Called “Mr. Whitetail” because of his encyclopedic knowledge of whitetailed deer management and hunting, Larry Weishuhn is also a life-long handgun hunter. Grab a cool one and listen as he and Hovey trace the evolution of cartridge and black-powder handgun hunting from the 1950s to the present.

Besides being an extremely knowledgeable and widely experienced hunter, Weishuhn is one of the most pleasantly personable people in the outdoor industry. He grew up in southeastern Texas, received his college education and very early became involved with whitetailed deer management. Before long he was under contract with large private ranches with the job of improving the quality of their deer along with developing food sources and habitat.

This work increases deer numbers to the point that large numbers of does needed to be harvested to bring the population into balance. This provided ample opportunities for Weishuhn to engage in handgun hunting with a variety of guns. Simultaneously, he wrote about whitetail management for a variety of outdoor magazines and increasingly about guns. These activities became more a part of his life when be became associated with Thompson/Center Arms. He used and promoted both their handguns and rifles by taking them on hunts all over the world. He took, for example, the first big game shot with a then-unnamed T/C pistol which gave rise to the Encore line of pistols and single-shot rifles.

He also was a guest and soon a host on TV productions. He is now in Africa on behalf of Ruger Arms where he will hunt kudu, elan and lion. He will use a Ruger rifle chambered for the proprietary .375 Ruger cartridge. This cartridge has improved capabilities over the nearly century old .375 Holland & Holland which has been the standard “medium caliber” for Africa since before W.W. II.

It was a pleasure visiting with an old friend. We might have gotten a little bit too deep into “shop talk” about old cartridges, guns and pistol pioneers; but like old wine, I think that most will find that this topic ages very well when told by one of the nicest straight-shooting guys that I know.