After a long year of work, I got a wild hair and struck out to hunt muzzleloader season on Oklahoma public land. I had done a little scouting on ONX so I had an idea of where to go but absolutely no idea what to expect. I struck out from Baldwin county about 1pm in the afternoon and pulled up to the gate at 3:45am, a 14 hour drive in a stick shift Toyota with no cruise control...needless to say I crawled in the back camper shell of my truck and took a nap. I had driven through a cold front all the way from Louisiana til I got there. Jumped out of the truck just after 7am and started walking in. Didn't get 400 yards down the road and spotted a doe and put the ditch sneak on her. #1 down!



Took a little walk around that area before I drug her back to the truck. Didn't see to much sign but saw quite a few deer. Only does and a small buck though, nothing worth coming back for in my opinion, but a good start to the trip nonetheless. Met some farmers on the way out, they told me that this was the first rain they had gotten since late in the summer, they were there to check on some soybeans they were growing. I didn't even recognize them as soybeans. Said they were probably going to turn them over to insurance. Anyways, loaded up the doe and went and took care of her.



After that I went and set up shop at the CoE campground nearest my WMA that I was hunting. It was nice, lots of older folks in campers. As soon as I set up camp and unloaded the truck I was back out in the woods. This time I went to the most pressured part of the WMA along a large river bottom. Everywhere I read online said it was tough. They weren't wrong. Even on a Tuesday afternoon in the middle of the week there was a truck parked every couple hundred yards. After going up and down the road a couple times I finally saw a small four wheeler trail that seemed to be easy walking and I decided to give it a shot. I walked in about 200 yards and snuck up on a doe feeding in an oak flat. About 20 minutes later the oldest and biggest doe had fed to within 15 yards of me. Needless to say she did a head bob and foot stomp, and the hammer fell! After confirming the kill I took a walk to the river and looked around. It was an absolutely beautiful afternoon for a walk and I took advantage of that, plus the drag was the shortest one of the whole trip!





Took care of her that night and headed back to the camp. Went and met up with a friend and had dinner before getting back to the camp pretty late. Weather had been beautiful all trip and the next morning was shaping up to be the best. I decided I was going to make a long hike in to an area way back on the public. I got up early that morning and made my coffee and got to the gate an hour before shooting light. Walked in about a mile before stopping for a minute to evaluate my plan and where I wanted to get at. Dawn was breaking, so I got to the ridge where I wanted to sit for the morning on a power line. As I came up the ridge I bumped a doe and threw up the smoke pole to look at her. When I did my scope landed dead on a big heavy 6 point. All i could see was his throat patch up and he was about 80 yards away. I slowly lowered myself down and crawled to the edge of the woods a few yards away and propped myself up in some bushes. I figured I would give them a few minutes to settle down in case I hadn't spooked them. Not 5 minutes later this big 8 point came walking down the rail 25 yards from me with a forky in tow. I raised up and was starting right in to the sun through the scope, all I could see was the dark spot on his brisket as he was quartered toward me and I let one fly. He ran about 30 yards and piled up! Biggest deer I have ever killed in my life so far. But that isn't much for an ole boy that hasn't deer hunted outside of Baldwin county! 19" inside spread, 10" G2's, and 1" kickers off the back of his brow tines./2













After that, I walked back to the truck and made a run to the nearest DG, got a shower curtain and trash bags and went back and field dressed him right where he lay. Put all the meat and skull in the jet sled hauled back to the truck just over a mile and change. At this point I now had a 95qt igloo full of deer meat. I went back to camp and had lunch and went back out that afternoon to a different area and saw a doe but decided to let her wait to next year. Went to the same spot the next morning and jumped a buck but that was all. Got a head start on going home and drove to southern AR that night before making the last leg back the next morning. I will definitely be trying to go back next year if I can!

Good trip!!

Very Cool!!

Man's that sounds like a good trip

Great trip, thanks for sharing!

AWESOME

Sounds like you had a blast. Good job on getting out there and making it happen. There's so much opportunity around us with black powder weapons. That 8 point is a stud! I think the big guy rewarded you for having patience and not shooting the heavy 6.

You did awesome - great story and that buck is a stud - congrats

Great looking gun also

Heck yeah man, congratulations! That's awesome

Hopefully that 6 is still alive and kicking, I would love to get a shot at him next year! It was definitely a good lesson of being patient and letting good things come.

That’s awesome. I keep telling myself I’m gonna do the same for muzzleloader or bow one of these days.
Maybe this thread will motivate me to make next year the year I finally do it.

Great deer and story as well!
Congrats!

Very awesome trip! Congrats and thanks for the stories/pics.

Congrats on a great trip! Sounds like a lot of fun.

What a great story and congratulations on a great buck and the bonus does. I'm pretty new to muzzleloader and I have a CVA optima V2 looks like the same gun you have? Just curious as to what load and bullets you shoot?

Congrats on a great hunt, and thanks for the story! I've been to OK turkey hunting a number of times and always saw a lot of deer.

Congratulations, thanks for sharing a well-documented trip!!

Unfortunately for me I didn't see a single turkey on the entire trip, just a bunch of deer. Was really hoping to see some and maybe go up there and turkey hunt in the spring too. Oh well.