I'll try my best to sum up the amazing history of the ranch I experienced some of my fondest memories at. I'll provide some pictures to keep ya'll interested. It is located in Pittsburg county Oklahoma and consists of 400 acres. I was just 13 when we bought the ranch and was very green to hunting, especially bow hunting. I'm 21 now and attribute nearly all of my knowledge and skills I've acquired in the sport to that place.
In early 2007 we closed the deal on the place for about $700 an acre. At this point the land had been quite neglected and was being leased at the time to a local hunter who ran cattle on the place. Just prior to all the paper work getting done, we made a trip up there to look at the land collectively as a family. Upon entering the tattered gate we were met by the local leasee, who we informed that we were about to pull the trigger on purchasing the land from the owner. In what I believe to be a last ditch effort to keep his lease and not lose it to us, he told us some tall tales about sub-par deer hunting, thieves, constant poaching, and meth labs littered throughout the area. I could tell my father was almost instantly regretting his decision to even consider buying the place, but luckily an honest neighbor came to chat with us. Within minutes he said, "You guys don't realize what you have here..." He explained what felt like hours upon my excited ears that he himself had harvested many giants from our future hunting grounds many years ago (he was nearing 65 and had "retired" from deer hunting as he put it). He said there were some less than honest people in the area, but he assured us that he would always check on the place for us while we were away. To this day I still attribute our follow-through of the land purchase to his comforting words.
It is the summer of 2007 and we have now bought the land, the cows and leasee were off, and the building started almost immediately. We soon made more contacts in town and formed more friendships. My father called upon the help of his father to assist in the building of our dream home-on-a-hill. With this, my grandfather also employed the help of his reliable A/C installer, who ended up being quite the mentor to me and quite an asset to us. His name is Lynn and we struck a deal that he would install our A/C in our new home for a very discounted price as long as he could bow hunt the place come October. After we agreed to this, Lynn went hard to work on the A/C as well as scouting the land. Seeing how my family and myself were so new to hunting and to the property, we relied heavily on Lynn to scout the land for us and guide us in the right direction as how to set up the place. Turns out Lynn is a bit of a bow hunting guru that could sniff out the best places even if he was new to the property as well. Within a couple weeks, Lynn had multiple treestands set up in different locations along various trails he told us to simply hand corn when we went to hunt later in the fall.
We pulled our first set of trail camera photos in early September of that year off one of the areas Lynn had put a bag of corn out at. Within a few photos it was apparent we were going to have quite a year! In one photo, we had one of the largest bodied deer I've ever seen (and still to this day) show up that sported about 155"-160" of headgear, and his buddy who sported around 125". For reasons I can't remember now, we named the big hoss "Cabbage Head" and later his buddy "Limpy" when he showed up to a stand later in the fall, you guessed it, limping. Here are some photos of them:
Fast forward to October: I was still too weak to pull back a bow at 13 years old, so that season I spent a lot of time spectating and rifle hunting when I could. Though I could not pull back sufficient weight, my older brother could. Lynn quickly taught him how to shoot his new youth bow and he ended up harvesting his very first deer, and with a bow to boot! To this day my older brother has not picked up a bow after that kill. Says he accomplished his task and felt no need to go afield again
.
In November of that same season, I sat in a treestand over a field during the 9 day Oklahoma muzzleloader season. No gun, no bow, just a youngster interested in seeing some deer. Around 5 o'clock though on November 3rd, 2007 I heard a shot ring out from the direction my father was sitting. I heard a loud yell, "WOOOOOO-HOOOOO!" and received a picture text on my phone moments later of my father taking a selfie with this joker who we would find out scored 172". This was the largest buck we ever took off the place:
The rest of the season came and went with me going deerless over the rifle season. I believe Lynn harvested a respectable 125" buck that December after blowing on his grunt tube as loud as he could. The buck came running in and he shot it but never did retrieve it. We found the skull and horns of his deer later that spring and got it shoulder mounted for him (taxidermist had a spare hide he said he could use). God I wish I recorded his reaction when we surprised him with it the following year
The next deer season came and on the morning of November 21st, 2008 I harvested my first bow buck off the property, my second bow buck ever
The November 21st Oklahoma buck (would put me at 14 years old here):
Fun Fact: I distinctly remember intentionally wearing those red boxers you see over my belt line for the rest of my hunts that season, thought they'd bring me luck! LOL
My younger brother also harvested a 2.5 year old 8 point with his rifle that season, a first for him as well:
Then in 2009, at 15 years old I harvested what is still the biggest buck of my life at 148"
In December of 2009, my best friend since grade school made a trip out there with me and shot his first deer with a bow:
Jumping right into 2010, my younger brother shot the buck my father and I had been hunting for all season long, with a rifle
:
2011, my father and I tagged out on the same morning, and his first bow buck:
2012, my father and I get it done again. Mine on opening weekend and his later in mid-November:
2013, my buddy comes back again and harvests a nice 8 point:
My father also shot a nice 8 point that season:
I have been flying through the years here but there is a lot going on behind the scenes that I should get you caught up on.
Back in 2009, the landowner who sold us the 400 acres had an additional 40 that was landlocked with what he sold us. He didn't sell it to us because he "wanted to leave something behind for his children". He assures us he will never develop on it (since that would obviously mess up our hunting) and we cordially sell him 8 acres that stretch from the county road to his 40... Big mistake... Less than a year later and guess who is building a home on the 8 acres we sold him?... And the person who is building it is his cousin who loves to rifle hunt and blow stuff up in his spare time. Years later we will have a camera/tree stand stolen, a turkey hunt ruined by him shooting his semi auto by the property line, trail camera pictures of his girlfriend and her daughter riding horses through our ridge top right before hunting season, stray blue heelers of his that ran wherever they wanted, it was an absolute nightmare... As you could guess from about 2011 on the quality of deer we were seeing went down dramatically, and it very much was a large reason for selling the place in 2014.
Looking back it was very easy to blame the circumstances for the lack of shooters we were seeing compared to say 2007 when we had cabbage head and my dad's 172" bruiser running around. But at the same time I was in college (me at West Texas A&M in Canyon, TX) and my parents were starting to expand their business. Seeing how I was so far away and my parents getting very busy, the land was not being managed except for feeding corn from August to December, so nothing was really enticing those bigger deer to stay. But life happened I guess you could say and immediate capital needed to be raised for my parent's business expansion. So after all the fuss from the neighbor and lack of time available to care for the place, we decided it was best to sell the ranch in the summer of 2014.
We have stayed in contact with the now current landowner and he absolutely made the place what it should have been years ago! Despite the neighbor and his 5.5+ hour drive from his hometown of Monroe, Louisiana, he planted acres and acres of food plots, added high protein feeders, large tower blinds, expanded the pond on the property, and even got the neighbor to help him pay to put up a fence to separate the properties! Here are the fruits of his labor for the 2014-2015 deer season:
His wife's monster, killed from the same food plot my father and younger brother have shot bucks out of:
The buck on the left in this picture is the 3rd and final kill of their 2014-2015 deer season:
Of course its a little bitter sweet sitting on the outside looking in now and seeing what the place has become, but it taught me A LOT about the importance of deer management. The deer he was feeding and holding all summer were there because of intense management practices, something I failed to realize during my time there. It also probably helps that the crazy neighbor moved out and took all his crap with him Too bad he didn't do that while we were there! LOL
The new landowner has 3 young daughters that now have 400 acres to grow up hunting on just as I had the opportunity to, and that's pretty dang cool if you ask me! I hope they get many more successful seasons off the place and find as much solace in those ridge tops as I did. Me, I'll just keep hitting the books until I graduate and can afford to head back up there and buy up another parcel to make more memories on
Brandon
P.S.
I always found myself to be very lucky to find a few sheds during the months of February-March, and THIS is what the new land owner found just looking in his food plots! Food is the answer people!
In early 2007 we closed the deal on the place for about $700 an acre. At this point the land had been quite neglected and was being leased at the time to a local hunter who ran cattle on the place. Just prior to all the paper work getting done, we made a trip up there to look at the land collectively as a family. Upon entering the tattered gate we were met by the local leasee, who we informed that we were about to pull the trigger on purchasing the land from the owner. In what I believe to be a last ditch effort to keep his lease and not lose it to us, he told us some tall tales about sub-par deer hunting, thieves, constant poaching, and meth labs littered throughout the area. I could tell my father was almost instantly regretting his decision to even consider buying the place, but luckily an honest neighbor came to chat with us. Within minutes he said, "You guys don't realize what you have here..." He explained what felt like hours upon my excited ears that he himself had harvested many giants from our future hunting grounds many years ago (he was nearing 65 and had "retired" from deer hunting as he put it). He said there were some less than honest people in the area, but he assured us that he would always check on the place for us while we were away. To this day I still attribute our follow-through of the land purchase to his comforting words.
It is the summer of 2007 and we have now bought the land, the cows and leasee were off, and the building started almost immediately. We soon made more contacts in town and formed more friendships. My father called upon the help of his father to assist in the building of our dream home-on-a-hill. With this, my grandfather also employed the help of his reliable A/C installer, who ended up being quite the mentor to me and quite an asset to us. His name is Lynn and we struck a deal that he would install our A/C in our new home for a very discounted price as long as he could bow hunt the place come October. After we agreed to this, Lynn went hard to work on the A/C as well as scouting the land. Seeing how my family and myself were so new to hunting and to the property, we relied heavily on Lynn to scout the land for us and guide us in the right direction as how to set up the place. Turns out Lynn is a bit of a bow hunting guru that could sniff out the best places even if he was new to the property as well. Within a couple weeks, Lynn had multiple treestands set up in different locations along various trails he told us to simply hand corn when we went to hunt later in the fall.
We pulled our first set of trail camera photos in early September of that year off one of the areas Lynn had put a bag of corn out at. Within a few photos it was apparent we were going to have quite a year! In one photo, we had one of the largest bodied deer I've ever seen (and still to this day) show up that sported about 155"-160" of headgear, and his buddy who sported around 125". For reasons I can't remember now, we named the big hoss "Cabbage Head" and later his buddy "Limpy" when he showed up to a stand later in the fall, you guessed it, limping. Here are some photos of them:
Fast forward to October: I was still too weak to pull back a bow at 13 years old, so that season I spent a lot of time spectating and rifle hunting when I could. Though I could not pull back sufficient weight, my older brother could. Lynn quickly taught him how to shoot his new youth bow and he ended up harvesting his very first deer, and with a bow to boot! To this day my older brother has not picked up a bow after that kill. Says he accomplished his task and felt no need to go afield again
. In November of that same season, I sat in a treestand over a field during the 9 day Oklahoma muzzleloader season. No gun, no bow, just a youngster interested in seeing some deer. Around 5 o'clock though on November 3rd, 2007 I heard a shot ring out from the direction my father was sitting. I heard a loud yell, "WOOOOOO-HOOOOO!" and received a picture text on my phone moments later of my father taking a selfie with this joker who we would find out scored 172". This was the largest buck we ever took off the place:
The rest of the season came and went with me going deerless over the rifle season. I believe Lynn harvested a respectable 125" buck that December after blowing on his grunt tube as loud as he could. The buck came running in and he shot it but never did retrieve it. We found the skull and horns of his deer later that spring and got it shoulder mounted for him (taxidermist had a spare hide he said he could use). God I wish I recorded his reaction when we surprised him with it the following year
The next deer season came and on the morning of November 21st, 2008 I harvested my first bow buck off the property, my second bow buck ever
The November 21st Oklahoma buck (would put me at 14 years old here):
Fun Fact: I distinctly remember intentionally wearing those red boxers you see over my belt line for the rest of my hunts that season, thought they'd bring me luck! LOL
My younger brother also harvested a 2.5 year old 8 point with his rifle that season, a first for him as well:
Then in 2009, at 15 years old I harvested what is still the biggest buck of my life at 148"
In December of 2009, my best friend since grade school made a trip out there with me and shot his first deer with a bow:
Jumping right into 2010, my younger brother shot the buck my father and I had been hunting for all season long, with a rifle
:2011, my father and I tagged out on the same morning, and his first bow buck:
2012, my father and I get it done again. Mine on opening weekend and his later in mid-November:
2013, my buddy comes back again and harvests a nice 8 point:
My father also shot a nice 8 point that season:
I have been flying through the years here but there is a lot going on behind the scenes that I should get you caught up on.
Back in 2009, the landowner who sold us the 400 acres had an additional 40 that was landlocked with what he sold us. He didn't sell it to us because he "wanted to leave something behind for his children". He assures us he will never develop on it (since that would obviously mess up our hunting) and we cordially sell him 8 acres that stretch from the county road to his 40... Big mistake... Less than a year later and guess who is building a home on the 8 acres we sold him?... And the person who is building it is his cousin who loves to rifle hunt and blow stuff up in his spare time. Years later we will have a camera/tree stand stolen, a turkey hunt ruined by him shooting his semi auto by the property line, trail camera pictures of his girlfriend and her daughter riding horses through our ridge top right before hunting season, stray blue heelers of his that ran wherever they wanted, it was an absolute nightmare... As you could guess from about 2011 on the quality of deer we were seeing went down dramatically, and it very much was a large reason for selling the place in 2014.
Looking back it was very easy to blame the circumstances for the lack of shooters we were seeing compared to say 2007 when we had cabbage head and my dad's 172" bruiser running around. But at the same time I was in college (me at West Texas A&M in Canyon, TX) and my parents were starting to expand their business. Seeing how I was so far away and my parents getting very busy, the land was not being managed except for feeding corn from August to December, so nothing was really enticing those bigger deer to stay. But life happened I guess you could say and immediate capital needed to be raised for my parent's business expansion. So after all the fuss from the neighbor and lack of time available to care for the place, we decided it was best to sell the ranch in the summer of 2014.
We have stayed in contact with the now current landowner and he absolutely made the place what it should have been years ago! Despite the neighbor and his 5.5+ hour drive from his hometown of Monroe, Louisiana, he planted acres and acres of food plots, added high protein feeders, large tower blinds, expanded the pond on the property, and even got the neighbor to help him pay to put up a fence to separate the properties! Here are the fruits of his labor for the 2014-2015 deer season:
His wife's monster, killed from the same food plot my father and younger brother have shot bucks out of:
The buck on the left in this picture is the 3rd and final kill of their 2014-2015 deer season:
Of course its a little bitter sweet sitting on the outside looking in now and seeing what the place has become, but it taught me A LOT about the importance of deer management. The deer he was feeding and holding all summer were there because of intense management practices, something I failed to realize during my time there. It also probably helps that the crazy neighbor moved out and took all his crap with him
Too bad he didn't do that while we were there! LOLThe new landowner has 3 young daughters that now have 400 acres to grow up hunting on just as I had the opportunity to, and that's pretty dang cool if you ask me! I hope they get many more successful seasons off the place and find as much solace in those ridge tops as I did. Me, I'll just keep hitting the books until I graduate and can afford to head back up there and buy up another parcel to make more memories on
Brandon
P.S.
I always found myself to be very lucky to find a few sheds during the months of February-March, and THIS is what the new land owner found just looking in his food plots! Food is the answer people!
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