I’m very fortunate to get to hunt with a great group of guys on an awesome piece of bowhunting dirt just across the river in SW Oklahoma. Being right on the river, you can literally watch the deer cross from state to state. Pretty sure OK is borrowing the bigger ones from Texas Seriously though, it has turned out to be one of the better decisions I have made. Always seem to have activity up there, even when my TX places are slow.
We did not get to hunt opening weekend, so we were chomping at the bit to get up there last weekend. We made it in time to hunt Saturday afternoon. The North wind was perfect for one of the set ups and the cooler temps had me optimistic. It was an awesome hunt, and I was covered up in deer from the time I set down until a little before dark when a nice 5 year old 8 point showed up. We’d had a few pics of him on camera, but he didn’t really excite me much until I saw him standing there. I decided he’d be worth one of my tags within 10 seconds of seeing him. Haha
He came in really cautious like you’d expect a mature buck to do. I have a large panel pen to keep the hogs out(did I mention I hate feeder pens)and he stayed on the other side of it for what seemed like forever semi-circling it and looking at the other deer inside, but never on my side of the panels. You could tell he wanted in, but just did not feel comfortable with doing it. He finally committed and jumped in, and I waited for him to settle down and present a good shot. About 15 minutes later he was in the perfect spot, and I actually managed to get drawn without any of the 12 sets of eyes busting me. I settled the pin and hit the release……… and watched the arrow hit WAY higher than I wanted it to! I held for center of lungs and watched him drop almost right out from under it. I don’t know why I did that. I know better. I guess I thought he was calm enough and that big chest was deep enough that I’d take the short tracking job. Again, I know better
It was a clean pass through at what “looked” to be about 4” under the top of his back. He jumped out of the pen and went about 20 yards and stopped, looking back for a few seconds at the pen and the 6 or 7 deer that were still there. He then trotted up on a sand hill about 60 yards to the North East and watched for about another minute, then took off. I knew I wasn’t going to find a dead deer, but spent the next hour or so looking just in case. Not a drop of blood even where he stood for a while. Was literally sick at my stomach for wounding the buck, blowing my chance and ignoring lessons learned years ago that should have kept this from happening. Then it rained over 6” the next day. I saw a couple other nice bucks on a short sit between storms, but this buck just became the “one” after the previous day’s events. Ended up heading home pretty dejected knowing it would be a week before I could get back after him, if he even made it, or would be holed up somewhere trying to heal. One of my friends on the lease said he’d be back. I hoped he was right. Mature bucks don’t tolerate much they don’t like in my experience.
We showed up this past Sunday for round 2. North wind again and considerably cooler temps. So far, so good. Dang near too good. I could have used about 10 more degrees and 10 mph less wind Sunday evening I saw several bucks, but not him. BUT……he was sighted tending a scrape by someone else about 1/2 mile to my North! A pic confirmed the hit was even higher than I originally thought, and he seemed to be doing normal deer things and pretty much in his same home area. That made me feel a whole lot better whether I ever laid eyes on him again or not.
Monday mornings hunt started with the same groups of does that I’ve been seeing and a couple of young bucks I had not seen before. The corn was cleaned up pretty quickly and I figured the hunt would wind down pretty early. The cooler weather had them moving though, and I had groups of does and young bucks cruising by pretty regularly looking for groceries. They would just move on when they realized it had already been picked over.
Shortly after 8 I saw the top of a rack cresting a sand hill about 100 yards to my North West. I knew immediately which deer it was. It was HIM! I started getting my stuff together because I knew if I was going to get an opportunity at all, it was going to be a short one. He came right to the edge of the pen and hesitated just like last time, except this time he went right instead of left to circle it. That path would either bring him to a scrape just to the left of my ground blind that offers no shot and almost putting him downwind, or right in front of me if he sticks to the pen. He stuck to the pen! He stopped perfectly between me and the pen at about 8 yards, then looked over in the pen and directly away from me. I drew instantly and he whipped his head around and looked straight at the blind. Too late…….I was already anchored and he was so close that every single pin on my sight was hovering in the sweet spot. I dropped it a little lower for insurance this time and hit the release and he was spewing blood before he made his first step. It was a no doubt kind of hit. I listened for a crash, but the wind was just too strong. The whole thing was pretty surreal in the way it played out and how fast it all turned around.
It got even stranger when we walked up on him. Somehow he had wedged himself tightly in a tree……which isn’t that strange in itself, but the angle he had to come in from to do that will leave you scratching your head.
Thanks for reading.
We did not get to hunt opening weekend, so we were chomping at the bit to get up there last weekend. We made it in time to hunt Saturday afternoon. The North wind was perfect for one of the set ups and the cooler temps had me optimistic. It was an awesome hunt, and I was covered up in deer from the time I set down until a little before dark when a nice 5 year old 8 point showed up. We’d had a few pics of him on camera, but he didn’t really excite me much until I saw him standing there. I decided he’d be worth one of my tags within 10 seconds of seeing him. Haha
He came in really cautious like you’d expect a mature buck to do. I have a large panel pen to keep the hogs out(did I mention I hate feeder pens)and he stayed on the other side of it for what seemed like forever semi-circling it and looking at the other deer inside, but never on my side of the panels. You could tell he wanted in, but just did not feel comfortable with doing it. He finally committed and jumped in, and I waited for him to settle down and present a good shot. About 15 minutes later he was in the perfect spot, and I actually managed to get drawn without any of the 12 sets of eyes busting me. I settled the pin and hit the release……… and watched the arrow hit WAY higher than I wanted it to! I held for center of lungs and watched him drop almost right out from under it. I don’t know why I did that. I know better. I guess I thought he was calm enough and that big chest was deep enough that I’d take the short tracking job. Again, I know better
It was a clean pass through at what “looked” to be about 4” under the top of his back. He jumped out of the pen and went about 20 yards and stopped, looking back for a few seconds at the pen and the 6 or 7 deer that were still there. He then trotted up on a sand hill about 60 yards to the North East and watched for about another minute, then took off. I knew I wasn’t going to find a dead deer, but spent the next hour or so looking just in case. Not a drop of blood even where he stood for a while. Was literally sick at my stomach for wounding the buck, blowing my chance and ignoring lessons learned years ago that should have kept this from happening. Then it rained over 6” the next day. I saw a couple other nice bucks on a short sit between storms, but this buck just became the “one” after the previous day’s events. Ended up heading home pretty dejected knowing it would be a week before I could get back after him, if he even made it, or would be holed up somewhere trying to heal. One of my friends on the lease said he’d be back. I hoped he was right. Mature bucks don’t tolerate much they don’t like in my experience.
We showed up this past Sunday for round 2. North wind again and considerably cooler temps. So far, so good. Dang near too good. I could have used about 10 more degrees and 10 mph less wind Sunday evening I saw several bucks, but not him. BUT……he was sighted tending a scrape by someone else about 1/2 mile to my North! A pic confirmed the hit was even higher than I originally thought, and he seemed to be doing normal deer things and pretty much in his same home area. That made me feel a whole lot better whether I ever laid eyes on him again or not.
Monday mornings hunt started with the same groups of does that I’ve been seeing and a couple of young bucks I had not seen before. The corn was cleaned up pretty quickly and I figured the hunt would wind down pretty early. The cooler weather had them moving though, and I had groups of does and young bucks cruising by pretty regularly looking for groceries. They would just move on when they realized it had already been picked over.
Shortly after 8 I saw the top of a rack cresting a sand hill about 100 yards to my North West. I knew immediately which deer it was. It was HIM! I started getting my stuff together because I knew if I was going to get an opportunity at all, it was going to be a short one. He came right to the edge of the pen and hesitated just like last time, except this time he went right instead of left to circle it. That path would either bring him to a scrape just to the left of my ground blind that offers no shot and almost putting him downwind, or right in front of me if he sticks to the pen. He stuck to the pen! He stopped perfectly between me and the pen at about 8 yards, then looked over in the pen and directly away from me. I drew instantly and he whipped his head around and looked straight at the blind. Too late…….I was already anchored and he was so close that every single pin on my sight was hovering in the sweet spot. I dropped it a little lower for insurance this time and hit the release and he was spewing blood before he made his first step. It was a no doubt kind of hit. I listened for a crash, but the wind was just too strong. The whole thing was pretty surreal in the way it played out and how fast it all turned around.
It got even stranger when we walked up on him. Somehow he had wedged himself tightly in a tree……which isn’t that strange in itself, but the angle he had to come in from to do that will leave you scratching your head.
Thanks for reading.
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