Like many of my era, those of us who were born in the middle 1900s and even after, we were ardent readers of Outdoor Life, Field & Stream, Sports Afield, Petersen’s Hunting, and later Deer & Deer Hunting, North American Whitetail reading articles by Jack O’Connor, Russell Annabel, Robert Ruark, Texas’s own John Wootters and others. These men were and continue to be my heroes. John Wootters actually became a good friend, and we occasionally shared the “speakers’ stage” and a few hunting camps. We also exchanged quite a few letters, back when such things were written. These and other outdoor/hunting writers of the time instilled with me a bit of wanderlust. After reading their articles and books, I yearned to hunt Canada, Alaska, Africa; far away from the gravel hills, just above the coastal plains of southern Texas where I grew up.
My “yondering” started with hunting trips to far western Texas, Colorado and New Mexico for mule deer as well as into Mexico for whitetail deer. My first international journey far from my Texas home was to Saskatchewan, Canada in the company of Gary Machen, Murphy Ray, Homer Saye and Sidney Lindsay, sadly all those great men are now gone, but memories of campfire and hunting time remain as if they happened yesterday.
On that initial trip I shot a really nice black bear. I did miss a monstrous buck at long distance while he was running toward me, this during a deer drive. Thankfully my shot turned the buck to my right and he ran into an open field. There he slowed to a walk. Machen shot him at less than a hundred yards. The buck qualified for the Boone & Crockett record book.
The trip was monumental in many ways, the tales of which are best told around a campfire, partaking a wee dram of “brown safe water,” which we did enjoy a fair amount of during that particular trip.
At the time of that hunt, I had recently left the employ of the State of Texas and started making my living as an outdoor writer, speaker and private wildlife management consultant. This when “the whitetail deer was just starting on its way to being king of North American big game hunting.” During those early years I served on staff with several outdoor publications writing almost exclusively about whitetail deer, and occasionally mule deer. I longed to hunt Africa and other continents. I often queried editors where I served on staff and as a freelance writer about writing about such hunt destinations. Their response was always, “That’s great you’re thinking of hunting Cape buffalo and kudu! But what are you going to do for us about whitetail deer?”
Amazingly things changed after I wrote my first book, “Pear Flat Philosophies” published by Safari Press in 1995. Suddenly editors started asking if I would write about international hunts and hunting! Amazing how my publishing my first book changed things!
During ensuing years, I hunted throughout much of Africa, taking small duikers to buffalo, hippo lion, leopard, elephant and a wide variety of plains game such as greater kudu, eland and many others. I hunted numerous European and Scandinavian countries for red stag, reindeer, fallow deer, alpine ibex, Spanish ibex and roe deer among others. In South America I hunted buffalo, red stag and shot a few doves. Made an unsuccessful though adventurous hunt to Kyrgyzstan. Hunted Australia for Asian buffalo and hogs and in Asia ibex; here in North America I hunted many of our big game species. I also made a few trips to New Zealand to hunt red stag, tahr, chamois and other species, including a short unsuccessful hunt for whitetail deer. I hunted in Finland to see if white-tailed deer, which were transplanted there many years ago could be rattled in. Unfortunately, we arrived in Finland a bit to early to rattle, but while there was able to take what is likely my biggest bodied whitetail buck ever, one that weighed 325-pounds live weight, a gorgeous wide 8-point. More about that hunt in the near future!
I have traveled much and far for many years. Some of my initial wanderlust still survives. I suspect it does in you as well.
Come January, as we’re completing most regular hunting seasons, excluding hunting on Texas’ MLDP properties and a few other late seasons, will be a good time to start planning trips abroad. The perfect place to do so is at the Dallas Safari Club’s (DSC) Outdoor Expo and Convention, this time held in Atlanta, Georgia’s, Georgia World Congress Center January 9th thru 12th (go to www.biggame.org to learn more). It is also a fabulous place to see the latest firearms and optics, as well as meet and visit with friends, old and new.
Immediately after the DSC gathering in January, I’ll be heading to Durango, Mexico to hunt Coues whitetail. I just finished setting up a Mossberg Patriot Predator 6.5 PRC, topped with a Stealth Vision 5-20×50 scope (with a custom turret set up for the 8,000 feet elevation where we will be hunting) and shooting Hornady Precision Hunter 143-grain ELD-X. I’ve been shooting out to 600-yards and know if there is no way to get closer, I can place an ELD-X bullet into a diminutive Coues deer’s vital at that distance. My intention is always to get as close as possible before taking a shot, but with Coues deer getting close is not always an option.
In the past when I have hunted Coues whitetails in Sonora, middle January is when their rut starts, not sure what stage the rut might be in, in Durango. I will try to rattle in a buck. But even if I do not, I know it will be a great hunt. The hugely expansive ranch we’re hunting produces some outstanding Coues bucks. Like the Finland whitetail deer hunt, I’ll be telling you about the adventure in blogs, articles, but also on Luke Clayton’s weekly radio show, which becomes a weekly podcast, “CatfishRadio with Luke Clayton and Friends”, my weekly “DSC’s Campfires with Larry Weishuhn” both of which can be heard many places, including waypointtv.com, ApplePodcasts, Spotify, outdooraction.com and many other places. I also film most of my hunts for episodes of our “A Sportsman’s Life” digital weekly tv show which is available on Carbontv.com and on YouTube. It, like my “DSC’s Campfires with Larry Weishuhn” podcast, can watched or listened to at my www.larryweishuhn.net website.
It’s time to plan your own “yonderings”!
