Story time...
A few months ago my wife and I put in for draw in hunts here in Oklahoma. We rarely ever draw anything but got lucky on a muzzleloader hunt in the Fort Gibson water fowl refuge. When we found we had drawn we went and drove around it a couple evenings back in September to look for deer because it was open to people to scout up until the 15th of October...my plan was to come back and prepare a stand and blind site but life got in the way and I never did.
As the hunt drew near my wife was not feeling well due to her condition and told me to go alone. I awoke on the day of the hunt at 3:00 AM and got ready, packed a lunch and drive over because the gate time was 4:30 AM. I arrived at the gate at 4:25 and was behind about 10 trucks of other hunters and then a few more pulled in behind me. At 4:30 the Rangers opened the gate and got everyone parked and I headed over to check in and met dirk919 of this forum and his son in line. After checking in everyone gets there gear and meets at these 2 trailers...
Enjoyed your hunt adventure Okie. Sounds like quite a deer property! Sorry that Mrs. Okie couldn't make the hunt. Hope she feels better for whatever hunts are coming up soon.
You notice they have benches built on and the road is a T at the gate where we are at. 1 trailer is pointed north hooked to a truck and the other is pointed south. I knew there was more timber to the north so I got on the north facing trailer...along with about 16 others of the 25 hunters on site. The driver of the truck told us to flash our lights when we got to where we wanted let off. I had decided I wanted let off at the first road north that came off the main road...
When e got near the road everyone started flashing their light to be let off. Someone said "is everyone hunting here" and I said "yep" as I grabbed my hang on stand and rifle and started booking it north up that road...
The road looked like it ended at an E/W running power line so I planned to hunt north of the power line a little ways. I got to the line with several hunters following and I turned right and headed east along the line and a little ways down a couple guys popped out in the power line ahead of me. I immediately turned due north and busted brush until I came to a roughly 2 acre brushy opening with some tree lines and lots of scattered cover. I found a loaded persimmon tree and a large scrape so I thought this was going to be the spot. I found the triple trunked pecan tree in the dark.
As I was hanging the stand a couple guys walked by just to my north and I could hear gravel popping under their boots which meant they were walking on a road!!! What? There is no road showing there on the map! Just a power line south of my position...well crap!
I go ahead and get situated in my stand no realizing a road is just a few yards from me and guys will be walking it regularly and thinking to myself I will have to move as soon as a couple hours have passed so I don't screw other people's hunts up. I think maybe somebody will push a deer to me. The sky starts getting lighter and I start scanning around me and liking the way the point and line of trees next to me is. Perfect for a buck to use as a travel corridor and then as if by magic he appeared right where I expected off my left side. He came from toward the road the other hunters walked by on a few minutes before. I slowly raised my muzzleloader and this time it cocked. I got on his chest and fired and saw him bounding away at the shot. I listened but couldn't hear a crash. He was out of sight in an instance and I sat there wondering if I hit him or did the brush deflect it or was he just wounded. I sat for 30 more minutes after I reloaded my muzzleloader to let it get lighter for tracking and give him time to expire when I heard a shot straight in front of me and not far away. I finally got down and eased over to where he was standing and I could see him from there. He went 20 yards tops with a blown up heart. I drug him closer to my tree where I could see him and climbed back into my stand because I knew I had hunters all around me and wanted to keep from ruining it for them. I sat about another hour and got down and field dressed him and drug him the few yards to the road. As soon as I got him there another Hunter walked up and admired him, we spoke, and he eased on down the road.
I knew they said they wouldn't be driving the roads 2 hours in the morning and the last 2 hours so I headed up to the main road to meet them when they came around. Another Hunter was there at the meeting spot and said he had killed a real nice 8 pointer. A few minutes later the truck came and we jumped on and they drove us to my deer and we loaded him up. The other fellows deer was still in the woods about 250 yards from the road so we took my deer to camp and picked up a deer cart and the driver took us back out so we could go get the other fellows deer. I went and helped him and in about 30 minutes we had his deer at the road. We went back to camp when the truck got there and they weighed and checked our deer...
The Rangers put on a big lunch feed of catfish and hush puppies and fried potatoes and it was great. It was a great day...
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