On the Cusp

JUST PULLED THE CARD from the creek camera. Deer are really walking that narrow bottom trail you cut in early August,” spoke my brother Glenn. “At least four bucks are visiting the mock scrapes you put up. “Saw three bucks this morning freshly out of velvet on my place east of here.”

I nodded.

It was good to be back at my little place. For the past weeks, I had been in the western part of Texas looking at several ranches and discussing management programs with the owners and their hunters. We had also conducted the first runs on spotlight deer survey lines on the respective properties.

Thanks to fortuitous rains, fawn survival rates hovered near one hundred percent. Antler development too, appeared extremely good. We had seen some mighty impressive bucks. One of my reasons for traveling west of San Angelo was to do some preseason scouting where I plan on hunting in December.

I was tickled to hear bucks were visiting my mock scrapes. I had established four “artificial” scrapes the last week of July using Texas Raised Hunting Products’ “Breeding Buck Preorbital.” One I set up in what had been an active scrape from last fall. The other three were established along the edge of the usually dry creek that meanders through the property.

Back in May I had talked with Brett and Gary Andrews with Texas Raised Hunting Products (www.TexasRaisedHuntingProducts.com) about how they use mock scrapes throughout the year. This for an episode for our “DSC’s Untamed Heritage” podcast.

In years past, I had often seen evidence of whitetails, both bucks and does visiting established scrapes, regardless of their seasonal hormone levels. It was at Brett’s advice I set up the mock scrapes in July.

My plan is to keep the mock scrapes “freshened” throughout the late summer and early fall. Closer to the rut, I will start adding Texas Raised Hunting Products’ “Scrape King” to keep bucks returning regularly. Now is the time to get things headed your way for a successful whitetail season!

This coming hunting season, I will again be hunting with my Ruger revolvers, a single-action Ruger Super Black Hawk Hunter and a double-action Ruger Super Redhawk Hunter. Both are topped with Trijicon’s SRO red dot sights.

Primarily, I will hunt with my .480 Ruger shooting Hornady 325-grain XTP loads. With the Ruger Hornady Trijicon combination, I feel very comfortable shooting at deer out to 100 yards.

From a “hunting rest,” I can put six shots into a six-inch circle at that distance. From a solid rest, I can put six shots into a three-inch or smaller group.

I will continue shooting this combination the next several weeks preparing for the coming hunting season. I want to learn this trio’s capabilities and mine with it.

I will do the same with the various Ruger rifles I will use this fall. We will film all my hunts for our DSC’s Trailing the Hunter’s Moon television show, which appears year-around on the Pursuit Channel, Wild Pursuit Channel as well as other sources. So you will be able to see the results.

Time to start getting ready. I can hardly wait!

 

Email Larry Weishuhn at ContactUs@fishgame.com

 

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