The man is Wayne Garber from Pt. St. Lucie, Florida. Wayne builds custom traditional rifles, about one a year or so for himself or to give to close friends or relatives.. Most are flinters. We get together about twice a year. He comes to Michigan in the Summer if he can and we fry some trout, and again for deer season. Once in a while I go to Florida to hunt Spring turkey with him.
The deer was an old, worn out veteran. Just a 3 point, but his upper teeth were about gone. He dressed at about 160 lbs. Wayne took him 8:30 opening morning through the spine at 80 yards with a custom flinter, a 285 gr. Great Plains Bullet, and 70 gr. fffg Goex. He had to shoot through the branches of an apple tree and never saw the antlers. He thought it was a doe. Had he seen only 3 points, the deer would have walked.
The flintlock is short barrelled, I think 30 or 32 inches. It's a green Mountain or a Bill Moody, he uses both. It's twist is one in 26 for conical bullets. The lock is a Siler. The stock is Michigan curly maple from a block a logger friend of ours gave him a couple of years ago. It is beautifully inletted with cuts of darker hardwoods.
Here's the man, the deer and the rifle.
Pete
