A ‘second’ opening day in west Texas

A ‘second’ opening day in west Texas Luke Clayton Wed, 02/07/2024 - 3:30 pm   Larry Weishuhn takes aim inside an old stone outpost during a hunt last week in west Texas. Photo/Luke Clayton The ‘second opening day’ deer hunt I wrote about last week out in west Texas proved to be every bit as much fun as the official ‘opener’ back three months ago. My friend and frequent hunting companion Larry Weishuhn, aka. “Mr. Whitetail” is a member of an 8,000 acre lease not far from Sterling City and in this deer rich country, it’s necessary to harvest a large number surplus deer each year in order to keep the herd numbers in balance with the habitat. Through a Texas Parks and Wildlife management plan, hunting is allowed through February and as we drove to the remote camp house, Larry informed me he still had several doe tags to fill and one buck tag. I was chomping at the bit to put my new CVA to work. I’d shot it a good bit since Christmas and was extremely happy to have the chance to use it on this late season hunt to stock my freezer with venison. Our friend Jeff Rice was present to enjoy what I jokingly referred to as our second “opening day” deer hunt. Jeff keeps the video cameras rolling and is the kingpin for our TV show, “A Sportsman’s Life” which airs on Carbon TV. After getting settled into the rustic camp house situated on a remote area of the vast ranch, we loaded in the truck and Larry gave us a tour of a portion of the ranch we would be hunting. One of the first stops was what we think to be an outpost that was probably built in the late 1800’s by soldiers from Ft. Concho in San Angelo. Back in those days, the Comanche tribe was giving settlers in western Texas a hard time and outposts were scattered throughout the region. The solidly built little stone structure, about 20 feet square, has endured the years. Names and dates are inscribed into the stones and I’m sure the structure was used as a line shack for ranchers throughout much of the last century. Shooting ports built into the walls made it an excellent hunting blind as well. A spring nearby made it the perfect spot for a remote camp as well as a good place to keep the meat pole stocked with game. In the past century, a windmill had been erected at the water source, complete with a concrete watering trough for game and livestock but nearby the remains of a natural sump or pool is still visible. Walking into this old structure was a walk back in time, a time that was vastly different from today’s fast paced world. I found myself wondering about the skirmishes with the Comanche that might have occurred there or, the cold winter nights of yesteryear the cowboys spent playing cards and wishing for spring warmup. My buddies were hunting with center fire rifles but Weishuhn’s muzzleloader hunts of past years are well documented in the many articles he has written. He was pleased to see the improvements of today’s fine CVA rifles and I think after shooting my Optima, I might have perked his interest in once again doing a bit of ‘smokepole’ hunting! With the great number of deer in the area, I honestly thought killing a couple of doe for the freezer with my muzzleloader would be easy. My plan was to simply settle into a comfortable elevated blind, watch a corn feeder about 60 yards away and shoot the first fat doe that came in to the golden kernels. I should have learned through six decades of deer hunting that deer react to current conditions and aren’t always that easy to pattern, regardless where they are hunted. My first set in the blind was somewhat of a surprise, I watched the feeder from mid afternoon until dark and nary a doe dropped by to eat but almost the entire time I was covered up in bucks including a big eight point that kept wandering around the area, stopping at the feeder occasionally to munch on a few kernels of corn and then again disappear back into the brush. Back at the camp house, a visit with Weishuhn explained what I considered to be a strange occurrence. “The majority of does were bred months ago, event the six month doe that came into their first estrus in December are now bred. The majority of bucks are are still in hard horn and actively pursuing every doe they encounter. The many feeders scattered across the ranch were previously areas of high buck/doe activity during the breeding season, thus the reason the heavily pressured doe have largely abandoned feeders.” The doe where running in big herds, much like prairie animals. Larry reported watching a group of 51 deer, mostly doe and yearlings crossing a valley between a couple of the mini mountains on the ranch. Early in our hunt we made a plan to bait several spots with Vineyard Max, a highly effective attractant composed of crushed grape skins, rice brand and crushed corn. We baited small openings in the brush around water sources and heavily used game trails. The plan was to quietly ease into these baited areas from downwind, construct quick ground blinds from juniper branches and watch the trails. At first look by an untrained eye, it seems there is nothing for these deer to eat during late winter in this rugged landscape but that is certainly not the case. Weishuhn, degreed wildlife biologist, pointed out a little plant that grew close to the ground called Fillaree that was growing just about everywhere on the ranch. “Deer love this little weed that grows during the cool weather months and it is a staple of their diet out in this country. They also feed heavily this time of year on juniper berries. Both food sources are in abundant supply and are available at just the right time of year to nourish deer when many other plants are dormant.” Wieshuhn had been telling me about how flavorful the venison is from deer out in this area because of their diet. The second evening of our hunt we built a big fire from dry mesquite wood and grilled some fresh backstrap and then sautéed it in a cast iron skillet with butter, garlic and jalapeno. We all agreed that for whatever reason, this country does produce some tasty venison. We harvested a total of 4 doe and all were fat as seals from their diet of juniper berries and fillaree. Weishuhn filled his last buck tag with an eight point estimated to be 7 or 8 years old. Once we developed our hunting strategy of baiting and watching likely areas, hunting became really dependable. The deer could smell our attractant for quiet a distance and we set up to hunt in areas of high deer movement along trails and a couple of water sources. We that live and hunt in Texas are fortunate to have so many deer in such diverse habitats. As this hunt proved, it’s important to be able to adept hunting methods to suit the area.