sparks. I took aim and held the rifle steady and squeezed the trigger, there was the metallic clunk and then a boom.

A cloud of black powder smoke filled the air and blocked my vision … about that time I heard a loud hoot from the woods edge and there was my buddy on cue to witness our first-ever success with the flintlock.

Many years later, my friend lives in Tennessee and is a grandfather. We exchange Christmas cards and often times we jot a note to each other sharing our hunting successes and near misses each year.

I know that our days afield are waning, but the chance to relive past hunts with each other always gives me a New Years tonic and makes me hope that all of us have many more stories to share over the years!

Happy New Year, my friends, wishing you all a healthy and prosperous 2022!

Jay Hewitt is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle