The Beginning

 

“COMING LEFT!” Seven or eight mourning doves within twenty yards, I shouldered my Mossberg 410-gauge swung past the lead bird and pulled the trigger. Down it went! Two dove wing beats later I swung through a second dove, pulled the trigger on the bottom barrel. 

“Gracious! Didn’t think you even knew what a shotgun was, nor how to shoot one!” I smiled and pretended like it happened every time I pulled a shotgun’s trigger.

After picking up both doves, “I’ll see you at dark.  Gonna go hunt that little waterhole at the Turner windmill.” Twenty minutes later I sat down next to a gnarly bull mesquite, laid my over-under shotgun at my side and pulled my Stealth Vision binocular from my backpack.  Time to get down to serious business and the real reason I was “hunting” doves, was to scout for whitetails watching a waterhole where earlier in the year I had picked up a matched set of sheds.  With a 17-inch inside spread the rack would have gross Boone & Crockett scored in the 160s.

While others were shooting at doves, I watched bucks, does and fawns.

(Photo: LARRY WEISHUHN)

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While others were shooting at mourning doves, I watched bucks, does and fawns coming to water and taking bites of the Vineyard Max (www.vineyardmax.net) I had poured on the ground, several small piles around the small waterhole.   

The sun had dropped into the mesquites twenty-five minutes ago. I was about to leave when I spotted movement walking toward the waterhole.  Binos up, It was a really good buck with antlers that looked a lot like the sheds I had found, only bigger.  I watched as he cautiously approached the shallow spill-over pond set up specifically for wildlife water, as evidenced by not only the deer but also the many mourning doves, bobwhite quail, and songbirds that had come to water there that afternoon.

I watched as he drank. He was old, at least seven.  His beams were massive and as big around as his ear butts.  All other circumferences were bigger than his eye, which would measure 4-inches in circumference.  Four tines looked to be twice the length of eye to the tip of his nose measurement, 6 to 7-inches. His front tines and his brow tines were equal to that measure.  When he turned to leave, he stopped and listened intently to something in front of him.  His forward erect ears, based on measurements I had taken in the past on numerous hunter-harvested area bucks, were easily 15-inches plus another half of that measurement likely 20-inches inside spread.

He was one I wanted.  I knew my best chance of taking that particular buck would be at the first legal opportunity while he was still in his late summer pattern, before the initiation of the rut.

I am not a bowhunter, nor do I own a crossbow. The property at the time was not yet set up under a Texas Managed Land Deer Permit.  I really wanted a chance at that buck. I would have to procure a crossbow and learn the capabilities of it and my capabilities with it.  The following week I had a Ten Point crossbow complete with a full compliment of bolts, tipped with Sevr broadheads.  Unlike my bolt and lever-action rifles topped with Stealth Vision scopes loaded with Hornady ammo, or my .44 Mag or .454 Casull Taurus Raging Hunter revolvers also shooting Hornady loads, hunting with a crossbow required a whole new set of “learnings.”

Wish I could tell you I shot the Turner windmill buck that fall. It did not happen, but not because of a lack of time spent hunting him. I did not see him again until after the hunting season closed.

This year things are different. The property is now under a MLD Permit. I’ll not be hunting that property with a crossbow. I will use it on another property where I can only sling arrows. This October, I will hunt with my Mossberg 7mm PRC rifle with Avient Rapid Heat Releasing barrel topped with a Stealth Vision scope, shooting Hornady Precision Hunter ammo ready for action come the first day of the Texas Managed Land Deer Permit season.  If I happen to take my “targeted” buck this fall, you will hear my Aggie Victory yell no matter where you live!

September is the ideal time to do your pre-season whitetail scouting.  From all I could learn earlier, 2025 will be an excellent antler year.  In most areas of Texas, deer are in great body condition.  I see lots of delicious venison-based meals in our future.

By the latter part of October, I’ll be hunting in northeast Texas using my “rattling horns”.  Last year I rattled in numerous bucks southeast of the Dallas/Fort Worth area, which has become one of my favorite hunting areas.

If you love hunting like I do, it is once again our “time of the year!”  All the BEST of days afield!

 

Email Larry Weishuhn at ContactUs@fishgame.com