Show Notes
Charles Admire joins John this week on the Oklahoma Outdoors Podcast for a little midseason update. Charles was on right before the opening of archery season to talk about some of his plans for the upcoming year and a few bucks he was hoping to catch up with. Half way through the season he and John were both able to harvest one of their target bucks, with Charles taking a personal best!
Charles talks about how Texas's antler restrictions have really helped the age class on their property, and how the last two years they have seen a big bump in older age class deer. Those older age class bucks have generally also sported larger headgear, which led to Charles being able to shoot his biggest buck to date. The buck managed to elude him during archery season, but a well timed cold front brought some opening day of rifle season success!
Check out the Sportsmen's Empire Podcast Network for more relevant outdoor content!
Show Transcript
[00:00:00]
Hey guys and gals welcome to the Oklahoma Outdoors podcast brought to you by Arrowhead Land Company. Here you will be educated, entertained, and equipped to get more out of your outdoor experience. So hold on tight because here we go.
Good morning ladies and gentlemen welcome to the show. I don't know if it's morning when you're listening to this but I am recording this bright and early the day after Thanksgiving and yeah if my voice sounds a little raspy that's because I'm still waking up. If you hear a sudden cry or knock on the door, that is my daughter cause she's in the other room.
And I woke up to a text from my wife and all it says was, hey I'll be home at 8. 30 and she was already gone. So I don't know if she went Black Friday shopping with her mom, I don't know if she went to the gym. She normally [00:01:00] does Jiu Jitsu Friday mornings, it's Friday morning. All I know is she's not here and she won't be home for a little bit.
And but I needed to knock this out cause we have family stuff. So anyway, here I am. We have a very important announcement here during this intro here in just a second. The Oklahoma department of wildlife con conservation has announced some rule changes and I've had two or three people send it to me.
I've been seeing it online. And so I want to make sure that I get that information out to you guys. So I'm going to cover those changes here in just a second. And and give you a little bit more information about that. But just a quick little catch up because it is still deer season. I am still hunting.
Man, last Saturday me and the wife and daughter all went hunting together. It was awesome. It was it was interesting. My wife, I think I had already had the mindset going in, but about 20 minutes into it, my wife looked at me and she's I'm very much. Changing my expectations that we are no longer hunting, we are [00:02:00] making memories.
And that's kinda how I went into it. But, we actually had some success. She was able to take a doe. And then I took a hog and then she took another hog all in the same hunt with our 16 month old daughter in there And so we were just like passing her back and forth We'd actually we have some earmuffs for her But we of course forgot them and so we had brought an extra blanket to keep her warm And so like when she was shooting I would have my daughter in my lap and kind of put the blanket and use the blanket as muffs and you'll cover her ears and then my wife would do the same thing.
So ended up being a great time. That evening I actually I went and hunted by myself, saw a really nice buck right at last light. Doe popped out into the food plot in front of me, and then I was, trying to check her out, and then all of a sudden I see a whoosh go in front of me, pull up the binoculars, and he was nice.
It was not the two percent buck. I didn't recognize him, but he was framey, wide, tall, all that stuff. But unfortunately by the time I figured out [00:03:00] that, hey, this might be a shooter. He had pushed her back across the fence onto the neighbors and they never came back. But cool encounter. And then let's see.
I went up Wednesday. I hunted one hunt Wednesday evening before Thanksgiving. Saw one younger buck. That was it. But I think it was the night before that. So Tuesday night. I got a picture of the two percent buck still alive. It was like 2 30 a. m And then last night thanksgiving evening. I got a daylight picture of the two percent buck in a different spot it was camera actually it's a camera that i've got him in daylight on one other time this year I think this is my third daylight picture of him.
And so anyway, yeah, he was there As I'm sitting here now yesterday evening, and I think I am going to get to hunt this evening So that's part of the reason I'm trying to get this Episode out to you guys because I want to go get in a stand and try to kill this sucker. So anyway Next weekend. I'm gonna [00:04:00] go hang out with the Oklahoma Outdoor Outreach Foundation again the organization that I did the turkey hunt with this spring.
Gonna go help some disabled hunters get on some deer. Really looking forward to it. Like I said, I had such a great time this spring with the youth hunters. I believe this hunt is open to hunters of all ages. So yeah, really looking forward to that next weekend. And it's gonna be a really good time.
As always I really would suggest you guys looking up that foundation and helping them out. Whether it be volunteering or financially, they can always use some money to help. Cause hunting is expensive. Most of you, if you hunt, probably know that. So that is the Oklahoma Outdoor Outreach Foundation.
Look them up, help them out. All right, let's get to this important matter. So as I mentioned, the ODWC are going to be rolling out some potential rule changes, or they have rolled out some potential rule changes for 2024. And the public comment period, it actually already opened, it opened November 1st, and it is going [00:05:00] through December 8th.
And so you have until December 8th to get online, voice your opinion for these, about these changes. And then they're also having an in person hearing in Oklahoma City on December 7th. And if at all possible, I'm going to try to make it out there for that. Not sure what the schedule is going to be, but I'd love to be there in person, just hear it straight from them be able to ask questions hear other people's questions and everything like that.
So that is December 7th, like I said, but if you can't make it and you can't make it, you can still get online and voice your opinion until December 8th. In the email, they highlighted, a few of the, the more important ones. And so I'm going to pick out a few of these that I don't know, just near and dear to me.
I think important for people to hear. And one thing that I believe I like, I'd love to hear more about it, but they're planning to add opportunities for controlled hunts for deer, turkey, and waterfowl on portions of some state parks. And I don't really see why that would be a bad thing.
More hunting opportunities are usually good. This one I like, but I almost laughed at it a little bit. And it's something that we've talked about [00:06:00] on this podcast several times, the velvet hunt. And so it sounds like they're trying to push through a velvet hunt, but the reason I laugh at it is it seems like for this first year, they're talking about doing a draw for 10.
Velvet season permits, and I just think it's funny that they're doing 10. If you're talking statewide I don't know. I just don't see why you would only limit it to, to 10. I don't know. Sure, it's cool. Sure, there's gonna be a lot of people putting in. I'm, I'll put in for it, sure.
But I just, I think you could do a whole lot more than 10. I think you could easily do 100. Honestly, I don't see why you couldn't do a thousand. But I, my guess is that they're just trying to test the waters, see how it goes, see people's reaction, everything like that, and And then, maybe broaden it out a little bit in future years.
Again, that's just a guess. That's part of the reason I want to go to the meeting and hear it. But it is gonna be private land only. It doesn't mention anything about limiting out of staters or not. I know, I've heard a lot of people comment on that. Like they think they shouldn't [00:07:00] do out of staters, but again my position on it, like if the whole reason behind this is to, gain money for the state, I don't know why you would limit it.
Especially like this, with, if you're only doing 10 you might as well let, Anybody who wants to, pay the money for a chance, let them pay the money and have a chance. I think the private land, that should limit some people somewhat. But anyway, so just thought I'd throw it out there.
I do that they're toying with it a little bit. I just thought it was funny that they only did ten. Let's see this one I or I really like, I wouldn't have thought of it being a rule, but they're adding shotgun shell holes to the list of what qualifies as litter on WMAs, aka, if you're duck hunting, dove hunting, turkey hunting, whatever it might be, if you're out on public land, you have to pick up your shells, which.
I, I, I tend to do that anyway. I think a lot of people do but I do that's a rule. So that one's pretty good. This one, not as big of a fan of they are thinking about allowing the use of air powered arrow rifles [00:08:00] as a legal means of take during deer muzzleloader season. I had to get this kind of straight in my head a few months back.
We've talked about this once or twice, but currently air. Bows, as most people call them, are legal during rifle season so they're talking about expanding that to muzzleloader season, and, as far as being able to shoot an airbow during muzzleloader season, to me, not that big a deal, but the reason I don't like this is because I think it's just taking one more step Into getting those things legalized during archery season and that is what I do not want I just I do not consider an air bow quote The only reason they're calling it a bow is because it shoots an arrow.
I do not like the idea of that being in archery season so Again, I don't really care that much if people use them during muzzleloader season But i'm against it just because I don't want that to be a stepping stone So I don't really like that one at all let's see here closed prairie dog hunting on Cooper, Beaver River, and [00:09:00] Sandy Sanders WMAs.
I know nothing about, prairie dog hunting in that part of the state. Honestly, very opposite sides. I don't have much to comment on that. I'm guessing that's because of prairie dog numbers going down. So again, part of the reason I want to go to the meeting and see what they have to say.
Update regulations for shooting ranges and archery ranges on department owned or department managed lands. Gosh, I don't, I've been to an archery range on public land. to Me, it seemed just like the wild west. There were some targets, there was a range there's obviously nobody there.
Watching people or seeing what they do. And so I, I don't even know if there are currently regulations on those places. I'm sure there are somewhere. I've just never really dealt with it. But if they're saying that there's a reason that they need to put some updated regulations, I'm guessing they probably need to do that.
So yeah, like I said, those are just some of the highlights. I'm sure there's more but yeah, if you're frustrated with the state in any way, if we've had several different podcasts just this year talking about the [00:10:00] velvet season and CWD and out of state hunters and one buck versus two buck.
If you are at all concerned about this, that type of stuff, this is your chance to voice your opinion. And like I said, you can get online, the ODWC website, you can go to the meeting. Whatever you need to do, you have, like I said, until December 8th, I believe at 4. 30 is the cutoff time. Like I said, it's time to put your money where your mouth is.
This is the stuff that we, as a hunting culture, as a state, but really just, hunters and fishermen, outdoorsmen and women in general, this is just the stuff that we need to start paying more attention to. nationwide. We're just seeing more and more attacks. Colorado has some kind of trophy hunting ban that they're trying to push through.
They're trying to reintroduce wolves, even though the biologists are telling them they should not do that. Like you're getting a lot of just political push and not science based facts. And so I probably should have brought this stuff up earlier. But here it is. For you, you should have plenty of time to, to, [00:11:00] react, act on it and do some research for yourself and look into this stuff.
So yeah, that's gonna do it for this intro. We got a nice good episode for ya. What would you, oh yeah, we got Charles coming on. I almost forgot what this episode was about. So yeah, my good buddy Charles he tagged a nice buck. He came on and we did like our pre hunting season podcast episode a few weeks ago.
Man, that was just like six or seven weeks ago. And he was able to shoot an awesome buck. And so he's going to come on, talk about his hunt. We talked a little bit about our future plans for the rest of the season, really good episode for you. Yep, that's all I got for you guys this week. I hope you enjoy it.
Thanks for tuning in and get out there. We still got some deer season left, duck season's in full whatever you want to call it, rolling through right now. It's, oh man, I got a picture with a bunch of little hog piglets, which just. Makes me mad because we're just getting more and more of them. So need to do some hog hunting.
Oh man. Coyotes, trapping, whatever floats your boat. It's that time. So hope you guys get [00:12:00] out there, enjoy God's creation, and we'll get into the episode right. Hey everybody. Welcome to today's show. And today we have my good buddy, Charles Admire. How are you doing Charles? Hey man, doing pretty good.
And man, like you were just on this show, what, like four or five weeks ago, something like that.
Yeah. I think we were talking about all our dreams for the season.
Yeah, that's right. That's what I thought. Yeah. I think I think we did like the pre season preview together and talked about all kinds of stuff and and some of that has come true.
And so that's why we got you on here today to talk about it. And just recoup we're roughly halfway through deer season right now. I know it seems, I don't know, to some people, it probably sounds like it's just getting started. And to some people, it seems like it's been dragging on forever.
But we really are just about halfway. So I figure it's a good time to. To get together and you had some success. And so that's the main thing I want to talk about with this week, but real quick, I guess I know you're just on, but I want you to [00:13:00] do a quick little introduction just in case people didn't catch the last episode.
Yeah,
sure. You bet. So we've known each other, gosh, since we were real little I guess I was closer probably with your older brother. Going through school, we're in the same grade and whatnot. But yeah, now I wife and a son who's 18 months old and did some time in the Marine Corps and yeah, man, now I like to get after deer and waterfowl and everything like that.
Yeah.
Awesome. Awesome. Yeah. Our little ones are, I want to say just like a month or two apart, something like that. And so we've been getting to live this new chapter of life together and let's start there. What's it been like this year hunting with a little one at home?
Because, obviously we both did some hunting last year with kind of, straight up newborns. But for me, I think it's almost. It's almost more challenging in a couple different ways now that the kid's a little bit older. Anyway, yeah, [00:14:00] talk, what's it been like having a one and a half year old?
Uh,
Honestly, and this goes into the success it's hard to tell. So I went on like a, I went on a three day mule deer hunt. And so that was really the only time that that my wife was with my son for an extended period and she was able to go see her family. It's always nice when she gets a little bit extra support when I'm out of town.
And uh, but then, yeah, pretty much the next time I went on, I had a lot of success and it was just one overnight. So I wasn't there for, I think maybe only for waking hours for him. So it's been pretty easy, but also at the same time, it's not a big sample size.
Gotcha. Yeah. It's funny. Cause I feel like I have my perspective.
I honestly probably need to ask my wife, her perspective because to me, it seems like almost more challenging now because Hallie she's mobile and she eats real food. Like you can't just mix a bottle of formula and give it to her. Like you have to [00:15:00] prep it and everything.
I guess on one hand you don't necessarily have to watch her quite as close. You're not worried about her just choking on nothing all the time. I guess they still choke all the time on stuff. But the, the other side of it, too, is I think I miss her more. Then when she was just a little bitty baby that just laid there and did nothing, now she'll say dad, when I walk in the door and she smiles and she laughs.
And so that's been a little bit different this year's I think I miss her more. And it's, I guess it's more of a struggle being gone, even if it is just for, a night or two or something like that.
Yeah, I think I agree with you. I actually cut my mule deer hunt short. I was going to go for another day.
And yeah, I just missed him too much. So I was like, I'll come back. There's a little bit more to it than that, but I wasn't willing to push the limit mostly because yeah. Cause I missed them. So anyway,
cOol, man. Just a few little random things, but let's get into have you,[00:16:00] when we did the last one, I hadn't killed my buck, had I, it was before the season started, right?
Yeah, I don't think we'd kicked off anything except maybe Dove.
Okay yeah. Man I guess we I wouldn't say we called our shot, but we've we've done a lot since we talked last, so yeah I killed a good buck, and now you have, it's but we're gonna focus on you this week man, where to start?
This actually, I'll, I'll just let you start where you feel like you need to. Tell us a little bit about kind of the buck, where he came from, if you had any history, and then we'll go from there.
I guess I'll go, sequentially. So last year um, I really didn't think much of it cause he grew just so tremendously from that last year to this year, but when I first saw a picture of this.
This buck, he looked actually like a maybe a two year, two and a half year old, and I've said before on here, I confess that I don't age deer super well. Um, but just based on what it looked like to me, he looked young, so he had double split [00:17:00] G2s um, So both sides were split. It looked like a really small mule deer, and so I started calling him mule, even though I only had one picture of him last year um, and then years before, I could have had him, but it's hard to tell cause he must not have been split before. Or he wasn't there, so no, no history prior to last year. Um, and then I guess getting into the story of this year, I really wanted to plan, with Hunter in mind and him being more mobile.
That's my son's name. I was like, I'm going to focus my efforts on the highest probability times to see good bucks. And um, I decided that I was going to do a sit on Halloween weekend, maybe just a quick overnight. And then also the same thing, the first weekend in November. So like November 3rd and 4th, I believe is what it was.
I believe the 4th was like the [00:18:00] first day of rifle. I was also going to sit that evening, uh, and then the next morning, um, Luckily for me, the weather cooperated. Not exactly perfect. The cold front hit on the weekend or anything. But in addition to that wind was right and two bucks that that I've been seeing because this Mule had showed up about a week before, so around Halloween and plans changed for us as a family.
So I couldn't go out that Halloween weekend, but he starts day lighting and then another buck that I don't really have a name for, but he's been on the place for last year and this year for sure. And I think I have a picture of him two years ago. That being said the other buck, not the one that I took was super consistent daytime.
But they were both coming in, midday, somewhere between [00:19:00] 11 and two. And so I knew if I was going to go down there uh, or, if I was going to hunt in the morning, that I would need to stay pretty long. And yeah, that was the plan going into the weekend of the third and the fourth, have a good long sit in the evening and then.
A good long sit in the morning and then we actually have plans for a gala About three hours away. So I was on a tight ship getting back but more to that when I actually get into the hunt But that was the plan and everything leading up to it. So
Gotcha. I think we skipped over this and I know we talked about it last time but Talk a little bit about kind of your property y'all it's a family property.
Y'all've owned it a few years now And for me, an outsider looking in, it seems like the property has gotten way better just in the few years that y'all have owned it. Like you're just seeing, better in, in older bucks than, you started out. So talk about that transition a little bit.
[00:20:00] Was that something that was do you feel like y'all had a hand in that? Is it just something, a change in the environment? Talk about what has led to seeing.
Yeah, I'll say that I think there's two things for us. One, we've been a little bit more disciplined about taking older deer. And again, we don't, we're not perfect on aging deer, but sometimes when they just look young, we just let them go, and so I think that's part of it. But the other deal is Texas has implemented a 13 inch inside spread rule, and so I think beyond only our efforts, I think neighbors, have, I don't want to say forced, but, forced to lay off younger deer.
And so I think it's not just us when I've been at the processor, they're saying that they're seeing, bigger deer pretty consistently. So I think it's something, that's several counties are seeing around us there in central Texas. [00:21:00]
Yeah. And I think a big part, like obviously, if you let a deer get over 13 inches, they're automatically obviously going to be a little bit bigger than if you shot them before they were, wider than 13 inches.
But I think a bigger part of that is just letting those bucks get into a slightly. older age class, it also lets those bucks get smarter and a little bit more elusive. And so instead of just letting those bucks get to maybe two or three, maybe those bucks are, now getting to three or four or maybe even five not just because people are having to pass them.
Because of their antlers, but they're just, they're having a chance to learn how to avoid hunters and learn how to use the terrain and their noses and everything. And just, yeah, like you just get straight up older deer. And so I think that's awesome. Yeah I Big fan of that. I think when it came out, I was a little iffy.
Like I didn't see how it would be that much more helpful, but now that's played out a few more years, I think it's definitely a good thing.
Yeah. I was [00:22:00] frustrated initially because there was some lag time. At least a year, maybe two years before it was like, we were seeing many legal deer period, And then it was just, you'd see him maybe a little bit less frequently than we see him now.
Cause right now, we had probably three or four deer identified that would, make me pretty happy. I'll put it that way, so yeah I think it's been a good deal. Yeah, but a good deal and a good management tool for bigger deer.
Awesome. Awesome. Let's get into let's get into the specific hunt.
And so you're up there. 1st, week in November tell us just how it went down.
Yeah, man. So the last night, so Friday night was still bow season. And I had re fletched arrows and I had because basically earlier in the season, I had shot at a coyote and also shot at a deer that [00:23:00] was not this one.
And my arrows were flying all over the place. whEn your bow's not in tune, or maybe your broad heads are a little bit wider than what your veins are handling. You can get a little sway or whatever. And I did a little bit of research, took off the old veins, and then re fletched and put bigger veins on.
And it corrected the issue immediately. Now, I probably should also get my bow tuned. Just haven't got time to do it. But, so far the problem is fixed. And I finished doing that. Had a lot more confidence, got up into the stand and that evening, um, the wind was right. It was out of the north. Maybe 5 to 10 miles an hour.
And I had a probably, oh, only a two hour sit. I had worked that day. And work till five and then had maybe from five to seven. bUt in that timeframe, not [00:24:00] mule that I ended up taking, but but the other kind of big boy that we've been watching, I think that he ran by, it was one of the two, but I think the other one's just slightly bigger.
And I saw his rear end basically. Chasing a doe. Saw a lot of chasing the third and the fourth. But he didn't even slow down. Didn't think about the feeder or anything else. I was hunting over a feeder and um, didn't smell me or anything, but also wasn't paying attention at all. I was pretty confident that I should hunt that, that same spot again.
So the next morning, um, now, to back off for just a second, I knew I had to leave by noon. So I was like, if I have to leave by noon, I have to make a shot at absolute latest by 1130, because I got to clean it real quick and I got to drop it off at the processor. Then, whatever I need to do with the horns and then book it.
So I don't, get put in the doghouse or put myself in the doghouse. Not that my wife would put me in the doghouse, but put myself in the doghouse. [00:25:00] That being said I get up that morning and not, I'm one of those people that is very nervous about bumping deer. I think we have like more jittery deer and I don't know, maybe other people take that too.
But I think that there's a lot of pressure around us. And so there's real jittery deer and I just didn't want to bump anything or I don't want to bump anything. So I got in about an hour before sunrise uh, or before legal light. And I'm telling you, as soon as legal light hit the the artillery started the, there were shots everywhere.
I Think that morning I counted like 24 or 26. I can't remember how many, most of them were pretty far off, but rifle opener was in full swing. But pretty much from the moment daylight started, I was seeing bucks. And so I think I saw that morning, roughly 10 [00:26:00] bucks, maybe nine, but they were chasing a lot.
And one might, a younger buck might jump in, actually three different younger bucks jumped into the, to the feeder pin. Um, And they were alerting me to stuff that was going on each two of the three basically saw does getting chased by other bucks and they, joined in on the on the follow the leader routine, if you will.
I saw deer for. Quite a bit at one point, there was a younger deer in there and it was maybe. Oh, it was maybe nine o'clock and he kept looking back into the trees and doe comes out and she runs, I'm talking right at me. I was in a pop up that kind of looks down on this oh, it's a pipeline right away.
Is where the feeder set up. It's on the right away for a pipeline. So there's [00:27:00] pretty heavy trees down towards the bottom in front of me, which I'm facing towards the south. The wind is out of the south going to the north. I'm about 175 yards out and then about. 40 yards beyond the feeder.
There's a Creek and that's the property line. And that Creek right there runs more or less East and West. And there's a lot of deer that travel that Creek and they'll pop out of that to come to the feeder. So that being said, this doe comes from elms and Oaks that are, a patch right there to the, oh, to the east and it's getting hounded by three bucks in a row.
And the little buck jumps out and cuts off the last buck in line. And you could tell that he was not quite as interested, but he really piqued my attention because I actually thought he was the bigger buck. And so I had him in my sights for [00:28:00] Oh, probably five or 10 minutes as he slowly trailed behind.
He was a little bit more alert, but he was just a loop to, where he was just taking his time. And I finally determined, yeah, not the deer I'm looking for. He needs another year. Good looking deer, but he needs to grow a little bit. So about the time that I decided to pass on him for sure, he takes off to my east.
And there's like a little ridge line and then like a creek fed or not a creek fed, but a spring fed tank, just maybe. 30 yards to my east. Just up from that um, a little bit further to my east, there's a little ridgeline there and he went and found a couple of Betta does and started pushing them around.
And so it was a fun show all morning about that time as there. They've moved off. A big old bobcat walks out about [00:29:00] halfway between me and the feeder. And he's just taking his time. And I was just like, you know what, Lord, thank you for such a nice morning. There's a bunch of like wildlife going around and that is a beautiful bobcat.
And if I wasn't so dead set on being almost positive that one of the two deer that I want to come out is going to come out this morning, I would have taken him for a melt because he was just beautiful. Yeah. And so that happens anyway, fast forward. And there was a little, that was probably about 10 o'clock.
There was a little until about
10 30 and then a young,
Oh, young eight point. When I say young, year and a half, two and a half. Just young. Real small, real narrow rack. He jumps in and he's eaten. And then before long, he keeps looking back into these trees, the same ones that, that, that dough and the procession of bucks came from.
And [00:30:00] and he keeps looking back and he is like definitely paying attention. Now pause for just a second at church. We've been going through the Lord's prayer. And so a small group, an older man at church, as we were going through our father, we talked about just our father for a sermon for a week.
And so as we were going over it, he was saying, every now and then I know that, just like I, as a father, love my kids. I know that God loves us. And sometimes even if it's silly, I'll pray for something like, Lord, could you just show me a shooting star? I immediately in my mind was like, that's silly, because I don't know that God is really concerned about showing a shooting stars.
At that point, as I'm sitting in the little pop up there, that, that hits me. And I was like, you know what, Lauren, maybe that was the wrong viewpoint, but could you please send out that deer that little buck is looking at? Sure enough, like 90 seconds later, [00:31:00] mule jumps in and I got the worst case of buck fever that I've had in years.
Like he's looking a lot bigger than he did on camera. And and I'm settling myself down and taking deep breaths and everything. And he was in there for probably, Oh, probably four or five minutes in the feeder in the feeder pen. But we have one of those stand and fill feeders, that the body of it sits low to the ground.
He's either with his rear end facing me, or he's with that on the opposite side of that. So I don't have a shot. So I keep repositioning, looking up and next thing I know his head pops up and he jumps out of the pen and goes to the West. And immediately I was like, Lord, I was not specific enough.
Would you please turn that deer back? And I need a shot. Can you send it back, have a shot be there. And about five minutes later, that deer comes [00:32:00] back and he goes to lick these low hanging branches. And then he's just running his horns through them. And I was like, Lord, thank you so much.
Next thing I know the right away for this pipeline is, oh, maybe 30 yards wide. He just walks basically 10 yards closer to me than the feeder is back from the way he came. So he's walking towards the east, about 165 yards shot. And I when you... When you try to murp them and they don't stop.
And so you progressively get louder and more quick. So you're like murp,
As the panic ensues. Yeah. He
stopped about three steps before I wouldn't have a shot. And he looks up and I did not hesitate any longer after that. And I shot. And, it jars you just a little bit.
And so I look down the scope as soon as I can. gEt settled, which was, maybe half a second or a second later, and he's not there. And I was like, so I didn't see a kick. I didn't see anything. And immediately I start going through my [00:33:00] mind man, did I pull that shot and I hurry it, I go down there, there's not an ounce of blood, but I can see where his tracks are like twice the size of everything else that was there that morning. And I can see where he planted and then where he landed the second jump. And then after that, he got into some real thick stuff. And it's hard to see any prints at all. So there's about three well defined trails that come out of there.
Oh, and the other thing that I didn't even say that I didn't actually realize until later, John, when I was telling you about it before, is he was so rutted up that like his must was right there. And I went down 10 or 15 minutes later, like I could still smell them, and so I started following the first trail and I followed it, oh, 50 or 100 yards.
And I was like, I wouldn't have missed this bad. I don't smell the smell anymore. Like I'm gonna go back. I followed a second trail and one kind of went, the first one went to the north. The second one went straight [00:34:00] east. And I went again, about the same distance, 50 or 100 yards. And I was like, I lost the smell again and I went on that third trail and it's that must got stronger and stronger and I'm looking in this thicket and right as I'm about to just pause for a second.
I wouldn't. Finished looking by any means, but as I paused, I just looked down and I was about three feet from him piled up right there. There was not, I did not find a drop of blood anywhere, but yeah, so I came upon him and at that point. I lost my mind a little bit. He's, I didn't measure him cause I was on a time crunch to get to where we were going that evening, but I'm pretty confident that he beats my best by probably 10 inches.
He's just he's a good deer and the best we've seen on the place, or at least taken on the place for sure. But yeah, man, that was a story there.
That's awesome, man. And, you're talking about not finding blood. Granted you probably know this, and I think most of the [00:35:00] listeners do by this point.
I'm fairly colorblind, so I am a terrible blood tracker. But I've had... I think two deer that I found that I never found a drop of blood. One of them, I was like 19. It's still to this day, like my second biggest buck ever. And there was a really heavy frost on the ground when I shot.
And it was like December 4th or something. It was like the last weekend of Oklahoma's rifle season. And and so yeah, like I remember why I searched for two hours for this deer, just body searching, grid searching. Could not find anything. And then I was actually, I was walking back to the truck to go and try to get my great uncle to come help me look for him.
And I saw a time sticking over a log and walked over there and found him. But even even after I found him, I backtracked out to the road where I shot him and I still never found any blood. And then, yeah, another time I shot a buck, it was, he was in real tall grass, [00:36:00] it was one of those things I almost guessed where I was shooting through the grass, because the grass was like up over his back, and he dropped in his tracks, and that time, I never even found the bullet hole, and I think I, yeah, I think I just scared him to death, and I ran up there and got him real quick before he woke up but I my buddy, my buddy Nathan, he was there, And he walked up, he's like, where'd you hit him?
I was like, I think behind the shoulder and he looked and he never found it either. Yeah, it was the craziest thing. But yes, like sometimes that just happens, I guess if you just do it, hit them just right. I don't know if it gets plugged or maybe they're in shot. I don't know what it is, but yeah, it's crazy.
So now that you bring that up I guess I left this part out, but So when I was going to get the truck to pull it closer so I could drag him to the truck, I did notice maybe like 12 inches of a splatter. And when I say splatter, I don't mean like a puddle, but like just a, 12 inch long splatter.
And that's all that I saw. Granted, I didn't have a bunch of time to backtrack [00:37:00] on that exact. But I go get the truck come back and I go to do my quick gut job, cause I was really under a time crunch and but I've started to save the liver and the heart and whatnot. As I was cutting everything up um, I hit him there.
You can see where that bullet grazed right on the bottom side of his heart, but his lungs were completely gone. And so even though I hit low on the heart, one of two things happened, either that heart for some reason, and that specific deer was just a little bit higher or his lungs, were just a little bit lower.
Does that make sense? It's like they were lower than the bottom portion of his heart, is what I'm trying to say. cAuse they were completely gone, his chest cavity was all coagulated. It was definitely the lungs that did it, but I was just surprised that you could hit basically bottom end of the heart and and the lungs would be gone, but there you have it.[00:38:00]
My nephew, Ty, the buck that he just shot during youth season, a few weeks ago, he, I'm pretty sure that he hit in front of the heart, but still hit lungs. Because his shot was pretty far forward. And part of the reason that, I almost backed out looking for him because as he was running away, his leg was flapping and actually thought he shot low enough to like where he just hit the leg.
We ended up finding him just by sheer luck and but the heart was untouched. And again, the shot was like very far forward on the shoulder. So I guess those lungs go past the heart. Anyway, I just, you think, all this stuff about these deer, but you're still learning every day.
Yeah.
And even if something is, the standard. I Don't know, 80 or 90 percent of deer or whatever, if they get in a certain position or maybe they're taking a deep breath or whatever else, you just can never know. And and
that
is the conclusion that I drew,
sorry, go ahead. Oh, I was just going to say, that is a [00:39:00] good point on ties.
He was slightly quartering too. So that, that could have been part of it, but sorry, go ahead. Yeah.
no, I was just saying, I think I probably did rush the shot just a little bit. And I was. Right up the leg or whatever, but it probably hit, a couple of inches below what I was, where I was aiming.
And I honestly might've had a little bit of the buck fever, but that being said, his anatomy made it work out for me, not for him, for me. Yeah. Yeah,
awesome.
Awesome. But yeah, dude, he was big bodied though. I didn't even say that part. Like he probably, I didn't weigh it or anything, but I usually only take one cooler up, when the.
I usually get one deer done at the processor. My wife really liked summer sausage and stuff like that. So I usually get one done there. And when I went to pick him up, they were like, make sure you bring a second cooler. And I was like, really? I was like, I thought he was big, but they were like, Oh yeah, he's a big deer for around here.
So [00:40:00] he yielded a bunch of meat. He's a good deer.
That's awesome. Yeah. That's definitely
awesome. Yeah. Oh. And the other part too is I didn't even tell you this when I dropped them off at the processor. There's a representative for Texas Parks and Wildlife. And so he was, he asked if he could take a sample to see, CWD was present.
I'm sure it wasn't. He was a healthy deer, but I said that he could. And then I just asked him, you mind aging him? And he said, yeah, I'd love to. And I was wrong, cause I thought last year he was a two and a half year old. His growth in a year was tremendous. And he told me that he was for sure he was at least four and a half.
Yeah, so it was pretty cool to see that, that age range is being represented where we're at now. Yeah
very um, you've talked about the split G twos and you said he was your biggest buck by 10 inches. Describe them just a little bit, just to give people an idea. Man, he's
wide and he's tall.
He like, if you think of a [00:41:00] typical mule deer, um, he has little nubbins for brow tines. He's probably, I'd say he's, and this is a guess, cause again, I didn't tape him, but I guess he's at least 18 inches inside spread, probably 20, but if I held, my hands out wide. And when I spread them all the way out to nine inches, if I put them side by side like that, I think they'd fit inside his inside spread.
He's tall. Um, I've only, I think taped one deer. So Totally guessing if I was to give you a score, but but he's tall. One of his G2 splits is deep. The other one's maybe half as deep a split, but yeah, he just looks like a typical mule deer. That's a four by four, just a great eight that's wide and tall.
And just to clarify, this was a whitetail. I think we've talked about mule deer a lot and you're not in mule deer territory.
No, [00:42:00] we don't have any. Yeah. Yeah. Which is weird too, because we don't even have those genes. Like he's the only deer that I've seen like that, which is, why I call him mule.
Yeah. Cause we know exactly which deer he was, but there's not a bunch of genes like that around our place. That I'm aware of, maybe there are some and he was just a traveling buck, but yeah, he's just, it was a dream come true. I've been hunting that place now for, this is. My eighth season to hunt it.
And yeah, he's the best deer I've taken off there for sure. So
awesome, man. I hope you have many more like him to come. You, you obviously have at least one more that's, roughly that size
if he made it through the artillery, man, I haven't seen one mature deer come in anywhere on feeders, but they usually get pretty shy this time of year, they come back around maybe mid December.
But we'll see if he made it.
If it makes you feel better, I haven't seen the 2 percent bucks since Oklahoma rifle started up. So [00:43:00] keep those fingers crossed. It was funny. So my wife and I hunted together Saturday morning, like the opening of rifle. And we had our daughter in there. So we're keeping all the windows closed.
And so that I think a lot of the shots, we really didn't hear many shots. But we were done with the hunt. And I told my wife, I was like, Hey, like you just stay here. I'll go get the truck and pull it up here. So we don't have to carry everything. And so I climbed down the ladder and I turned towards the truck and right then I hear a shot that was fairly close and something in me just dropped.
I was like, Oh man, like it's that time of year again, which is funny. It's funny that I feel that way because this deer is eight and a half years old, like this isn't his first rodeo. But just. And he has he's shifted his pattern and his home range a little bit this year. And it's so stressful.
I hate it anyway.
That's what I think about the big buck too, because he's been so consistent in the middle of the day. [00:44:00] It's that first weekend. It's always scary. There were two shots right before I took my shot within probably 20 minutes of me taking my shot. Yeah. And I was just like, man, that could have been both of them.
Obviously it wasn't, but, or at least for one of them, it wasn't, but it made me real nervous about that other one,
but Hey, they're not our deer. That's why we do it. They're wild, free ranging. We just do the best we can to keep up with them. But man, sometimes it's hard to let go. It is. Oh, it is. It is.
I feel like a huge jerk, but I definitely sent a pictures of 2 percent to my wife and brother who was hunting with my nieces and nephews. And I was like, please, whatever you do not kill this deer. Like this, all I ask is this one deer don't kill him. That's awesome. But yeah, he's a he's pretty smart, though.
I don't think anybody's seen him. Man, I know you need to get going. I was a little late getting on, so I want to be respectful of your time. But it's yeah, I love having you on. It was awesome that we got to do the preseason deal. And then [00:45:00] now we're getting in here and getting to talk about our success.
And one thing that we definitely need to do is get together, do a little duck hunting. I guess it's because I tagged out with a buck so early in the year, but man, I, like I have been consumed with. lIke I haven't been probably since high school when I used to do a bunch of duck hunting. So yeah, we're gonna definitely, I think it just opened like last weekend or something like that, but definitely gonna have to make some time to do a little duck hunting.
Yeah, man quick, one sentence story that you're going to kick out of a way out opening day for ducks, because I'm feeling the same way as you. And we saw about 150 ducks and maybe 50 Canadian geese that landed on the opposite side of the private tank we were on. And when I say tank, it's like a 20 acre tank.
So there were like 300 yards away and we were just, oh, it was miserable. Yeah,
I Haven't really seen many to hunt. I was at the ranch, like I said, on Saturday, I drove around [00:46:00] midday. And I found one pond that had four, and then my one little duck slew by the house where I stay.
It had, actually this is funny, it had exactly one dozen mallards. And I say that's funny because whenever you buy decoys they almost always come in a dozen. Now, because they're so expensive, I feel like you can buy a half dozen, but... But anytime you listen to anybody talk about duck hunting, they're always like, Oh, old Joe Blow out there with his dozen decoys.
I'm here to tell you, you can have exactly 12 mallards on a pond. It's, it is a thing. So don't feel don't feel like you're out of whack if you just have a dozen decoys. So anyway. Man, like I said, I appreciate you coming on very proud of you. Super happy for your success. And we'll have to have you on again, maybe later in the year after we kill some ducks.
Yeah, man, for sure.
I appreciate you having me on. It's always fun.
Awesome, Charles. We'll take care. Thanks again, and we will talk to you later. [00:47:00] Thank you, Charles, for coming on. Congratulations on the buck, and for all you guys listening, real quick, in case you skipped the intro, just wanted to throw it out again.
The Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation is taking input for some potential Rule changes coming in 2024 And so you can get online you can voice your opinion tell them what you think and you have until december 8th to do that I believe at 4 30 and then on december 7th, they are having an in person hearing in oklahoma city And so if you know are very passionate about it You can go in person, ask questions, talk to the people making these decisions and really let them know what you think.
So I just want to throw that out there again. Thank you guys for listening to this podcast. Have a fantastic week. Happy Thanksgiving. I forgot to mention that in my intro. And until next week, I will see y'all right back here on the Oklahoma outdoors podcast.[00:48:00]
