Today is the first day of our muzzleloader season . About a half hour after shooting light , a buck came out . I shot . Immediately, I knew something was wrong . The sound was very odd. Pitch was abnormally high . The volume of smoke was also very high .

I fired a couple of shots the day before using the same pellets. No issues.

I was worried I missed the deer but he was only a few yards away .

I have never seen anything like this . Any ideas ?

Double load?

Zero chance of that .

My money is still on a double load. Another possibility is the bullet moved up the barrel before the powder ignited causing pressures to raise.

Not a chance of a double load for a variety of reasons . One of which is that I have a mark on the rod that I use to check every time I load .

If the load has moved a little, it seems to me that would cause the sound to be different. Not sure about the smoke.

quote:

Originally posted by Snowwolfe:
...Another possibility is the bullet moved up the barrel before the powder ignited causing pressures to raise.

Were you shooting from a stand?
Any difference in position from practice to the hunt?

I was probably 15 feet elevated. Shooting at maybe 60 yards .

I have been thinking about this . Still puzzled. I do have a thought . I wonder what you all think of this

I was in a tree stand 15 feet or so high. It was pretty thick all around me. Mostly oaks and scrub oaks. There was a hole in this mass of trees. I shot into the hole when I shot at the deer . Perhaps the surrounding vegetation held the smoke in a smaller area making it more difficult to disperse.

Could this also change the apparent sound of the shot?

quote:

Originally posted by larryshores:
I have been thinking about this . Still puzzled. I do have a thought . I wonder what you all think of this

I was in a tree stand 15 feet or so high. It was pretty thick all around me. Mostly oaks and scrub oaks. There was a hole in this mass of trees. I shot into the hole when I shot at the deer . Perhaps the surrounding vegetation held the smoke in a smaller area making it more difficult to disperse.

Could this also change the apparent sound of the shot?

Vegetation does muffle sound for those beyond the source of the sound so presumably it reflects sound back to someone behind the source of the sound i.e. you the shooter. Similar to shooting inside a building where sound is reflected back to the shooter.

Certainly vegetation would concentrate and slow dispersion of smoke too.

I know you are in Florida but was the air dry. Damp air seems to have the smoke hang around longer.

Just add an air dryer to your equipment list. Let’s see..ozanics scent killing machine, air dryer, heck’s invisible shield, heated hot bag with low noise generator to run it, just keep the music kinda low so the deer don’t hear it. Far removed From a wool plaid shirt and a jackknife, and dad’s 30-30 if he would let u use it.
On the original question, my buddy and I were inside a pop-up blind when he shot a deer. His rifle had ported barrel and it made the loudest crack I’ve ever heard. We were both watching the deer and maybe his bbl was just inside the tent??

How tight was the projectile? Could it have possibly slid a bit down the barrel? I
had that issue with undersized minie bullets but caught it before I shot (sitting in the stand thinking about how easily the bullet loaded, decided to take the rod out and "Oh my!")

quote:

Originally posted by Mark:
How tight was the projectile? Could it have possibly slid a bit down the barrel? I
had that issue with undersized minie bullets but caught it before I shot (sitting in the stand thinking about how easily the bullet loaded, decided to take the rod out and "Oh my!")

The barrel seems pretty tight to me but who knows . It is possible.

quote:

Originally posted by J_Zola:
I know you are in Florida but was the air dry. Damp air seems to have the smoke hang around longer.

I am trying to remember if it was foggy that morning . Most mornings around here have heavy dew.

Maybe you was sitting in a marihuana patch!