Wildlife biologist and outdoor writer Larry Weishuhn puts his downtime to good use by preparing for the forthcoming hunting season

“That Ruger FTW Hunter of yours really does like Hornady 250-grain GMX, doesn’t it?!” commented Tim Fallon of FTW Ranch when I showed him two targets I had shot at the range with my 375 Ruger a few minutes before.

“Yes Sir!” I replied, adding: “Three shots essentially into the same hole at 50 yards and basically the same at 100. That impresses me! From the range card you did for me, sighted dead on at 50 yards it’s again dead on at 200 yards and only 3-inches low at 250. I ‘trued it’ at the 200 and 250-yard steel plates. At the latter I hit the plate 3-inches low of dead center with a dead center hold. I noticed on the range card with the Trijicon 4-15x scope you mounted on the rifle for me, at 750 yards, I simply hold the tenth line down from the primary center crosshair on target. I have not trued the rifle/scope/ammo at that distance. But next time I come up I want to try to do exactly that. Not that I would ever shoot at a critter at that distance. But I do admit shooting at and hitting steel plates that far away with what most hunters consider an ‘elephant gun’ — great fun!”

The FTW Ranch produces some monstrously antlered whitetails, the result of an excellent management program in terms of both range and herd. Each year the ranch conducts numerous controlled burns which provide fresh and plentiful nutritious browse and forb growth. Deer and exotic game populations on the ranch are also carefully monitored and controlled. During hard nutrition times in their regions of the Texas Hill Country, late winter and late summer the ranch also provides supplemental feed, but only if needed. The deer and exotic populations are carried at a density the range can support in the worst of vegetation times.

For the past several years my grandchildren have hunted the FTW Ranch, helping Tim with his management program by harvesting does and bucks with less than desirable antlers for their age. As any hunter/conservationist will tell you deer populations need to be controlled to ensure proper habitat management. Doing so keeps the deer herd healthy, but more importantly it keeps the habitat healthy, ensuring diversity of vegetation and of wildlife. Under such management programs all wildlife benefits, especially song birds, small mammals, and insects.

I, too have helped with shooting does on the FTW Ranch. With proper habitat management, meaning plentiful native food, does provide extremely good tasting venison. I have, however, on occasion also hunted bucks there. One year I also took a 170 class 10-point with a short drop-tine. My choice of firearms for that hunt was my Ruger Model 77 Hawkeye, Guide Rifle chambered in 375 Ruger, shooting Hornady’s 300-grain, DGX. That particular Ruger preferred the DGX ammo over any other. With it I could easily keep five shots within a 1-inch group at 100 yards from a solid rest. Perhaps more importantly I knew exactly where the bullet would go when I shot at a deer out to 200 yards and beyond.

Tim and crew use a fair number of trail cameras to help them get an idea where bucks are traveling and to some extent when. Me? I appreciate trail cameras and the information gained from them when I’m scouting for other hunters. But when it comes to my personal hunting, I like being surprised by what might be found in the area I hunt. Perhaps that’s a bit ‘old school’. To me, there is something to be said about hunting where the bucks do not all have names. Although in years past I occasionally gave names to bucks, but these days I do not do so.

Maybe too, I’m a bit old school when it comes to scouting for mature bucks. I like doing so during the late summer, but I do most of my scouting starting in late winter. I concede the summer to the deer, and start scouting again late summer to early fall, mostly from a distance.

During the late winter I spend a fair amount of time looking for shed or cast antlers. When I used to guide on the ranches I managed, I have frequently ended up taking a particular buck within less than 100 yards or where I found his cast antler the previous winter. I have found that some truly old mature bucks tend to have rather small home ranges. Not all of the bucks I have dealt with, but enough to have that work for me. Some of the bucks I have hunted decreased the area they ranged over as they got older. In so doing they became extremely knowledgeable of their home. These are the bucks that tend to be extremely wary and secretive. They know every square inch of their range, and, how to avoid hunters. These, too are the bucks I truly enjoy pursuing and matching wits with. Sometimes I win, but most of the time I do not!

I look for their cast antlers, but then also try to determine where the bucks which have shed them had their scrapes and rubs. Often these show repeated use of the same rubbing trees and same scrapes year after year. Being old school, I tend to hand draw maps of the area I hunt showing the various features of the property, rather than using Google Earth or similar apps.

I usually start my post-season scouting about two weeks after the deer seasons close. By then the deer are pretty well back to their normal patterns and they are not spooked badly by human presence. With map and pen in hand I do my best to find all the rubs and scrapes in the area. I look for rubs with scars for past years’ use. And I look for scrapes that are deep and show a lot of use. I mark the location of these on my hand-drawn map. These will serve as reference points for where I will want to start hunting the following fall. Interestingly I watched a particular scrape about 40 miles from where I live. The scrape was active every year I checked it, until four years ago, when the new landowner bulldozed the ancient cedar tree. That scrape remained active for at least 21 years and it was likely active years before I started watching it.

During those years, particularly the early ones when I hunted that property personally, I guided several hunters to good bucks in the immediate area and rattled up a lot of bucks there.

When I find cast antlers I mark them on my map. I also note if it looks like they came from mature, or about to be mature bucks. In subsequent years if I find cast antlers from the same buck I can compare them in terms of size from year to year.

I return to the hunting area where I did my late winter scouting and shed hunting during mid-summer. If the property has a dense thicket, I go into the thicket and cut some winding trails, about six-feet wide, in the thicket. I lay these out so regardless which way the wind blows I can hunt these ‘cuts’, particularly from the ground using my Nature Blinds’ Stalking Shield and my Rattling Forks.

I cut the vegetation down to about two inches above the ground. When finished, I fertilize these trails with Triple 13 fertilizer or whatever cheap fertilizer I can buy at the local feed/seed dealer. These make great secretive and hidden food plots. This task accomplished, I do not return to these areas until I’m ready to hunt them.

If there are mast trees on the property, I spend some time in August and early September looking to see what particular trees are producing acorns. When there are many acorn/nut of soft mast (persimmon) producing trees, I select several. I return to those trees during winter and fertilize them with the cheapest fertilizer I can find. I dig a shallow trench along the drip-line, where the outermost branches end, which is where the tree’s primary feed roots are. I pour fertilizer into the trench then rake soil back in place.

Fertilizing mast trees makes their nuts and fruit sweeter. Deer quickly pick up on this. In a short time they will feed from these trees before any other. By fertilizing mast trees, you can actually pull deer to one individual tree or a grouping of trees, creating a natural and legal food plot.

For several years I managed a considerable chunk of property in Union and Crittenden County, Kentucky, on the Ohio River where Kentucky, Illinois and Indiana come together. The property in three different areas had considerable honeysuckle, ideal winter browse. Interestingly honeysuckle responds positively to fertilizer. In the area I personally hunted, I fertilized honeysuckle in select spots which were ideal for hunting every year. It was in one such honeysuckle fertilized food plot I shot my biggest Kentucky buck. I did no scouting in these areas. I did not go there until hunting season opened and I was carrying a rifle. I did not need to. I knew there would always be deer in the immediate area.

The only real scouting I do these days during the late summer is to check on food, or changes in land practices which might be different from the practices were in the past. I seldom do any up close and personal scouting during this time. I find a place where I can scout from afar using binoculars and checking oak trees for acorns or watching squirrel activity. If there are a lot of squirrels in the area, chances are there are going to be acorns. If there are acorns there will likely be deer when those acorns start falling.

Where I hunt in Texas, water comes at a premium. In mid to early September, mourning and whitewing dove seasons begin. I only very occasionally shoot a shotgun, but I love going on dove hunts. But, while others are shooting birds, I like to slip away from the group and go find a remote waterhole there to watch, to see what kind of deer are watering there. Over the years I have used such scouting techniques quite often. More than one of my really nice Texas whitetails were scouted during early fall dove season.

Two days after sighting in my rifle, I got a call from Tim Fallon. “Wait until you see the trail camera picture we got of a buck last night. Pretty sure it’s the old buck I told you about last hunting season. He should be nine-years old this year based on what we know about him. It looks like he’s got the best antlers he’s ever had. He just might go 180 or better. If you come hunt him, and are so fortunate to take him, got a feeling he’ll be heading to The Wildlife Gallery for them to do their taxidermy magic.” I simply smiled!

So much for me being surprised! But then the nine-year old may well turn out doing as other bucks have done in the past. Just about the time you think you’ve got an old mature buck figured out, get ready! He’s going to teach you another new lesson! One of the things I dearly love about whitetail hunting!