Rifle season in Oklahoma was short but sweet.
The season opener was last Saturday the 21st.
The forecast of steady 20 mph winds with gusts to 30 had me less than enthusiastic about getting out of bed at 3 AM to drive up but as my ace compadre pointed out, " you can't shoot deer lying in bed and we both know the rut should be on "
By days end I had seen a handful of does, three coyotes and one darn nice deer I would have shot.
Only problem he was running a doe at full throttle and never gave me a shot.
Total for the day was 10 different bucks as they were in chase mode.
Sunday's forecast was much better.
Clear, 28 degrees and almost zero wind.
Gary and I decided we'd both hunt my stand that morning as he hadn't seen much Saturday.
This stand is a box blind that's 4x6x6 situated on top of a rise.
( has office chairs and propane heat in it too :roll: )
We got in the stand about 6:15 knowing shooting light was about 6:30
Hadn't been in the stand for 10 minutes when we saw a doe walking down the slight hill to our left.
As it gradually got lighter we realized there were 4 does feeding within 200 yards of us.
Gary's eyes were straining due the dim light so he dropped his binos and looked straight down the hill in front of us. Low and behold there was a buck at about 100 yards walking from right to left toward the group of does.
We could see white antlers but still too dark to see if he was a shooter.
The buck made his way over to the group of does and just stopped staring at them.
There was a small clump of trees between us and him so even though it was getting pretty light we still had no determination how big he was. Gary whispered, " There is another deer that just jumped the fence about 150 yards to the right "
I switched my view could see antlers but no idea how big he was.
He slowly made his way toward the other group of deer who were all heads up and staring straight at him now.
The two bucks ended up about 20 yards apart facing each other.
The first buck took a couple of steps toward buck number two, then stopped broadside and turned to look directly at the stand.
I told Gary "Shoot him"
He tried to calm himself and finally I heard his 257 Bob bark.
The deer mule kicked took a couple of steps towards the intruder then stopped and started wagging his tail. Seemed like an eternity but it was probably thirty seconds before the deer toppled over.
At the shot buck number two made the mistake of running away about thirty yards and stopping.
I recognized him from trailcam pics as a pretty good nine point with a weird rack on the right side.
I dropped my binos, grabbed my 280 and found him in the scope.
He was 180 yards walking dead away from me.
I told Gary I don't want to take a Texas heart shot.
Gary yelled "Hey" rather loudly and the deer stopped , turned his head back to the left. I could see the back of his shoulder blade.
The trigger broke, the buck took off and ran into a clump of trees thirty yards to his right and never came back out.
I looked at my phone, it was 6:49 AM
And just like that, in two minutes, our 2015 season was over.
By 11:00 we were back at the house, drinking a Bloody Mary as we skinned and quartered deer.
The season opener was last Saturday the 21st.
The forecast of steady 20 mph winds with gusts to 30 had me less than enthusiastic about getting out of bed at 3 AM to drive up but as my ace compadre pointed out, " you can't shoot deer lying in bed and we both know the rut should be on "
By days end I had seen a handful of does, three coyotes and one darn nice deer I would have shot.
Only problem he was running a doe at full throttle and never gave me a shot.
Total for the day was 10 different bucks as they were in chase mode.
Sunday's forecast was much better.
Clear, 28 degrees and almost zero wind.
Gary and I decided we'd both hunt my stand that morning as he hadn't seen much Saturday.
This stand is a box blind that's 4x6x6 situated on top of a rise.
( has office chairs and propane heat in it too :roll: )
We got in the stand about 6:15 knowing shooting light was about 6:30
Hadn't been in the stand for 10 minutes when we saw a doe walking down the slight hill to our left.
As it gradually got lighter we realized there were 4 does feeding within 200 yards of us.
Gary's eyes were straining due the dim light so he dropped his binos and looked straight down the hill in front of us. Low and behold there was a buck at about 100 yards walking from right to left toward the group of does.
We could see white antlers but still too dark to see if he was a shooter.
The buck made his way over to the group of does and just stopped staring at them.
There was a small clump of trees between us and him so even though it was getting pretty light we still had no determination how big he was. Gary whispered, " There is another deer that just jumped the fence about 150 yards to the right "
I switched my view could see antlers but no idea how big he was.
He slowly made his way toward the other group of deer who were all heads up and staring straight at him now.
The two bucks ended up about 20 yards apart facing each other.
The first buck took a couple of steps toward buck number two, then stopped broadside and turned to look directly at the stand.
I told Gary "Shoot him"
He tried to calm himself and finally I heard his 257 Bob bark.
The deer mule kicked took a couple of steps towards the intruder then stopped and started wagging his tail. Seemed like an eternity but it was probably thirty seconds before the deer toppled over.
At the shot buck number two made the mistake of running away about thirty yards and stopping.
I recognized him from trailcam pics as a pretty good nine point with a weird rack on the right side.
I dropped my binos, grabbed my 280 and found him in the scope.
He was 180 yards walking dead away from me.
I told Gary I don't want to take a Texas heart shot.
Gary yelled "Hey" rather loudly and the deer stopped , turned his head back to the left. I could see the back of his shoulder blade.
The trigger broke, the buck took off and ran into a clump of trees thirty yards to his right and never came back out.
I looked at my phone, it was 6:49 AM
And just like that, in two minutes, our 2015 season was over.
By 11:00 we were back at the house, drinking a Bloody Mary as we skinned and quartered deer.
. Sometimes short & sweet is the way to go!!
