A couple of days ago while going through some hunting gear in preparation for my upcoming hunts starting October 1 hunting moose in British Columbia, Canada I ran across a stack of old DVDs television shows. Somehow those were not with the large stack of over 500 other television shows I’ve done over the years. I grabbed a couple of them to make certain they were still in “working order.”
Minutes later I slipped one of the DVDs into the slot in an older Mac computer. The label suggested it being a hunt in Kansas something over 20 years ago with an old friend Stan Christiansen owner of the Original Kansas Whitetail Hunts. Soon as the show started I recalled the hunt, one I did with a .50 caliber muzzleloader using a Hornady 250-grain ShockWave sabot, propelled by 150-grain of Hodgdon’s Pyrodex. Remembering the load was not that difficult. It was the primary bullet and load I hunted with a lot, back during my “muzzleloader days”, including spending time as the Muzzleloader Columnist for PETERSEN’s HUNTING.
Back then I hunted with several muzzleloaders, but primarily those built by Tony Knight’s Modern Muzzleloader. When not hunting with their MK85, I hunted with several T/C in-lines.
Seeing that show brought back many great memories of hunting with Tony and our mutual friend and hunting partner, Jim Zumbo.
The hunt on the video showed me shooting an open-sight .50 T/C inline muzzleloader during Kansas’ early muzzleloader season. One of the stands I only hunted in the afternoon because we did not want to spook deer out of the area in the morning. During mornings I hunted another part of the property. Stan had seen 13 different bucks at the afternoon stand.
First sit, I watched a tall, long-tined 10 point appear after legal shooting hours. I hoped he might show up the next afternoon, earlier. He didn’t but one wider than the tall narrow racked buck did make an appearance, but like the previous afternoon he showed up right at dark, past legal shooting hours.
I hoped the third afternoon would be the “charm.”
I had been sitting in my canvas ground blind since mid-afternoon. Just at sundown the tall 10-point re-appeared. I checked and kept checking the time on my phone, watching the buck as he slowly fed my way.
Seven-minutes of legal shooting time remained when he was finally got within open-sight muzzleloader range. I cocked the hammer, settled the front bead in the back sight’s notch all pointed at the buck’s vitals, then pulled the trigger.
At the shot, a cloud of smoke caused me to momentarily lose sight of him. When I again saw him he was going down.
A short time later I stood at the massive, long-tined, though narrow antlered buck’s side, admiring his rack. I knew the buck was big before the shot, including a huge body which would provide extremely delicious early season venison, but it was not until the next morning when we scored his rack. That’s when I realized how truly big his antlers were. He grossed 173 B&C. He remains one of my all-time favorite whitetail bucks. Oh yeah…he netted 169 7/8th!
Thanks to the “T/C Game Trails” tv show episode all the memories of that hunt flooded back when I watched it.
After the Kansas hunt I watched an episode I did for the old North American Hunting Club’s “North American Hunter” television show. It took place in the South Texas Brush Country near the beginning of the whitetail rut, when rattling was prime. I was on the famed Perlitz Ranch, which many may remember being regularly hunted by Bill Jordan, David Blanton and others with the Realtree Outdoors television show and Monster Bucks videos, during their early days.
My old friend and partner, then in a whitetail outfitting business, Bill Whitfield and I were rattling up bucks. Most of the bucks I rattled in, I passed, until an ancient 8-point responded along with a young 150s ten-point. The ten was truly impressive and tempting, but no way was I going to shoot a buck that in a year or two might well score 170 or better.
I was hunting with my .30-06 T/C Encore handgun, loaded with 180-grain Interlock Hornady bullets. When the old 8-point gave me a good shot I pulled the trigger and he went down. It truly was a fun hunt!
On that same DVD was a regular segment I helped start and appeared in for many years on “North American Hunter”, the “You Call the Shot” segment. It included Bill Miller, Mark Kayser, Gordy Krahn, sometimes a special guest and me. We would set up a scenario of a filmed hunt, describe the circumstances and what firearm or bow we were using and the distance to the animal. The video would be stopped when the animal was in a position that might or might not be an appropriate angle at which to take a shot. At that point we, each of the “experts” would say whether or not that individual would take a shot, or pass…and of course why the decision.
Each and every episode of “North American Hunter” had a “You Call the Shot” segment. These were extremely popular, great fun, were entertaining, but also educational. For numerous years it was outdoor television’s most popular segment.
The concept came about at a time when the North American Hunting Club had close to a million members. The owners decided to have a “Rendezvous” for the members; a large gathering where they could meet, visit, talk about outdoor adventures and meet those of us who were columnists and regular writer for North American Hunter. I was their Whitetail Columnist.
Sitting in Bill Miller’s office, he and I were trying to come up with something we could do to entertain “the troops”, as well as engage the crowd attending the gathering. Bill and I both at the same time said, “You Call the Shot!” We gave our thoughts then sent the video editors to work putting together different hunting scenarios. We later turned it into a regular and as mentioned an extremely popular segment in the “North American Hunter” tv show. The difference between what we ended up doing on the show and what we did at the rendezvous was, Bill along with Jim Shockey and I when the video was paused, walked to someone sitting in the audience, shoved a microphone in their face and ask them whether or not they would take the shot, and explain why.
In watching one of our many “You Call the Shot!” segments it got me to wondering if it might not be time to again reprise that concept, especially at certain outdoor shows. I’ve got a feeling such would go over really great.
I mentioned hunting with Jim Zumbo and Tony Knight. Each year we “The Three Amigos” hunted together. We were invited every year by a mid-western State to do a hunt. One year we were hunting in Illinois. Both Tony and I had taken nice bucks. Jim had not yet seen a buck. Thus, the decision was made to do deer drives. Local farmers and hunters would do the driving. Tony and I decided we would lend moral support by standing behind Zumbo on his “stand” and do appropriate “cheers” and encouragements.
It did not take long for deer to come streaming by, albeit does. Then here came a buck with 4-points on his right side and a long single spike on his left. The buck stopped right in front of us only about 25 yards away. A second buck stopped just behind and to the left of the weird-antlered buck. That buck was one scoring at least in the high 160’s, a huge, massive 10-point. Up came Zumbo’s muzzleloader. Both Tony and I were excited for Jim! At the shot smoke obscured the buck in front, which was going down. As it did, I patted Zumbo on his back, “Great shot Jim! But why didn’t you shoot the big one?” It wasn’t until “the big buck” started walking away that Jim realized there had been two bucks rather than one, the bigger standing in full sight just beyond the smaller buck.
These and oh so many other hunts from years past again fleeted across my memory as I loaded into my Jeep my Mossberg Patriot Predator 6.5 PRC and 7mm PRC rifles, both topped with Stealth Vision SVT scopes, a 3-18×44 on the former and a 5-20×50 on the latter. My .44 Mag and .454 Casull Taurus Raging Hunter revolvers along with enough appropriate Hornady ammo to hunt at least a couple of weeks, I had taken to my vehicle earlier.
Great memories from past hunts, and great memories to be made on those hunts that lay ahead! I’m looking forward to hearing about your hunting adventures when we gather January, the 9th thru the 12th, in Atlanta, Georgia at the Georgia World Congress Center for the DSC Outdoor Expo and Convention!
Truly look forward to seeing you there!
