As updates on the current whitetail season continue to roll in, one place seems to be popping up frequently in big buck updates on such Internet hotspots as the North American Whitetail and Game and Fish magazine web sites.
What place is that? The state of Oklahoma, a spot well known for its college football and increasingly, for its big buck prospects.
The Sooner State’s top-notch deer hunting was chronicled earlier this year by longtime North American Whitetail editor Gordon Whittington, one of the country’s most knowledgeable whitetail authorities:
“Although somewhat off the radar for hunters outside the region, the Sooner State really is one of the best places for chasing big deer,” wrote Whittington. “In short, it’s still a bit of a “sleeper,” and those are becoming harder to find all the time.”
If the Sooner State remains a sleeper in the whitetail world, that status is increasingly threatened as news of huge bucks continues to roll steadily out of Oklahoma.
Last year, it was a one-two archery punch with the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation’s Cy Curtis Awards program that saw the state’s bowhunting record get challenged twice in a two-day period.
First, Moore, Okla. bowhunter Jeffrey Parker downed a massive 245 5/8-inch bruiser from Cleveland County on Nov. 10, 2016, a buck that is now the new Cy Curtis archery record. Two days later, Lawton, Okla. archer Jeff Ocker nearly wrestled the benchmark away with his Nov. 12, 2016 non-typical that scored 245 2/8-inches from Comanche County.
Editor’s Note: Oklahoma hunters, John McCollum and Larry Wheeler, also took down some big bucks in the Sooner State.
If anything, the big buck parade continues to impressively roll on this fall with a number of potential Pope and Young Club record caliber whitetails already showing up in the early archery season, not to mention the state’s muzzleloader campaign.
From a 230-inch caliber buck reportedly killed in a vehicle collision near Edmond to a pair of possible Boone and Crockett Club caliber bucks taken by hunter near the South Canadian River – from the same ladder stand, no less – to a massive smokepole bruiser tagged near Coalgate, this has already been another memorable deer campaign in the Sooner State.
And that’s not to even mention a rush of other good bucks in the 150, 160, 170 and 180-classes, big deer that are appearing frequently in grip-and-grin hunter photos being posted on social media sites.
With the heart of the state’s November rut approaching – not to…
