Oklahoma Ground and Pound BBD

[Huntoholic]

So August 27 th I unexpectedly got shipped down to Sheppard AFB in Texas for some training near the Oklahoma. I found some great public land that had nice bucks on it to include a pair of ten pointers. The second evening I had a really close call with the two ten and two other nice bucks as they did a big circle around me at 60-100 yard for almost an hour just feeding together. Over the next three week I encountered them several more times but I was unable to seal the deal, including a 15 yard encounter where they stood on the private contemplating on whether or not to jump the fence until the wind swirled and the took off. Then on Tuesday October 27th I had class canceled due to an ice storm so I was able to pull up to my spot at 1:30 in the afternoon. Just as I am pulling up to the Edge of the public I see a doe pop out in the road from the private and then a huge buck that I’ve never seen before jumps into the road after her. He sees me and jumps into the public. I try to get around the doe to the parking spot but she decided to run next to my truck for 200 yards before squeezing through the fence. Knowing that I had just separated a buck from his doe I knew I had a great chance to catch him. The only problem was he entered the public at the very south corner and I was parked north of him with a north wind blowing right to him. This property goes around a lake so I decided to get an the edge of lake and hope that the wind would take my scent over the water and my milkweed confirmed that it did. As I got to the south end of the lake I came up to a break in the cattails where I could pop in and just as I’m looking for a spot to tuck into I see his trail pop up and her bounds away. I knew he hadn’t caught my wind and only movement through the brush so I decided to try calling. After 20 minutes I followed in after him and now had the wind in my favor. A 100 yards later I cut his track and knew that I was close so I kept creeping forward. Another 100 yards later I look up and there he is at 60 yards. He hadn’t seen me but I didn’t think that I could cut the distance without get busted so I low crawled behind a big brushy tree and tried doing a few doe bleats knowing that he was probably still looking for his doe. After 15 minutes I crept forward again and realized that this buck wasn’t falling for a call so kept creeping forward. After another 50 yards I jumped the doe and moved to where I could shoot where she was in case the buck came on her trail. After about 15 minutes I started creeping through the brush again and was able to cut his track again. I followed him across an access road into a 40 acre piece where The two tens have been bedding. So I set up on an overgrown field in the closest shootable spot to the know bedding. After sitting tucked into a hemlock on the ground in the drizzling freezing rain for three hours light was starting to quickly fade. All the sudden while I’m scanning to my left I hear something I to my right I look over and see this heavy horned buck coming out of a brush thicker at ten yards. Before he can disappear into the thicket I swivel around and draw my bow. He catches my movement and bounds away to 35 yards and stands broad side. I had my slider set at 25 so I held high and let it rip. Instantly I heard the arrow hit bone and in two leaps he disappeared into the brush. I wait 10 minutes and by that time it was almost completely dark. I go look for my arrow and I’m disappointed to find very little blood and a bunch of fat on it with the rear 6” snapped off. I look for 10 yards in both directions that he could have gone and I can’t find a single drop of blood anywhere and it’s raining pretty good at this point so I don’t know if it’s just getting washed away. Since It was too dim to see where the arrow impacted and little evidence on or around the arrow I decided to back out and call a tracker. One agreed to meet me first thing in the morning. Do we get out to the impact spot and the dogs sniffing around and I’m just thinking the worst. After a few minutes the dog wonders off and beeline for the edge of the woods and there he is not even 80 yards away from the point of impact. At this point I’m jumping around hollering I’m just so pumped. After gutting him I found the fletchings in the chest cavity. While skinning and quartering him I realize that even though I center punched him he was dropping and rolling so hard at the shot that the arrow took out a chunk of his spine and exited his offside scapula high on his side and his scapula snapped the arrow as he dropped. This has been a crazy exciting season for me so far and I’m so grateful to of had so many awesome experiences this season.

[Arrowbender]

Congrats!
Sounds like a heck of a hunt!
Great Buck

[greenhorndave]

Holy samoleans!

Great buck and story. That was a great lesson in on-the-fly Beast work.

Super cool hunt!

[Motivated]

Boom! What a hunt! Great job and buck!

[Ghost Hunter]

Awesome buck and great story!

[seazofcheeze]

Great story! Its not always over if a guy spooks a buck, way to stick with it and tag a great buck!

[hunter_mike]

Congrats on a monster!!!

What is the name of the arrow/broadhead setup?

[headgear]

STUD!

[Dewey]

That’s a great buck. Congrats.

[Zonk54]

Nice buck!

[muddy]

Congrats. Those Grizzly or Tuffhead broadheads?

[218er]

Nice. That’s a stud. Congratulations.

[Bonecrusher101]

Way to stay aggressive and stay after it and make it happen! Congrats on a great buck.

[PredatoronthePrairie]

Nice buck, congrats on sticking with it.

[Edcyclopedia]

Bucktacular!