As many of you know, my favorite hunting partner has always been my father. It's been 22 years since my first actual outing with my dad, a day I still will never forget. I was 4 years old and we were going pheasant hunting in Worland, Wyoming my home town. I still remember the cut corn field back behind the airport, my first German Wirehair, Rex with his nose to the ground... It was cold, calm and as sunny as could be. I was carrying my plastic 30-30 and was going to shoot every bird that left the ground. 5 steps into the hunt, I whispered to my dad, "Dad, I like it!!" To this day, I enjoy every experience we share together. Some of you know this past spring he was diagnosed with prostate cancer and it shed a whole new light on our relationship. Not that I hadn't been before, but from that point I made sure that I spent every moment I could with him and it's been great. He's doing extremely well, the doctors are amazed at his status right now which is encouraging. I've watch him kill lots and lots and lots of mule deer and antelope but we never really had the opportunity to hunt whitetails together. It's neat because he's incredible woodsman and I've learned so much from him and hunting whitetails from a treestand is quite different than hunting the plains animals of the mountain west. It's an opportunity for me to share a litte of the little bit I know about whitetails. I bought him a non-resident Oklahoma archery tag for Father's day and he's been geared up ever since. This weekend we went to one of my good friend's place in SE Oklahoma. We got up early on Saturday and made our way to the 380 acres outside of Calvin, OK. I put him in a sweet stand that I hung last weekend hoping he'd get the chance to take a decent deer. That morning he passed on a couple of does and about a 110" 8pt at 30 yards. That afternoon he elected to sit in the same stand. A little after 6pm he sent me a text (which, if you knew my dad would understand how hilarious that is in itself) telling me he shot a buck. I was pumped, climbed down and headed to his spot. I got there and he said he thought he'd made a good shot, the arrow had bubbly blood and a little bit of fat. I suspected a slightly high hit, but the ol' man is generally pretty on target when he shoots as well as when he speaks. We lost blood after 25 yards, we looked high and low. "That feeling" that the majority of us have felt, set in when the blood trail was lost. We gave up for the evening and decided to try again in the morning. I went to hunt that stand for a couple of hours before setting out on the search again. I sat for a little while, but I couldn't stand it and I got down to pick up the trail. It didn't take long and I was on the blood trail, it was spotty at best but totally understandable how we couldn't find it in the dark. His deer didn't go 60 yards and when it expired he was apparently rubbing a tree or ran into it or something. It looked like he had laid down but his antlers were wedged around an oak tree. Anyway, I headed back to the truck where he was snoozing until I was done with my hunt. He asked if I saw anything and I said, "yeah, two deer but one of them was dead." His eyes lit up shear excitement flowed through him. We got to his deer and he was semi-disappointed in the fact that he shot a young deer, not even that it was small, but young. The deer he passed on the day before was substantially larger and for some reason he thought this one was bigger. Anyway, I'm proud of him and he was excited as well. He decided to buy another NR buck tag for Oklahoma since the rut is just kicking in. He shot the deer with my old Hoyt Razortec (yes Buckeye, that's the stabilizer you sold me about 5 years ago). Sorry for the long story, but it was cool for me.
That's just great Dubbya. I hope & pray for your dad's recovery. Nothing better than spending time in the woods with someone you admire. I'm glad you guys found that deer. I hope that I have the same influence on my son as your dad has had on you. Congrats to your dad.
Awesome story and that's actually a great first archery buck! Tell your dad we're pullin' for him and good luck throughout the rest of your season.
Great story Dustin.I lost my father to the same cancer because he was to stubborn to go to the doctor.I will pray for your fathers recovery.God bless you.
Great story Dubbya! I saw a bruiser Friday night and filled my dad in on his location. He killed him Saturday night lol. His taxi (Derry Null of Mathews 3D fame) guestimated him between 165-170 Oh well, there's always next weekend Props to your pops!!
Congrats to Pops. That is a great looking buck (now that I can see it lol. Gotta be honest, I couldn't really see it on your phone...that's probably why I asked if it was 110" ) I hope the recovery continues to go well.
Ain't no reason for disappointment there, that's a nice buck!! And no need for you to apologize about being long winded; if you read my journal entry I made about my buck last year, you know how familiar your story is to me. I enjoyed reading your story more than any other I've read this year. Congrats to BOTH of you. Respect man, that right there just demands it.
Good stuff there Dubbya, congrats to your dad on his first archery whitetail and I wish a continued speedy recovery! My mother is fighting breast cancer right now for the second time in 20 years. Not fun.
great that you got him out there! i have been tryin for about 10 yrs to get my fav hunting buddy (my dad) back "into" hunting! with little sucess, he always claims that he just wanted to make sure i was a safe ethical hunting and now he doesnt share the same excitement he used to have. i hope to get him back thru the use of crossbows, ground blinds and a longer season (so he can hunt in the warmer season) are helping me sway him. great story Dub! and congratz to ur pops!
His first archery buck and you were there. What a sweet memory for the rest of both your lives. Congratulations!
Awesome story and deer! I've had some great hunts with my sons. I'll have to relay them when I have more time. My uncle has 100 acres SE of Calvin, haven't been there in a couple of years but it has some great bucks around there. Used to be on a lease a little more straight South of Calvin. We'll have to swap yarns sometime Dubbya.
Sounds like a plan to me buddy. Our place is actually East of Calvin just a couple of miles. Then also he has 8000 acres on the canadian river that is tied up in a family land dispute... hopefully that will be taken care of before next season.
