Southern Oklahoma Vacation

[rice]

Hello all. Don't post much but thought you all might enjoy a little taste of last weeks vacation for me.
Just a little background, I hunt on a lease in southern oklahoma. There are just 2 of us that hunt traditional out of 10 hunters. Rules are pretty restrictive. Bucks must be 8 point and wider than their ears. We are not allowed to shoot fawns. We can only shoot 1 buck unless the first buck we kill grosses over 140 inches. It is a bowhunting only lease. The biologist set our Doe quota at 30 does on the 2520 acres.
I took off 7 days last week to hit the chase phase and boy did I.
Here is a view from one of my tree stands. More to follow.
 

[bloodyarrow]

looking good so far Chris lets see what that spider can do  

[rice]

I got all set up in camp on friday morning and was ready for the evening hunt. As luck would have it, I had 2 bucks come in, a small 6 point and a small 4 point. Really enjoyed watching them interact. Just at dusk, they blew and ran off up the ridge. I heard what sounded like a bunch of hogs running down the ridge, and guess what. It was. 1 boar 3 sows and 6 little footballs.
I drew down on an 80 pound sow and let fly, The arrow tracked perfect until the last 5 feet when it lost altitude quickly and went right under her shoulder. The second arrow went over her back. Yea, she stood around for a second shot but the old noggin over did rather than under did this time.
This is me having fun in a tree.
 

[rice]

Saturday morning found me perched in the same tree. Remember those hogs I missed last night. My second shot scared the fire out of them. Well paybacks are tough!  Walking in to my stand in the dark Saterday morning, just as I got to my tree, not 10 feet away a sounder of hogs exploded out from under my feet. Were talking extreme pucker factor on my part.  
 I got setted in my stand and about ten minutes after full light, a Doe enter the scene. Wish I had pictures of her coming in but I was concentrating on concentrating. Here is the result.
http://s307.photobucket.com/albums/nn301/CKRADA/?action=view¤t=firstDoe2008.jpg" target="_blank">http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn301/CKRADA/firstDoe2008.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket">
First Doe of the season! I was on cloud 9!!

[rice]

Woops. wrong line on photo bucket. here she is.
 

[horseapple]

Nice one Chris, please tell more:) Also is the rut still on down your way or has it began yet? Up here its just started, have pic's of 9 different bucks coming to one scrape.

JD

[rice]

JD the bucks were tearing it up last week. About 50% of the Does seen by our members had bucks on their tails.

[rice]

It was ggood to have a Doe on the ground, I moved the monkey to someone elses back. Namely my budddy David who came in Saterday evening.
 
This is David standing in front of the plastic cabin. All the sheds on the ATV garage were picked up on this ranch.

[rice]

Here is what we would be after along with the Does and hogs. These are 4 bucks that were caught on the trail cam summer of 07. None were killed last year, so we assumed they would be good ones this year. I call them the four horseman.
 
As you can see, this place has great genetics!

[rice]

The week went by quickly, I was seeing lots of bucks. 1 evening I had three bucks within 10 yards of my stand chasing a Doe. One looked to be 130 inch 8 point. Drew on him twice, but was not willing to be done buck hunting so I never dropped the string. The next evening I was treated to seeing a Doe chased by two smal bucks that were grunting and snort wheezing. About an hour after they left. a doe can barreling off the ridge with 2 lease legal 8 points and a six point on her tail. They were joined by another six point and the grunting, herding and posturing went into high gear. One of the eight points posed 5 yards under my stand on two occassions. I drew on him both times but again I wasn't ready to end my buck huntin on this place so I just enjoyed the show.
Meanwhile, David was seeing a lot of big six points. All week long he kept mumbling about how we needed to change the rules and make it possible to harvest some of the mature 6 points. I told him he would have to convince the landowner, and good luck! This is a picture from earlier in the year of one of the six points that walked by him.
 
After managing this place for 4 years we have brought our buck to Doe ratio down to 1 to 4. It sure makes for an intensive rut  
For the week I saw over 18 different bucks, but more on that later.

[rice]

Thursday morning found me in a stand just north of camp. At first light I had a Doee and twin button bucks come in. The Doe never offered a shot and soon the threesome wandered off to my north.
Here is a pic of 1 of the button bucks:
 
About 30 minutes later a six point came in under my stand, I was trying to get a betterlook at his antlers when I noticed that he was looking to my left. I looked around the other side of the tree and there stood a 150 class 10 point about 30 yards off. I about fell out of my tree. I grunted at him several times, but he just followed out the way the the Doe went.
The two button bucks came in alone about an hour later, obviously the buck was on this Doe. I had a nice 16 inch wide ten point come through later in the morning, but was set on waiting for the big buck.

[rice]

Friday morning found me in the same stand, hoping the buck would return. My hopes improved when the two button bucks showed up at first light alone again. They stayed under my stand for over and hour.
 
All of a sudden they busted and ran to the north, where the linked up with the Doe. I was praying the buck was behind her, and sure enough he was. He began herding the Doe around and pushed her by my stand twice but was moving to quickly for a shot. They finally came around again and he stopped at 15 yards. I came to full draw and about the time I released he lunged forward causing me to mmmmiiisss!  :(
He stopped in the opening, and then started to stiff legg toward the Doe again. He then proceeded to run her by me 1 more time. I had knocked another arrow, but could not get him to stop. They all ran off over the ridge leaving me shaking in my treestand.

[rice]

Saturday morning found me in the same stand. Hoping beyond hope he would follow the Doe back in. About 8:00 am I saw the Doe and two button bucks coming toward my stand. They stayed around me for 30 minutes and the buck was a no show. My vacation was winding down, and with only 1 deer in the freezer I decided to take a shot at this Doe. I drew my bow and loosed the string. This is what I found after getting down from the tree.
 
I was jumping with joy, I worked on down the trail, and as Uncle Ted says, where have we seen this before:
 
And here is what I found on the end of the trail.
 
I thanked the Lord for his many blessing and took my trophy back to camp. It had been a wonderful week filled with lots of excitement and learning experiences. Good times with good friends and many good meals. I will be back in weeks to come to again try my luck. But for now my vacation was about at an end.  
As a side note, I got up early the next moring to take the cleanings of my Doe to our buzzard feeding spot. One of my buddies was in a stand that was about 400 yards from where I had shot at the buck. I made the long way around on the ridge above his stand so as not to disturb him with my ATV. He told me later he could see a giant buck from his tree stand that was abou 60 yards form his stand, we believe it was the same buck I had missed. When the buck heard my 4 wheeler on the ridge, my buddy told me he immediately layed down on the trail he was on and as I got closer put his head down on the ground. He waited until he could no longer hear my my ATV, then got up and proceeded on down the trail. Sneaky buggers aren't they.  

Thanks for reading along, and good luck to all of you for the rest of the season.

Chris Rice

[razorsharptokill]

Well if you ever need another okie for your lease.... looks like a great place! Great pics.

[Bill Turner]

Thanks for sharing. Keep'um Sharp.

[bloodyarrow]

   

[BRONZ]

Cool!   Thanks for posting!

[MadDog]

Way to go looks like you had a great time.