Page 30 - Outdoor Oklahoma - May/June 2021 Issue

Anyone who shoots traditional muzzleloaders, percussion
or flint, is going to do things the hard way. Shooting a flint-
lock is like shooting a traditional longbow. They are not as
foolproof as modern firearms. So, when you do bag any game
animal, you feel different about it. It means more to me to
have accomplished a successful hunt the old way. It’s kind of
reverent. Things can go wrong when you are using the old-
style equipment. Once your target enters your hunting area,
you can’t make any mistakes, and your gun has to fire with-
out complications. When it finally happens, you appreciate the
entire event a lot more.
My grandson, Jacob (we call him Jake), read and studied
that magazine, as well. We both were inspired to try some
of those recipes, or make a knife — those sorts of things. Old
Jake decided to make himself a powder horn to go with the
new rifle I was building for him. I began working on his rifle
again. I still had several months to go before I would finish
it. We were having such a fine time hanging out in the shop
JAkE kELLY together, talking over things we had done together and places
we had gone over the years.
He always referred to our adventures as “makin’ memories.”
He was 6 months old the first time I took him fishing, and he’s
been in my shadow since.
Finally the March/April magazine came out. I found a copy
and took it to the shop. Jake snatched it out of my hands and
said, “Me first!” with a laugh. “Look at this, Papa. It’s a story
about a guy squirrel hunting with a muzzleloader. Heck, we’ve
done that before, several times.”
“I see the We’d already been discussing the upcoming squirrel season.
red tail And there, on page 42, was a story about a black powder squirrel
flash. Jake hunt. He said we should do a hunt of our own. Well, we would
have to wait two and a half months for squirrel season to open.
couldn’t I’ve been hunting squirrels with a black-powder gun for
see it, so 45 years or so. Do it every year. The kids love it as much as
I took the I do. Squirrel hunting is a perfect excuse to get back in the
shot.” woods after a long winter. I have used a .22 or a shotgun or
my Diamondback .22 revolver. When I was about 5, my grand-
pa made me a slingshot. I carried it in my hip pocket, and my
pockets were full of hand-picked rocks. My first squirrel was
bagged with it when I was 7.
Opening day, May 15, was on a Tuesday that year. But other
obligations delayed us getting into the woods squirrel hunting
until May 21. We call them day trips. We have our cooking gear
in a pack basket along with everything needed to bag, cook
and eat a squirrel.
I’m toting a Lehigh Valley style .32-caliber flintlock rifle that
I built in 1986. It is the first long rifle I ever built, and it’s my
favorite. Jake is carrying a custom 16-gauge smoothbore fowl-
ing piece. A flintlock to be sure, for the occasion. Each of us
had our own gun belt with our favorite items. Since we live in
copperhead and rattlesnake country, we have our snake guns.
Mine is a .357, and his a .38. Both are loaded with snake shot.
We each have a leather “fire bag” on our belts. We made the
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