Originally posted by G0ALY
Today was the first day of muzzle-loader deer season here in Ohio. The plan was for me, and two friends to go. Last night, one of the friends called and stated that his son would like to come along, but he did not have a muzzleloader. No problem! I have a couple of extras….
I offered the use of a .58 caliber civil war replica, or a Mossberg model 500 12guage pump shotgun with a .50 caliber single shot muzzle loading conversion barrel installed. My buddy chose to use the .50cal., and let his son use his muzzleloader. For some reason, my buddy felt that he should be responsible for my gun.
Its 7AM and into the woods we go…
About 11AM, we are gathering to move to another woods, I hear an airplane overhead and instinctively look up… You guys can understand, we all do it, you just HAVE to look. Its just a plane twin engine, a little low, but not that unusual. Then it flys by again, and again, and again…
I’ve seen this before, this guy is flying cap over us!
My truck is about a mile away and we begin our walk towards it. The plane never leaves our sight, it keeps doing a circular pattern around us just like a vulture over a capped base in AH. I started looking around and notice a Department of Natural Resources pickup near my truck. Then we notice another DNR truck coming from the North and a third from the South… They have us surrounded!
As we approach my truck, a DNR officer is waiting for us. The first thing he asks is to see the .50cal Mossberg that my buddy is carrying. He is certain that it was a pump shotgun being used out of season.
After a thorough examination of the gun and, some lengthy explanation of the workings of the conversion barrel --- and a pat-down of my buddy just to make certain that he was not carrying any shotgun shells. The rest of our firearms, and all of our licenses and written permission slips were all checked. Of course everything was just as it was supposed to be, and we were sent on our way.
Here is a picture of a regular Mossberg shotgun, and one with the muzzle-loading barrel. You can see how they could be mistaken. But do you need to call in the Calvary?
In the end, although we saw a few deer, but nobody took a single shot.
Back in the 50's, 60's and 70's, my stepfather was a flying game warden. He had some great stories of cornering guys like yourselfs (but real bad guys). Once this out of season hunter was holed up in a large cornfield, with several exits...so my stepdad did a low pass over his location and the guy came out with his hands up.
He was also shot twice while in the line of duty as a game warden, once while flying (shot hit his plane and sharpnel got him) and once in the field. He was also wounded in the Battle of the Bulge in WW2.
RIP Pat McFall.
