Hunting seasons looms on the horizon here in Texas. Mourning dove hunting is practically here. Big game seasons are opening elsewhere and numerous have already begun across North America. As this is being written, I’ve started packing for a moose hunt in British Columbia with Love Bros & Lee. On that hunt I’ll be using my Mossberg Patriot chambered in 375 Ruger, topped with a Stealth Vision scope and shooting Hornady Outfitter 250 gr CX ammo, a combination that is appropriate for North America’s biggest deer. I’m told we’ll be calling moose, which will be great fun!
As soon as I return to Texas, I’ll be hunting whitetails on one of two places, either my lease in western Texas or on a friend’s ranch in northeast Texas. The latter property not only has whitetail deer, but it also has an abundance of wild hogs. I’m leaning towards starting in northeastern Texas.
On that property this year, I hope to take a mature buck and a couple of does. I have several guns I am hunting with this year. Of course, I’ll be doing plenty of hunting with my Mossberg Patriot rifles in 6.5 PRC and 7mm PRC especially where there’s the opportunity to shoot longer range, which to me means out to 400-yards, my usual self-imposed maximum distance. I prefer taking shots 200-yards and less.
I intend to do most of my hunting on the northeastern property with my Rossi Model 92 44 Mag lever action rifle and my Taurus Raging Hunter 44 Mag double-action revolver. I’ve hunted and taken deer with both in the past, but seldom carried both at the same time. This year I will have both 44 Mags with me.
Shooting the Raging Hunter handgun, topped with a long eye relief scope I feel comfortable taking shots at deer and hogs out to about 125-yards. At that distance I can keep all my shots from the bench within a two-inch group. In my opinion the Hornady 240 gr XTP Custom ammo I’m shooting is still producing sufficient energy to fully expand the bullet and hitting hard enough to generally causing the bullet exits on the opposite side. From a real-world hunting rest, I can shoot three-inch groups at that same distance.
As you may recall in previous “tome” about hunting elk with a handgun, I shot my biggest antlered and bodied bull ever with a 44 Mag shooting Hornady 240 gr XTP at 125-yards. I have also shot that same combination at 500-yards and after a bit of figuring out the proper hold-over, I am able to hit the 24-inch steel target at least four out of six shots. While I would never consider shooting at a critter that far away, hitting a 500-yard target regularly certainly is a confidence builder!
Shooting my lever action Rossi Model 92 with factory-equipped open sights, I can keep my shots within a little over three-inch circle at 100-yards, using the same 240 gr XTP Hornady ammo as in my Taurus revolver.
You can understand why I feel comfortable taking shots out to a bit over 100-yards with either revolver or rifle. Although admittedly I’d like to have deer closer.
My game plan on this year’s 44 Mag hunt here in Texas is to build ground blinds in areas where no one is currently hunting, then start baiting with Vineyard Max.
Vineyard Max is made from the dried and hammer-milled skins of both white and red grapes from the wine industry, mixed with rice bran and cracked corn. Based on my experience using it during the waning days of the 2023–24 hunting season, deer come to it quickly and readily, even where there are no grapes! Dusty Vickry, hunting manager for the Choctaw Hunting Lodge, told me he is experiencing the same in some remote area of the huge 22,000-acre property in Oklahoma. This just a few days ago.
To construct my ground blinds I’ll drag together several logs and limbs, being certain to also have a backdrop. Hunting on the ground I plan on wearing Realtree APX camo pattern, (made by Habit) because it will blend in perfectly with the logs, limbs and background I will be setting up.
I’m heading to the northeast property in a few days. After pulling together my ground blinds I’ll create what will appear to be “natural opening” shooting lanes. What little underbrush I cut, I’ll use on my ground blind. These shooting lanes will also be ideal later in November when I return to the property to try to rattle in bucks.
The prevailing winds in the area are out of the southeast and north-northwest. I’ll create shooting lanes so that I can hunt the blinds regardless of the wind, baiting in both those directions. Then the day I hunt, I’ll only bait the upwind site of where I’ll be sitting and watching.
Knowing how bucks respond to rattling, I will try to get directly downwind of the rattling sounds, I’ll create lanes that bucks will have to cross to get directly downwind of me, just giving me a better chance to study them and possibly get a shot.
Both ground blinds will be set up where the longest shot will likely be 50-yards, perfect for either of my 44 Mags. I’ll have both set up essentially ready to shoot. The one I choose to use first? Frankly at the moment I’m not certain which one it will be!
Which gun would you use?
Photo credit: Larry Weishuhn Outdoors