 Hunting the Cedar Brakes |
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Nov 12, 2009 - 10:08 PM - by Luke Clayton
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"Hunting the Cedar Brakes"
by Luke Clayton
Luke Clayton
Vera,Texas- The terrain in and around Knox County, Texas is some of the most diverse I’ve seen, anywhere. Driving down one of the Farm to Market Roads, one will pass huge fields of verdant green winter wheat on either side of the roadway, and then head down a grade into some of the most rugged, beautiful country imaginable. The locals call this pock marked landscape covered in cedars and oaks ‘The Cedar Brake Country’ for obvious reason. The surface of the earth appears to have been shot from below with a huge shotgun loaded with shot varying from the size of a Volkswagen to a battleship. The landscape gives one a sensory overload with vistas of everything from mini-mountains to beautiful valleys with streams of live water.
I recently returned from a hunt in this country as the guest Ranell Walker, whose family owns Ranger Creek Ranch. Situated a little over 2 hours from Ft. Worth, Ranger Creek provides hunters a smorgasbord of big game ranging from Aoudad sheep to monster whitetail bucks. Knox and a few adjoining counties even offer a season for hunting javelina or collared peccary as they are officially named, a species that is usually found much farther to the south and west.
The recent hunt was enjoyed with my son Drew and good friend veteran outdoors writer Bob Hood. There’s something very special about having access to hunt over 20,000 acres of wild country; country so vast that six or eight hunters can be dispersed far enough apart so as not to hear the report of each others rifle.
When our guide, Rick, mentioned that there was a very healthy population of Javelina in the section of ranch we were hunting, I could see Bob Hood’s interest perk! Bob has spent years... [Read More]
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Good Optics a must for accurate shooting |
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Nov 07, 2009 - 12:31 AM - by Luke Clayton
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"Good Optics a must for accurate shooting "
by Luke Clayton
Luke Clayton
I’ll admit it, I am a perfectionist when it comes to rifle shooting. Years ago, I was trained in the art of rifle shooting and to this day, I expect my rifles and scopes to perform to ‘minute of angle accuracy’. This term equates to keeping rounds in a group that can be covered by a quarter at 100 yards. Back a couple decades ago, it was rare to purchase an ‘over the counter’ rifle that was built with this capability. Granted, custom rifle makers, for a sizeable sum and when using the best of barrels, could build extremely accurate rifles but most rifles bought over the counter simply could not shoot to minute of angle accuracy. Advancements in manufacturing has greatly improved accuracy in rifles. Thompson Center (TC) now has the Venture rifle on the market that comes with the guarantee to shoot minute of angle accuracy. It does just that and it carries a very affordable price tag. I mentioned in a recent column how pleased I was with the .270 model Venture that I have been shooting.
Regardless whether you’re shooting a custom rifle or factory model, you simply cannot get the best from your rifle unless it is equipped with a quality sighting device. For most of us, this equates to a scope. When it comes to optics, a good bit of advice is to purchase the best you can afford. There IS a huge difference in scopes. If you’ve ever mounted a low end scope on your rifle, you know exactly what I am talking about. Cheap scopes usually won’t adjust correctly and once they are ‘zeroed’ they will let you down at the most inopportune moments. I’ve never seen one yet that, when the adjustment screws are turned 4 clicks to move point of impact 1 inch at 100 yards, accomplished this goal. It doesn’t pay... [Read More]
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HUNTING THE RUT AT BIG WOODS |
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Oct 29, 2009 - 10:18 AM - by Luke Clayton
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"HUNTING THE RUT AT BIG WOODS"
by Luke Clayton
Luke Clayton
I just experienced one of the most action packed, fun filled days of deer hunting of my career and I’ve been hunting deer a LONG time. I’ve had a trip to Big Woods on the Trinity (www.bigwoods.net) planned for the past couple weeks but my schedule couldn’t seem to coincide with fair weather until a couple days ago. There is a bright side to all the rainfall we’ve been getting lately, at least when hunting at the Big Woods. The bottoms along the Trinity are flooded which helped to concentrate the deer herd on the higher knolls and hills. This made for an action packed day of antler rattling. With a buck/doe ratio of close to 1:1, antler rattling, especially during the early stages of the rut, proved to be highly effective.
As I drove to the Big Woods during early morning, I began to get that ‘feeling’ that conditions were perfect for deer hunting. In route to the ranch, along Highway 287, I watched a young buck push a doe out of cover and into the right of way, the rut was definitely on! I’ve been bow hunting for a full month and welcomed the opportunity to put my new .270 TC Venture to work and this short one day outing.
As I pulled into the gate, Heath Burney, who serves as head guide on the ranch, verified what I had already determined, the rut was going strong.”I’ve been hunting a big eight pointer that will score about 140 BC.” says Heath. “Didn’t see him this morning but did see several bucks chasing does. The high water has the deer concentrated up on higher ground. You should do well with your rattling horns. Is that some sort of new blind in the back of your Jeep?” Heath was referring to the GhostBlind that I have been hunting from... [Read More]
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LET’S GO DEER HUNTING! |
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Oct 24, 2009 - 11:38 AM - by Luke Clayton
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"LET’S GO DEER HUNTING!"
by Luke Clayton
Luke Clayton
WHITETAIL RUT UPDATE- Ask any veteran whitetail hunter the best time to harvest a mature, heavy antlered buck and the answer will usually be: “During the peak of the rut (breeding season).” Mature bucks are secretive by nature and seldom show themselves during daylight hours but during the breeding season, they lose some of their caution when they actively chase does in estrus. If you only have a few days to hunt, try to schedule your time in the woods to coincide with the peak of the breeding season, and then plan to stay in the woods all day. You’re just as likely to see a buck chasing a doe in estrus during mid day as during early morning or late afternoon.
Soon hunters will be setting around campfires all over the country, talking about hunts past and the encounter with the big buck morning’s light will bring. The hunter’s calendar has many highlights but nothing come close to comparing to the opener of deer season. This is a special time for those of us that love the fall and beginning of hunting season. If you have the opportunity, invite someone to tag along on your trip to the lease on opening day. Chances are pretty good your enthusiasm will become infectious. You might just expose someone to the rich outdoor experience that you have come to love!
Here’s an update on the rut from several ranch managers:
The whitetail rut always seems to get started a bit earlier in portions of east Texas than the rest of the state. Dr. Robert Mcfarlane, owner of the Big Woods Hunting Ranch (www.bigwoods.net) in Anderson County reports bucks were actively chasing does a week ago. “The rut usually peaks here around the end of... [Read More]
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Crappie Anglers of Texas State Championship Tourney |
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Oct 18, 2009 - 10:03 PM - by Luke Clayton
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"Crappie Anglers of Texas State Championship Tourney "
by Luke Clayton
Luke Clayton
If you ever doubted the popularity of crappie fishing these days, you should have been on the shores of Richland Chambers Lake at Northshores Marina on Richland Chambers Lake this past Saturday for the weigh in for the state championship for Crappie Anglers of Texas (CATS). Almost 100 devout crappie anglers, both pros and novices, fished the two day tourney and thanks to the passage of an early fall cold front Friday morning, the sometimes finicky crappie decided to challenge the field of papermouth aficionados. For most anglers, their favored species simply snubbed their noses at a wide variety of baits including downsized jigs in a variety of designs and colors, soft plastic minnow imitations and even the their favorite food: live minnows. Some anglers fished shallow cover, others fished deep but the only real pattern proved to be no pattern, at least no pattern that provided steady action.
Photo by Andy Rodrigues
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Don Wilcox (Lt) and Shane Davis were the CATS Division II champs.
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When this many good anglers converge to fish a heralded crappie lake such as Richland Chambers, regardless the weather, some anglers will find themselves dunking baits into waters holding active fish, other anglers, just as skilled and qualified, simply did not locate the fish. Saturday’s... [Read More]
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