I finally got the buck I've been hunting in Oklahoma for the last few years. I had one trail cam photo of him in 2009 as a 160's 4 or 5 year old and passed every buck that year trying for him. I never laid my eyes on him that year (though a guy who hunts on our property did), and in 2010 I didn't get another photo and never saw him so I'd assumed he got killed by the neighbors. On October 5 of this year, I got him on trail cam during the daylight hours moving through an area that's extremely thick, so I figured he was living somewhere near by. That was the ONLY time he came by my camera, but I figured he'd been bumped by a neighbor or he was living somewhere near the cam. As you would probably assume, I hunted him every chance I got, playing very close attention to the wind because the draw he was living in really makes the wind swirl with the wrong wind. I saw a very good buck last weekend, but elected to pass because I made up my mind to only hunt this buck (we have a one buck policy on our property, so I'd eat a tag or shoot this deer).

Friday afternoon, I got to my family ranch at about 3:00. I sneaked down into the river bottom very slowly, taking about 5 or 6 steps and listening and looking. It took me about an hour to walk the 3/4 of a mile to my spot, but I got in unseen, "unsmelled", and unheard. I set up on the ground on the side of the draw overlooking the bottom about 150 yards from where I got him on camera. We don't have a high deer density in the area, but the buck to doe ratio is nearly 1:1 after passing on tons of bucks and shooting only does some years, so the deer are very responsive to calls and we've got a pretty intense pre-rut and rut. At 6:15 the wind really died down, so I started grunting softly every 5-10 seconds in bursts of 4, then waiting about 5 minutes and did it again. On my second grunting sequence, I heard something coming down the opposite side of the draw, but because the foliage is so thick I couldn't see it. I heard him raking his antlers on an overhanging limb, so I knew it was a buck and got ready. It's so thick down in this area that when you see a deer, you better get on him. Instead of using my binos to find the deer, I just kept my head over my scope so if it did happen to be him, I'd be on him quick and be able to get a shot. He stopped behind some cedars for roughly one minute, listening for whatever deer he'd heard from the side of the hill (I still hadn't seen him at this point). The wind was drifting from my right to left, and he was about 50 yards from catching my wind, so I decided to grunt and see if I could pull him straight in vs. having him circle downwind unseen and blowing my chances. I gave one more soft grunt and he came out, first seeing his feet moving under the brush then catching his antlers moving. I put my gun on him right as he cleared the cedar tree, assessed it was the buck I was after and shot, all within about 2 seconds. I couldn't see him run off due to all the smoke, but though I heard him crash loudly a short distance away. I reloaded, gave him 10 minutes and went to go check for blood just to be sure. When I went to where he was hit I saw great blood, but couldn't see which way it was leading so I decided to walk in the direction I heard him fall. After walking about 30 yards I found him piled up in a dry creek bank.

He's my second biggest whitetail, but my biggest in Oklahoma by nearly 40 inches. I have actually have killed my 4 biggest deer with a muzzle-loader now, three of them over 170" and the biggest one being a 218" whitetail in Kansas back in 2007. Muzzle-loader has always been my favorite season in the mid-west, and with the current moon phase I had a good feeling about this past weekend. He's probably the most meaningful deer that I have taken because of the history myself and my family have had with this deer, and also the fact that he was taken on our own property. This isn't farm ground, so he's not a product of great groceries (think if he had corn or alfalfa to eat his entire life!), he's a product of good genetics and laying off the young bucks and letting them grow. I don't know exactly how old he is, I'm going to have to check reference photos of teeth to be 100% sure but I know he's at least 6 years old, possibly older.

Anyway, here he is. 187 4/8" green gross score (CORRECTION FROM SCORE POSTED EARLIER, JUST HAD HIM MEASURED BY B&C OFFICIAL), average mass measurement is 4 7/8" and he's got 3 tines over 11", 5 over 10". He's basically a 165" 9 point with 20"+ of trash including a 10.5" double G-3 on his right side.


Greg

What an awesome buck! Your having a heck of a year man!!! Congrats!!

Josh

Greg, that's a hell of a deer you got, good job and congrats to you.

quote:

Originally posted by Josh K.:
What an awesome buck! Your having a heck of a year man!!! Congrats!!

Josh

Thanks! I don't have any reason to complain!

Greg

quote:

Originally posted by Brian Clark:
Greg, that's a hell of a deer you got, good job and congrats to you.

Thanks Brian! I love it when things work out, I've had some really close calls with some giants and am running a pretty low success percentage on the bigger bucks I find. Most of them have been in Kansas, but I've been chasing some good deer at home for a while.

Good on you Greg. Tell Jeff that he has a long way to go to get one that nice.

Greg - Nice job. That is a great buck and well earned.

Doug

That is a stud! congrats...

Way to go Greg
That is one very nice buck!

Greg, Congrats on an outstanding buck. Way to go!

Best of Hunting,
Mark Hampton

Thanks guys, I'm pretty proud of him!


Greg

What a beautiful baby red stag. :P

Great job Greg on a terrific and well earned buck!

That is a beast! Congratulations.

Greg,

You're letting the cat out of the bag! No one is supposed to know there are great deer in Oklahoma! You can only find deer like that in Kansas, Texas, eastern Colorado, Montana and Canada. Now you've done it and Oklahoma will be getting more out of state hunters.

Naw just playing! Many people over look the quality of deer in Oklahoma. A real hidden gem!

Congrats!

quote:

Originally posted by graybird:
Greg,

You're letting the cat out of the bag! No one is supposed to know there are great deer in Oklahoma! You can only find deer like that in Kansas, Texas, eastern Colorado, Montana and Canada. Now you've done it and Oklahoma will be getting more out of state hunters.

Naw just playing! Many people over look the quality of deer in Oklahoma. A real hidden gem!

Congrats!

I hear you man! We do have some great deer areas, but I think as a whole people here know that they are few and far between so even the local hunters don't believe it's possible. The only reason we've got good deer is because we've been managing them strictly for age. No food plots or protein, just age. Can't imagine what they would look like if we could plant alfalfa or corn!

We started passing younger bucks about 10 years ago and it's paying off, but some of our neighbors are still shooting the first 3 year old they see which kind of hurts us. Really anywhere in the US could have good deer if they would lay off the younger bucks, but I think when the properties start shrinking and having a few hunters (or more) every 50 acres it's difficult to get any kind of management going. Hopefully we can keep it up, but know knows. More and more hunters each year mean it'll be harder and harder to keep the younger bucks from being shot.

Good Job!! Very happy for ya man.

All I can say is WOW.congrats

Fantastic, Greg. '11 has been good for ya!

quote:

Originally posted by Scottyboy:
Fantastic, Greg. '11 has been good for ya!

I'll have to agree with you there! When do you head to Kyrgyzstan?

WoW...what a deer

Congrats on a awesome deer!

Wow, that's a really handsome looking deer!

Orvar

JAWS!

This is the perfect time to locate the BEST taxidermist that you can find to do that deer justice. I don't know who you use now, but consider looking elsewhere if you have any reservations about the quality of work done by the taxidermists that you know. taxidermy.net has all the info that you need. You only have one chance to get it done right. Congratulations on the buck of a lifetime!

quote:

Originally posted by Gracedog:
This is the perfect time to locate the BEST taxidermist that you can find to do that deer justice. I don't know who you use now, but consider looking elsewhere if you have any reservations about the quality of work done by the taxidermists that you know. taxidermy.net has all the info that you need. You only have one chance to get it done right. Congratulations on the buck of a lifetime!

I'm extremely happy with the guy I use now. I'm extremely picky about which taxidermist I use because I want to preserve the animal the best way possible. I shot a 218" whitetail in Kansas in 2007 and my taxidermist did a phenomenal job, so I'll have him do another mount just like it.

Nice one

Fantastic buck! Congrats!!