2017 Oklahoma hunt (semi live)

[DTP]

I've been barely containing myself at this work conference these past few days. 

I drove out to Texas Monday night for a work conference that started Wednesday and ends today.  I realized I had Tuesday all to myself, so I did what any normal person would do and woke up at 2AM Tuesday morning to blitz to Oklahoma.

This spot is some public land that I've hunted for the last three years and it's really grown on me. 

It's not your standard whitetail habitat,  but they are there.  It's fun battling them in these elements with a bow.  There are also rare occurrences of mule deer, a healthy population of hogs, and turkeys. 

A good buddy of mine was nice enough to run a trail camera for me in my honey hole for a few weeks prior to me showing up. 

Some of the regulars ^


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[DTP]

I got in there Tuesday morning and got into deer right away.  I saw a small doe, small spike, had a pretty forkie mule deer pass by me at 72 yards (he was a large forkie), and I also saw a monster.......

I had the pleasure and misery of watching a very mature 8 point stand at 80 yards for a few minutes.  To put it into perspective, my guess was he was over 140".  I could barely contain myself I was so excited.  I watched him head up to bed near my honey hole.  After I realized there was a nice mature buck back in this area, I checked some other key spots close by.  Sure enough. 

Sign was all over and it got me very excited.  I also checked a spot I call scrape island and there were lots of scrapes that were still being hit. 

I hunt a few cameras and went on my way scouting some more. 
I found lots of hog sign which was pretty cool too if I wanted a change of pace.

That evening I sat a small spot that I shot my deer at there last year.  I had a hog come in to 50 yards, but he was moving and on a mission.  Then I saw a nice little 7 point, but it was after legal shooting hours. 

So I blitzed back to Texas, attended most of my conference, and now we are here....

I've got about 6 hours of the meeting left today, I pick my buddy up at the airport, and then we drive back out to hunt.

I'll be hunting all day with patchy service,  but I don't really want to pull my phone out while hunting.  So I'll try to do updates when we get to "camp" aka the hotel room.


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[cohunter14]

Best of luck Dan! Hopefully you find the big guy within bow range next time. Try to catch the kill on your trail camera again!  :lol:

 

[DTP]

Best of luck Dan! Hopefully you find the big guy within bow range next time. Try to catch the kill on your trail camera again!  :lol:

I'll wear my finest blue jeans and white t shirt [emoji23]


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[DTP]

I picked my buddy up at the airport and we made our way to Oklahoma. 

Before we left Texas we stopped to visit someone on the site (not sure if I can say his name because we don't want anyone finding his deer) to see his monster whitetail that he shot this year.... talk about some motivation.

Talk about STUD!


Alright, back on the road!

Once we hit the border we stopped at a tiny little towns steak house and enjoyed a quick meal.

We got to our "camp", meet up with another buddy, set up and grabbed some snacks.

Tomorrow is going to be a WINDY day, but we will make it happen.

I'll check cams and get us a good game plan going.


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[DTP]

Today was a very busy day. 
We woke up to 40mph winds and that made it pretty interesting morning. 

I wasn't seeing anything, so I met up with a buddy who said he was watching some does play about 600 yards away. 
I put up my binos and sure enough there were some mule deer bedded down across a canyon. 

We couldn't walk directly towards them because they would have pegged us, so swept a long way around and game in on the same level as them.  We got within 30 yards and saw there was a buck and three does.  I told my buddy he could shoot the buck and I'd shoot a doe.  My buddy shot and then I shot my doe.  I watched her go about 50 yards and fall over. 

We went to investigate my buddies shot and after about 4 hours of searching we came to the conclusion that he didn't hit the deer. 

Here is my doe

Today I saw a total of 14 deer, but no bucks that I was interested in. 

The winds are gone now and the temps are dropping a bunch, so I have a real good feeling about tomorrow. 



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[DTP]

Tonight's going to be a very long night....

This morning started off well.  My buddy had two deer come in on him nice and early

No shot, but he was pumped to see a nice buck. 

At 7:55 I had a nice buck come in....
36 yards, quartering away, calm.... and I shoot back.....

After about an hour and a half the buck walked off... it was this guy

I watched him in the binos until he went out of site and after a while I checked his bed.

I backed out and let the buck sit for about 6 hours.  I went to where I saw him last and searched for hours....
No luck tonight,  but I'll be right back there tomorrow looking all day to see if I can find him.  I think I hit liver too because the blood looked more than just a gut hit.... wish me luck.


My buddy shot a nice buck here tonight too.

I'm going to go pretend to sleep and think about where this deer could possibly be...


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[DTP]

Oh I forgot to say, my arrow was 100% gut.  I've not gut hit anything before, but if I hit liver too, wouldn't I see blood?

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[DTP]

Well today did not go well.....
I searched the entire day and found nothing.  I looked for blood, I looked for him, I grid searched the entire area and well beyond.... nothing.
I'm absolutely sick! I've not gut shot anything before and it's not a good feeling at all.  This was quite the learning experience and not a fun one. 

During my search I did find some trash (which I picked up), a bunch of sign, and a shed. 

If you ever wondered where those balloons fly off to.... its Oklahoma WMAs. 

Very nice whitetail shed.  If this was last years then he's going to be a dandy this year and the next.  It's cool how he has the sticker on the inside of his beam. 

There's something like 6-8 rubs in this picture.


My two buddies sat a food plot tonight and had a buck come in,  but it didn't present a shot.  They got it on film though and it came out pretty cool.  Young buck with a main beam snapped off on one side.

As much as I hate to say it, but after the all day search I am officially calling it off.  Tomorrow is my last day to hunt before I go spend thanksgiving in New Mexico, so I will hit it hard. 

It'll be some nasty winds, but we will make it work. 



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[colorado russ]

Good luck Dan.  Around here the rut is really picking up but I'm a ways East of where you're hunting.  Took a decent buck opening rifle weekend and hope to go back this weekend if I can get the dang in-laws to leave early!

 

[cohunter14]

Good luck Dan.  Around here the rut is really picking up but I'm a ways East of where you're hunting.  Took a decent buck opening rifle weekend and hope to go back this weekend if I can get the dang in-laws to leave early!

Let?s see a pic of that buck Russ!

 

[DTP]

Good luck Dan.  Around here the rut is really picking up but I'm a ways East of where you're hunting.  Took a decent buck opening rifle weekend and hope to go back this weekend if I can get the dang in-laws to leave early!

Let's see some pics! Congrats Russ!
Do you remember the guy you met out here...Matt? He shot his first archery deer yesterday out here.  It was a button buck, but he's more than happy.  Cloud 9 is too low for how he is right now. 

I'll have to give you a call later this weekend and give you the gossip of this "horrible WMA"
















We ended the trip with each of us taking a deer in camp.  The trip was way too short, it was a learning experience to say the least... I'm still feeling defeated and bad about that gut shot, but I'm doing everything I can to make sure that never happens again.

We had a nice little camp meal to celebrate my buddies first bow kill ever. 

As you can see we eat very healthy.


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[Don K]

Bummer on the buck. In almost all my experiences of a gut shot deer the arrow will have very little blood as the guts seem to clean off the arrow as it passes through there.  Even on hard quartering shots and passing through vitals and guts it seems the blood trails are minimal and blood is cleaned off the arrow. Also helping track gut shot deer I have them wait 8 hours it at all possible so the deer beds down and i don't push them. Leaving it overnight is not a bad idea at all on something like this.

Pretty cool you can hunt muley and whitetail and hogs in one place.

 

[DTP]

Bummer on the buck. In almost all my experiences of a gut shot deer the arrow will have very little blood as the guts seem to clean off the arrow as it passes through there.  Even on hard quartering shots and passing through vitals and guts it seems the blood trails are minimal and blood is cleaned off the arrow. Also helping track gut shot deer I have them wait 8 hours it at all possible so the deer beds down and i don't push them. Leaving it overnight is not a bad idea at all on something like this.

Pretty cool you can hunt muley and whitetail and hogs in one place.

That place is one or a kind.  Whitetail, turkey, hogs, and mule deer.  I usually go there longer, but this work trip I had took too much time. 

I'll never make that push mistake again. No matter how the situation goes. I may as well bring hand cuffs and just chain myself to something until it's time. 


Good luck to you the rest of your season.  A big ol deer is going to step out for you soon.


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