I just dropped Pete Angle of Under Armour off at the Oklahoma City Airport yesterday after a great week of bow hunting and good times in Northwestern Oklahoma.  Jordy and I left a few days before opening day of the Oklahoma archery season to meet up with my good friend and host of Buckventures Outdoor TV show, Jeff Danker to do some scouting at his ranch he calls the River Mesa.  We spent several days scouting and watching deer from atop a mesa that overlooked some huge alfalfa fields so we could put a plan together for opening day.  We saw hundreds of deer each day and by the time Pete arrived, we had several nice, mature bucks located.  Danker and I went in mid-day and hung several “sets” in places we felt like we could get bow shots at some of the nice bucks we had pin-pointed, so all that was left now, was to get our gear ready and be in the stands an hour before daylight on opening morning!

Our first day of hunting was uneventful to a certain extent.  Although we saw a few bucks, the high winds and warm weather had the mature bucks layed up, but it was great to be back in the stand again after such a long spring and summer.  As night fell, so came with it a cold front and as Jordan & I got set up the next morning, we found ourselves in prime conditions with the temperature having dropped to 38 degrees and the winds almost non-existent.  Jordan prompted me once there was enough camera light to give an intro to the hunt and as I was talking to Jordan about our setup, I look across the river and see several nice bucks on the opposite bank getting ready to hopefully head in our direction.  A couple of small bucks ventured across first and right behind them was a beautiful looking 10pt.  As they worked closer I was able to see that the 10pt was a younger deer, probably a 3 year old, so I made a decision to pass on him.  No sooner than Jordan filmed the 10pt for a few mins, I see a big bodied, mature 9pt walking across the river on the same trail as the deer that had just been in bow range of us for the past 15 minutes.  As if the buck had “read the script”, he walked right towards us and got to within 30 yards.  Once Jordy whispered to me that he was on him with the camera, I drew back, stopped the 9pt and let one fly!  Immediately, I knew I had hit him a lil higher and back than I would have liked, but a lethal shot nonetheless!  Jordan and I both were fired up as it was our first “kill on camera” together, but just to make sure we didn’t try and recover the deer immediately and so we climbed down to go tell Jeff and Pete what we had done and see if they had any luck that morning.  Jeff and Pete didn’t get anything, so all attention turned to my encounter that morning and after we ate some lunch, Jeff, Jordy and I went out to see if we could recover my buck.  We didn’t find much blood and actually lost blood after 150 yards or so and couldn’t find him the rest of the afternoon.  The country up in Northwestern Oklahoma is pretty tough and it’s really difficult finding blood, so we had to wait and hope that the coyotes or buzzards would help us locate where the buck had expired.

A day went by with no luck and then on the second afternoon after I had shot, Mikey Miller (BC cameraman) spotted a large group of buzzards circling in the vicinity of where we had last found blood!  We decided we would hunt the next morning and then go try and locate my buck.  The next morning was uneventful for Jordy and myself, but Jeff and his cameraman Brandon Adams smacked an awesome 10pt so everybody celebrated and helped Jeff recover his buck.  After taking some pics with Jeff’s deer and watching footage of his kill back at camp, Jeff and Brandon along with Mikey went into town to check his buck in and Pete, Jordy and I went out in search of my buck.  As we got over to where I had last found blood the day I shot, we began looking where we had last seen the buzzards circling and less than 5 minutes of looking had gone by when Pete hollers to me that we found him!  I couldn’t believe it, the buck hadn’t was only about 50 yards from where we had last found blood the day I shot.  The carcass was pretty much gone and I’m sure was ample bounty for the coyotes and buzzards, but the  rack was still in pristine shape and I was one happy hunter!  Pete ended up heading back to Baltimore with a tag still in his pocket, but we all had a great time in and around camp and seeing Jeff and Brandon for the first time in quite awhile was great as well.  All in all it was an awesome opening week at Jeff’s place in Oklahoma! I can’t wait to get back someday soon and hunt the River Mesa.

Now I’ll be heading up even farther to the Northwest in Oklahoma to meet Chipper and Rochey at their new ranch.  I’ll scout a couple of days before they arrive and then I’m sure those boys after a full season of baseball are itching to get in a deer stand!  I’m looking forward to seeing them, and I’m confident that they both will get a couple of nice bucks next week!

Here are some pics from our week in NW Oklahoma!

-Matthew Duff October 7, 2009

This entry was posted by matt on Friday, October 16th, 2009 at 10:42 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.