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2020 Pushmataha county/SE Oklahoma
Well Gents, we spent the weekend in God’s country and what a weekend it was! Looking at the higher temps things were not ideal but you gotta go when you can. Between serving at church, football games for my sophomore, marching-band-cult daughter (percussionist), and our 12 year old son’s competitive basketball and tennis schedules it’s like threading the needle fitting everything in that is important to us in this phase of our life. (I’m sure many of you are nodding and thinking “Amen, brother” to that.)
My son is eaten up with fishing and that fever is currently running neck in neck with the idea of killing his second buck ever and it being a whopper. We agreed that mornings were my time to hunt solo while he and Papa fish. Evenings would be our time to chase his first bow buck.
On Saturday evening we got out on stand and really enjoyed the sit. .
He let a young buck walk mid way through our sit, which was only because we had a bigger buck hitting this spot regularly. He rolled the dice and it was a good gamble.
Our target buck made an appearance about 45 minutes later and fed with his rear-end pointing at us for seven minutes 18 yards away.
He finally rotated but wouldn’t give us a clean broadside shot. I was afraid that he would pick up and move to the clear cut without stopping so I greenlighted the hard quartering away shot.
Being 12 he put the arrow where he’s been taught to put it for a broadside shot. The deer didn’t know what hit him. He stumbled into the 4 year old clear cut. Pines are about 10-15 feet tall. We backed out and had dinner before returning around 8 PM and blood trailed until we lost the trail around 11 PM. We took up the track the next morning and picked up the blood trail again only to lose it around 300 yards from the shot location. No bloody bed and no jumped deer. Bright red blood. After 4 more hours of searching we called it. Monday before we left we made another round on the Ranger to look for buzzards but no luck. After consulting with members of the deer hunting Jedi council there is a very good chance that this buck will survive, given the angle and forward location of the shot. That is my prayer at this point.
TAKEAWAYS: I made a poor decision to have Will take a low percentage shot that he wasn’t ready for. I’ve got to be patient and show him how to take a better shot. I will take a lot away from this experience.
I can’t describe the emotions brought on by seeing him lose this buck and knowing that it didn’t have to end this way. I wanted to pack up and head home but he pushed me to fish so we fished, which was good therapy.
On Monday morning while he and Papa continued their quest for the big bass I moved to another area as we thoroughly blew out the other set. The front was trying to push through so it was windy with a lot of shifting. I put this stand up two days prior and corned it so this was my first sit at this new set. Folks may have a poor opinion of hunting on windy days but I’ve had a lot of encounters when conditions were less than ideal. This sit was no different. Nothing had touched the corn so as I stalked up 45 minutes before shooting light under the cover of a dim, red headlamp let me tell you, my spirits were not high. Around 7:40 a 3.5 year old basket 10 pt materialized immediately behind me, along the trail I walked in on. For the next 25 minutes he slowly worked his way around some brush that was blocking a shot (and providing me with great cover) he finally inched into my shooting lane. I came to full draw multiple times after dealing with limbs blocking vitals and a previously unseen, twisted peep sight that reflected the rising sun to a degree that I couldn’t make out the deer at all, it all came together.
~50 yards was all he could muster.
Entry:
Exit:
This is the first of three that we need to put in the freezer this season.
The boy and I will be back at it in a couple of weeks and my plan it to get him back in a position to harvest a deer ASAP. We had a great time together and have to take the good with the bad. God is good and I praise Him
for the opportunity to spend time with my family in His creation.Last edited by Booner Sooner; 10-13-2020, 08:56 PM.Comment
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Nice buck. Congrats.Comment
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Congratulations on a nice buckComment
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Congrats on the buck!Comment
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That is awesome. Congrats to you guys.Comment
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Congrats booner! Good learning experience for your boy. It will be worth it in the end.
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Congratulations on making it happen! That's a nice buck.Comment
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Pretty deer, sorry to hear about sons bad luck. They never seem to get right for me either.
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One down. 10:30 this morning not much of a story but made me work for it. Checked 5/6 scrapes and never gave up a shot. Luckily and little **** head came in and made him turn just enough. Slipped one in him and he made it all of 15 yards. Little guys starting to bump does, big boys will be about a week behind them.
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Originally posted by AntlersBoy View Post
...and Antlersboy is on the board!
Nice deer! Thanks for sharing.Comment
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My dad took my nephew for youth season and he laid this one down for his first buck ever!!
I'm headed up Tuesday morning for 6 days hopefully they start moving a little better for us!
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Great bucks going down!Comment
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Originally posted by AntlersBoy View Post
You had to go out-do Michael didn’t you?!
Congrats. That’s a heck of a buck!
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