Aggravating Whitetails

Larry Weishuhn

My fall hunting season had been “interesting” to this point. Early on I missed hunting trips because of “visits” to the ER, surgery and hospital stays, but then also being confined to quarters for three very long weeks! Those weeks probably would not have seemed that long had it been summer instead of the beginning of Fall, the time of year I dearly love and essentially live for. Finally, most of that was behind me. I had made a trip to the Choctaw where I shot and “unreal” monstrous whitetail, and a couple of trips to my lease on the Red River where I had rattled a really nice buck across the Red River, from Oklahoma to Texas. Now I was all set to hunt one of favorite places on Earth, with truly special people.

Magnum rain drops pelted the north wall of the lodge. Early pre-dawn temperatures continued to drop. I loved it! For the past several days the afternoon highs had been in the mid-80’s, not what most would consider “ideal deer hunting weather”. The falling temperature was something I had hoped and prayed for as was the rain which fueled recently fertilized food plots.

I had gotten to the lodge, late night, after a four-hour drive just before the northwesterly cold front arrived at the Becker Bottoms Ranch.

David Cotton, whose father Edgar owns Becker Bottoms Ranch, arrived shortly after 5 am. “Daddy will be here after the rain quits.” Edgar, 85 years young, loves hunting, fishing and the outdoors. Earlier during the 2025 Fall he had taken a 347-pound black bear with a crossbow on the Choctaw Hunting Lodge in Oklahoma as well as an impressive bull elk in southern Colorado with his 6.5 PRC custom rifle. Now he was looking for management bucks and a particular, as he described, “Little bit bigger buck” on his northeast Texas property.

Over cowboy coffee David asked, “Where do you want to hunt this morning?” I smiled, because he knew my answer, “I know…wherever you want to put me!” I nodded in agreement.

Over coffee we discussed where management bucks had been seen on the trail cameras. As we were loading guns and gear into his CanAm, I received a text from Rick Lambert. “I should be at the ranch right at lunch.” David and Edgar had invited Rick, my longtime friend and now theirs to come hunt. Rick, among many other things has been a Dallas Police Department under-cover narcotics officer and detective, a private detective who along with his wife Beverly also a private detective had spent considerable time investigating a previous U.S. President and his “lady friends”. He is also a very accomplished songwriter/entertainer and happens to be the father of Miranda Lambert. He too is a pretty fair hand in a camp kitchen and outdoorsman who is a crack shot with anything that goes “Bang”; rifles, handguns and shotguns. He and his team recently won the annual National Quail Hunt in Oklahoma, both the shooting and hunting competitions.

Suggested David, “How about you hunt where you saw that ten-point last year. He’s still around. I’ll go to the sand hill where you shot that old 6-point three years ago.” I liked his plan. I had hunted both areas several times in the past and had always seen deer coming into or cruising across the “L-shaped” food plots of fertilized triticale and volunteer turnips.

By the time we got to the enclosed deer blinds, the rain had slowed a bit but not much. I personally prefer hunting from natural ground blinds, sitting on the ground. But, it had rained hard all night long and based on the latest weather forecast it would continue doing so throughout at least mid-afternoon. Hunting from a dry, enclosed blind sounded really good!

The morning passed uneventful. In the past, hunting Becker Bottoms, I had seen a lot of deer movement when it was raining, but also, no movement. The latter was the case that morning. David, when he picked me up just before noon, said he had seen a nice young buck, but nothing else.

We had barely started a fresh pot of coffee when I said “Hello!” to Edgar and questioned him about his most recent Model 99 Savage acquisitions and if he planned on hunting with one that afternoon. As he was showing me his latest .300 Savage, Rick Lambert arrived. After “Howdies” and admiring Mr. Edgar’s latest vintage Model 99, Rick, who is also a fan of the Model 99, said “Brought the Taurus Raging Hunter .460 S&W Mag revolver I got from you, Lar, and a .45-70 lever-action. Going to hunt with the revolver. Have not yet taken a deer with it. It’s time I did so.” He hesitated and then said, “I shoulda brought my .300 Savage…”

That afternoon after the sky quit dripping. We, combined, saw three does and two yearling bucks. Not what we expected or hoped for.

Our campfire session that night ran a bit late. The next morning came early. I was reminded, it does not take long to spend a night in a hunting camp!

Second day the weather was very “deery”, but the local deer herd did not seem to agree. We saw a total of two young bucks, three does and three fawns between us. That night, two-inch thick ribeye steaks grilled over pecan coals negated any disappointments of the day’s hunt.

Third morning, same results, fabulous hunting weather but deer seemed to have crawled into a hole and pulled a cover over themselves. Fox squirrels however, seemed to love the cooler weather which coincided with their late fall breeding season. They were active to say the least.

We were having lunch when David mentioned he had just seen seven squirrels right around the lodge when he returned from his morning hunt. The fact that squirrels had chewed on several electrical wires on their tractors, requiring expensive repairs, had him not particularly liking the bushy-tailed treetop dwellers.

“How do you feel about hunting squirrels?” Asked David of Rick.

“I love hunting squirrels, grew up hunting them. When times were tough around our home back when Miranda was young, we just about lived on squirrel.” Replied Rick.

Moments later Rick and David headed out the door with a fine-looking Winchester Model 101, 20-gauge shotgun. I was about to question them about their choice of firearms, knowing both had told stories the night before about hunting squirrels with .22s when David said, “Don’t have a .22 on the ranch, just a shotgun and I found two boxes of shells. We’ll be back in a little while.”

I decided to trail behind to get photos and if necessary circle a tree to get a squirrel to move around to the opposite side where Rick and David waited. Doing so reminded me being a very young “squirrel influencer” when my grandfather would send me to the backside of a squirrel tree he was watching. Squirrels often scamper to the opposite side of the tree from where a shooter sets up. Having someone walk around to the other side, the squirrel tried to keep the tree trunk between it and perceived danger thereby exposing itself to the shooter.

It did not take long for Rick to shoot the first squirrel. I got some quick photos of Rick and David, then headed back to camp to record a radio show with Luke Clayton, with whom I do a weekly radio show (now in our 19^th year of me doing the first segment in every show), which is turned into a weekly podcast after the episode airs on radio stations, “Catfish Radio with Luke Clayton and Friends”, both are available at Luke’s www.catfishradio.org website or on Spotify, Apple podcasts, outdooraction.com, carbontv.com and many other places. Luke and I also do a weekly television show with Jeff Rice, “A Sportsman’s Life” which airs on www.carbontv.com and our YouTube channel of the same name.

“Hey Lar, did you hear all those shots?” Asked Rick when he and David returned to the lodge. I assured him I had as would all who would be listening to the first segment of Luke’s next radio show and podcast. “Shot enough for squirrel and dumplings.” Then added, “I’ll be back in a little while, gonna go skin these. David said there were some plastic bags in the kitchen. Can you get a couple for me?”  I did and regretted I had not stayed with Rick and Dave as they hunted squirrels. Like both my friends, I had grown up hunting squirrels, mostly fox squirrels.

The first game animal I ever shot was a fox squirrel taken with my maternal grandfather’s Remington Model 33 single-shot .22 on his property along the banks of Cummins Creek in southeastern central Texas. Later that same single-shot .22 rimfire became my first “deer rifle”.

“Talk about fun and bringing back memories. I’m sure glad squirrel season is open. With the way the deer have been making themselves scarce if not totally invisible, I may just go squirrel hunting the rest of the trip.” Said Rick. I glanced at David, he was all smiles.

I have to admit with “no action from whitetails”, Rick’s statement was tempting. But, I had two 7mm PRC rifles with me, both topped with Stealth Vision scopes (www.stealthvision.com) and shooting Hornady’s 175-grain ELD-X Precision Hunter ammo. That combination certainly was accurate enough to be considered a “squirrel gun”. I also had my .454 Casull Taurus Raging Hunter revolver, which I was using to hunt deer. My double-action revolver is topped with a vintage Thompson/Center 2.5-7×28 Long-Eye-Relief scope. It stays loaded with Hornady’s 200-grain FTX Handgun Hunter or 240-grain XTP Hornady Custom. Both rounds are precisely accuracy out to 100-yards, actually farther. But like my 7mm PRC rifles my Taurus revolver is not what I consider “ideal squirrel guns”.

We, Rick, David, Edgar and I hunted that afternoon. Nothing seemed to be moving once again, not even birds, or, squirrels. About 4:50 I happened to turn to look behind me. There stood two does 75-yards away. They were feeding on triticale and had no idea I was there.

I slowly turned, positioned my .454 Casull in their direction, cranked the variable scope to 4X, cocked the hammer on my double-action revolver and settled the crosshairs just behind her broadside shoulder. I started squeezing the trigger. At the shot the doe simply fell, kicked once and laid still. I cocked the hammer again, found the downed deer in my scope and kept the crosshairs on her in case there was any movement. There was none.

Rather than going to her I decided to stay where I was in case a coyote, hog or one of the management bucks I was after appeared. In doing so I noted my doe fell about a foot off the road that led to where I was hunting. I sent David a text, “Doe down, long 12-inch drag will be required.”

Nothing else showed. When David arrived we loaded the deer and headed to the skinning shed. There, as part of the on-going management program we weighed and aged her. She weighed 87.6-pounds intact and was 3.5 years old. When I gutted her I noted she was no longer lactating. A quick check of her reproduction tract revealed she had been bred within the last week. Her overall body condition was excellent based on body fat. I also noted she did not have any ticks or other ectoparasites.

I hung the skin-on doe high out of reach of marauding coyotes. The near freezing temperature was ideal for letting the carcass hang a day or so. She would provide many delicious meals. Data recorded and associated chores completed, I opened her rumen to determine what she had been feeding on. It was filled with acorns, freshly fallen acorns to be exact. The trees on the property are primarily several species of oaks. The ranch’s woods are traversed by several creeks. Food, water and cover are all in very close proximity. There really was no reason for deer to move, which explained why we were seeing so few deer.

In time the acorns will disappear between being eaten by the deer, squirrels and especially wild hogs that live on the property. Once they are gone and after hopefully more cold weather, deer will start feeding in the fertilized food plots and have to move to find food. Thankfully the Becker Bottom Ranch is on a Texas’ Managed Land Deer Permit which allows hunting through the last day of February.

The ranch’s wildlife management plan calls for taking several management bucks each, as well as three “good” bucks, plus at least an equal number of or more does. I will definitely be back to hunt there again in the future.

Hopefully the next time I get to hunt Becker Bottoms the deer will be moving. But, if they are not, this time I’ll also be bringing a .22 rimfire or my .410 over/under shotgun to hunt squirrels. It is always advisable to have a back-up plan!