Ambush Style Deer Hunting vs. ...

FROM YOUR INSTRUCTOR

QUESTION:  You I and some friends were discussing at a recent event. I have been a hunter since my sixteenth birthday as I told you and I am now 46 yrs. Old. I have to take issue with what you said about deer hunting being “AMBUSH” and your views on the skill level of deer hunters as shooters. What benefit is there to learning to shoot handguns accurately as you professed? Why is it any different? Why call it “AMBUSH” when it is the general rule in Texas, and it seems everywhere else on the T.V. hunting shows? I agree that it has risen in cost here but that’s the fault of the TPWD isn’t it? Also if handguns are so good why don’t I see many of them in the hunting fields?  

Thank You!

ANSWERS:  Once again, GREAT QUESTION(S)!!!
This is another question that came from a lady shooter folks. Man they come up with some very good questions and in sight. So let me start by saying……

I call it ambush because that’s what it is. I realize that I am not comparing to situations I know of from personal experience from military contact but the principles are the same. You set up in a stand or blind usually on a known travel/infiltration route usually to a feeding spot, water source or breeding area in the rut. You wait til the deer/animal steps out into the “kill zone” it presents you with a perfect shooting solution you take your scoped rifle and you harvest the animal with a shot from it. That as I said in my humble opinion is an “AMBUSH” in the most classic of forms. 

 In Colorado where I hunted and lived for years myself and a couple of buddies had a deal with a cattle rancher outside of Winter Park. If we rode his fence line a few times in the summer and did minor repairs and eliminated any predators, then we could hunt on the upper range for meat. I don’t shoot anything I’m not willing to destroy or eat (RULE #4). I also told you (and your sweetheart/co-hunter) about how we were not allowed to set up stands or feeding devices and we had to make sure we ran strays back down off the top range. I would drive my old Ford Country Squire station wagon about three miles to a point where I had to go on foot up about a thirty minute trail to the area. I also had to stop and try to cut sign, dope the wind, and search for the deer and elk I would take. I would set up a camp and usually just scout the first day, glassing the area and slopes and canyons to see where the animals were. We also had a deal to NOT, take any big horn sheep but let the rancher know if we spotted them and where. Call me crazy but that to me, is hunting. I had to take care with my campfire placement so as to not alert the animals to my presence if possible. I’m a firm believer that a whole lot of deer and elk see hunters more than the other way around. I never had a hunt in those years where I didn’t have to actually stalk the animal and shoot from distances of at least two hundred yards. I harvested four Mulies and three elk and lived on them for quite some period of time.

 I realize that the accepted norm here in Texas is setting up tree stands, blinds up 18 feet or more, cameras, automatic feeders and growing food plots and shooting at established lanes and firing areas. You climb up in those early or late in the day and wait for Bambi to stroll on out and bang his butt. That’s just how it’s done here. Still it’s “AMBUSH”.  In the discussion I heard talk about the mount and the back strap but not much more about the rest of the animal. I hope the leftover meat was distributed to the needy. I have always done that with what I couldn’t store after processing.

Don’t get me started about “TV hunting”… those are highly rigged hunts and like most media hunts they are all sponsored, and you don’t see many no shoots. To me that’s just hype.

The cost of hunting has skyrocketed with the advent of contests like “Muy Grande Big Buck Contest” etc. I know. I hunted down in Freer in the 80’s until the property owner had to go from $225.00 per gun to $945.00 per gun, and Tx. Parks and Wildlife had nothing to do with that. It is what he was offered to let hunters use his land for the contest, and then as with much of the prime spots; a corporate group offered him “tens of thousands” of dollars for exclusive use. We couldn’t blame the guy. Now most deer hunting in the valley and elsewhere is that way.

 When I would ride the fence line in Colorado I always had my .44 magnum revolver with me. I found it made me a better shooter because I had to concentrate on marksmanship fundamentals to make shots on coyotes, cats, and feral predators. I also took a doe with it at sixty yards. That deer was good eatin folks. You may not see any handguns in the field but there are plenty of them out there in use. Thompson Contenders, S&W, and Ruger revolvers, Remington scoped bolt action handguns (XP 100 & 700) all are taking game yearly and you can even see them on those TV shows you talked about. Try it sometime.

Other than black powder or “traditional” single shot rifles, I haven’t seen any hunter of deer or any other animal in Texas either having or using iron/open sights on their deer rifles in the field or at the range. To a man/woman, the rifles all have high power scopes or optics. I look for the iron sights folks. Most deer rifles aren’t sold with them. They are manufactured with them but not on all the various models. Deer hunters do not impress me with their skill levels of marksmanship because I see them mostly when it’s time for the annual sighting in and shooting ten or twenty rounds to reconfirm the scope zero. Hand loaders are an entirely different deal.

When I see someone remove their scope and shoot the 50-100 yard targets with the open sights I’ll let ya know. Haven’t seen it yet and like I said……..I LOOK!


Your Instructor, Eddie