Luke Clayton and I were recording my “Campfire Talk” segment for his weekly “Catfish Radio with Luke Clayton and Friends” radio shows and podcast, which we have been doing together now for seventeen years. “One last question..” said Luke. “What do you think the best tool a deer hunter can have to be successful?”
Interesting!
I started hunting whitetails, sitting on a stand by myself, when I was six, prior to that I sat with my Dad. I’ve now been hunting whitetail for seventy years. During that time, I have seen many changes not only in whitetail deer populations and hunting attitudes, but especially in terms of products used.
My first “deer rifle” was a Remington Model 33 single-shot .22 which belonged to my maternal grandfather, A. J. Aschenbeck. The Model 33 was the first bolt-action Remington made. Back then rimfires were legal for deer. Unfortunately, I never got a shot at a deer with my Model 33. As it worked out I shot my first whitetail, not far behind our rural Texas home, with that grandfather’s single-shot 12-gauge.
After several years of saving, I bought my first “real deer rifle.” It was a Savage Model 340 .30-30 Winchester, bolt-action topped with a Weaver K4 scope. At the time, I was convinced it was THE best deer combination in the world. That .30-30 Win remained my primary rifle until I graduated from Texas A&M University. Then I bought a .257 Roberts. It served me well hunting but also as a “collection rifle.” At the time I was doing a considerable amount of deer research that also involved shooting lots of animals.
Soon came a .270 Winchester and a 7×57, followed by many different rifles, actions, calibers and rounds. During my college years I started hunting with handguns. As dollars became available, I added revolvers and then singles hots.
By the time I left the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department I owned several rifles and handguns. These were followed by more rifles and handguns, then hunting with a muzzleloader as I got truly serious writing about hunting guns. The trend continues through today when I’m hunting primarily with Mossberg’s Patriot rifles in a variety of calibers and rounds, as well as Tauus hunting handguns, and Rossi lever actions.
I mention these because choosing the right or proper caliber, round, and action are very important when it comes to hunting deer.
When I first started hunting deer, most hunters were still shooting open or iron sights. Occasionally someone one had peep-sights. Scopes were just beginning to be used and becoming popular in our part of Texas. Weaver manufactured the primary hunting scope of the time. Then, Redfield soon came on strong. There were also other companies such as Zeiss, Leupold, and a few others. Scopes back when were mostly fixed-power 2x, 4x and 6x. Variables were not considered reliable. Shots were seldom beyond 100-yards, and anything much beyond was considered “long range.” But soon all that changed.
Rangefinders did not exist as we know them today. Neither were binoculars as “good” or that popular.
Optics evolved to the scopes we have these days, including highly accurate range-finders built into binoculars, computer programs linked to scopes, to where these days fixed-power scopes are hardly being built. The optics we have these days are truly state of the art and have become an important tool to practically all hunters. My choice of all the scopes on the market are those produced by Stealth Vision (www.stealthvision.com), and for good reason!
Back in my early days, ammunition and bullets were not really designed for shooting long range. Many bullets still had round “noses”, and were produced by Remington, Winchester, Peters and the then relatively new Hornady. As mentioned most anything over 100-yards was considered long range, although a few hunters were starting to shoot out to 300 and even 400-yards and beyond. During that era, I used a wide variety of ammunition and bullets, both commercially produced ammo, but also did a fair amount of reloading, but then like today I kept coming back to Hornady.
Realize please I no longer hunt with a bow, although I did in my “formative years.” I shot my last deer with a bow during the fall of 1984 with an early PSE compound. I had shot my first deer with a bow years earlier with a Ben Pearson recurve, using cedar shaft arrows.
Today’s bullets and ammunition are truly scientifically designed and based. They are a contrast rather than a comparison to what I started hunting with as a youngster, although they did kill animals quite successfully. That said based on seventy years of hunting experience, having hunted the world, my choice of bullets and ammunition remains, you guessed it…those produced by Hornady!
When I started hunting hardly anyone wore camo…mostly we wore browns, greens or red and black plaid shirts. After Jim Crumley came out with Trebark, followed in fairly rapid succession of Mossy Oak and Realtree, camo became the deer hunters’ official uniform! At the same time materials used in hunting clothing changed a fair amount as well. Today’s quiet and warm clothing has made many of us a more patient and better hunter.
Going back to the early days of my deer hunting many hunters used “natural scents” both as cover and attractant. If someone happened to take a deer and we could get them, we used fresh tarsal glands. Today there are attractant or cover scents for almost any purpose and any region.
After these years of hunting I am convinced using deer scents is more important psychologically than biologically. If a hunter thinks and expects something is going to happen, he or she will likely see it when it does!
Back when there were no such things as “trail cameras”! Scouting was done first-hand or not at all. We learned how to “read the woods”; how to interpret tracks, droppings, rubs and scrapes. Today many depend upon trail cameras to tell them when and where to hunt. Me? I like being surprised by what I see when hunting. That said, neither do I give bucks a name, other than possibly “The Graveyard Buck” which lives near a graveyard, or “The Big 8” or whatever his antler style might be.
I have been quoted as saying, “What we used to have between our ears, now we have at our fingertips!” If you use trail cameras, and the many different other devices we have at our disposal today, more power to you!
Up to now I have not really given an answer to the question Luke asked on that particular radio/podcast show. But in a way I have, with my last quote.
The best hunting tool all of us have, is, the “gray matter” between our ears. Our brain takes in and processes a variety of “data” including things about guns, optics, ammo, camo, and other hunting “tools” as well as what we see and experience when hunting. Then based on research and personal experiences it provides us with the best possible answer or solution so we can determine where and how to set up, where we will have the best opportunity to take the buck, doe, bull or cow we are after.
The best hunting tool each of us possesses is indeed our brain!
