An Oklahoma Giant

Just received this incredible story and photos from Brad Myers. Check it out. -Jake

September 1, 2007 I checked my trail cameras for the first time since placing them 10 days earlier. I had about 300 images, and there were some pretty good bucks on the property, considering the location. I was hunting on my in-laws property in Oklahoma.

Being a transplant from Kansas, I was skeptical to say the least about my chances at a good buck, considering all I had ever seen was small body, thin-racked deer. I know there were some good bucks harvested in Oklahoma, I was just a little pessimistic.

Fast forward to September 11, 2007, once again I checked the trail camera and it had a few hundred more photos, this time however I started getting excited! I had a monster buck on film! Immediately I called my wife Terra, and told her of this monster buck, and she decided she would hunt with me. Earlier that summer, good friends of ours, and Realtree Pro-Staffers Jesse and Ginger Morehead had set Terra up a Mathews Drenalin, and Jesse had her shooting X’s within minutes. Terra and I had practiced a lot in the backyard, and she was very good out to 30 yards. I would get home from work in the evenings and Terra had the targets out in the yard and the bows ready to go, 100 degrees or not, she was shooting every night.

I called Jesse and Ginger and told them of this big buck, and the other deer as well, and they offered to come film Terra hunt opening day of Oklahoma’s archery season. Jesse arrived September 30, and we shot our bows and hung out that evening. The temps soared into the high 90’s opening day, and we knew from the trail cameras, the buck didn’t show till just before dark. I dropped Terra and Jesse off early that afternoon, and after getting them settled into the stand, I took Jesse’s cameraman Mark with me to another location on the property to see if we could shoot a deer.

95 degrees, hot, calm wind and high humidity don’t make a pleasant evening in a tree stand; needless to say we stuck it out. I had two Thermacell’s running, and they helped some. It was just before dark and I was covering the clearing with my slow eye movement when I caught a deer to my left. Slowly I looked and saw it was a 9-pointer we had nicknamed “crab claw” because of his unique shaped rack. I told Mark to get ready; it was going to happen fast. Mark told me he was on him; I had very little legal light left and came to full draw. What happened next I will never forget, I aimed, and slowly squeezed the release, the arrow was on its way, and found its mark, 6 inches above the bucks back. I never will know how I “shanked” that shot so badly, maybe it was nerves, maybe it was having the Stayin’ Safe cameras filming me, but it was an opportunity I will never forget. I had already run the hunt in my mind, hearing, “This week on Realtree Outdoors, were in Oklahoma hunting with Brad and Terra Myers”, who knows, maybe it was supposed to work out like it did.

We left the area knowing the buck was long gone, and arrived to pick up Terra and Jesse. They both looked disgusted. After they got into the truck, they told the story of having a bunch of does come in early, then some smaller bucks, including a nice 8 pointer, and Jesse wouldn’t let Terra shoot it! Terra said, “I would have been happy with a doe, and Jesse wouldn’t let me shoot it!” The big buck had showed up that evening, and just as he was clearing the timber, they heard a voice on the road, no not like Saul in the Bible, but a man, a trespasser, walking down the road talking on a cell phone. Needless to say, the big buck retreated into the timber and didn’t reappear. So Terra’s first hunt wasn’t a bust, but she didn’t get that beginners luck we were wanting.

Jesse and Mark left after 3 HOT days of hunting, and no more good encounters. I headed to Kansas that weekend to see what was happening on our farm there. Terra and I continued to hunt that big buck, and he was constantly on the trail camera, so we knew he was using the area. The rut kicked in and we didn’t see the big buck the entire month of November.

I was worried the big buck had been shot, or hit by a car having no photos of him for so long. I checked the camera on December 10 and he was back! In fact, there were over 250 photos of him in the broad daylight! I was ready to go!

Terra doesn’t do cold very well, and we had a massive ice storm hit the state in mid December. I wanted to hunt all day Friday the 14th of December with Terra; I knew the deer had to come to the food source we were hunting to stay warm. Terra bundled up and we arrived very early that morning. The weather was nasty, it was 30 and raining/sleeting and a howling wind from the north cut right through our clothes. The big cedar tree we hunted in was dripping slow drops of ice-cold rain down my collar and I was even getting cold. We saw a bunch of does and small bucks, but still no sign of big boy. Terra had to leave by 11am that morning, she is a busy Realtor and had to show and house and get ready for her cousins wedding rehearsal that evening. I was not in a great mood about sitting around the house when I knew that big buck had let his guard down.

Terra had enough and told me to go hunt, I asked her three times to make sure she really meant it, up to this point, I had not carried my bow to that stand. I was out the door in a flash, gathered my gear and was in the soggy, rain soaked cedar tree stand again by 1 that afternoon. I had called Jesse Morehead on the way to the woods, he was hunting in Iowa at the time, and said, “you’ll get him today.” I was covered up in deer that day, and even had a nice buck in range, but I wasn’t shooting anything but the buck we called “Terra’s buck”. I don’t get cold very often, I was freezing, I had soaked from the rain, the wind was still whipping down the tree row I was sitting in, and the deer movement had stopped.

A thick blanket of fog rolled in around 4 that day, and the wind had laid for the time being. I was standing up to stay warm, and fidgeting. Around 5 pm I decided to stand for the rest of the evening, I could shoot everywhere except to my hard left standing, and it was warmer to stand. I had to leave the stand by 6:15 to make the rehearsal dinner, and that was in the back of my mind, knowing that buck would show then! I had just looked at my phone to see the time, 5:14 pm, time was fading fast, and I caught movement to my hard left, it was HIM! I was a wreck, my nerves were shot, and I was going downhill fast. I slowly sat down, and retrieved my bow from the hook, the big buck was coming closer out of the fog, and I was really shaking. The buck is now at 20 yards and broadside feeding in the food plot, I come to full draw and my pin is rocking, I cannot hold still. I closed my eyes, said a prayer that I would focus and make the shot, and opened my eyes, the pin was rock solid steady. I slowly squeezed the TRU BALL release, and the Easton found its mark, the buck bolted and ran back into the fog, and after 80 yards, he collapsed! The Muzzy MX-3 had done its job, and Terra’s buck was on the ground! I called Terra and shouted that I had shot him, she didn’t believe me, and I asked her why I would be screaming in the woods if he weren’t dead! She was happy and excited, but a little upset as well, as it was herdeer. She told me, “If you miss this wedding rehearsal, you are in big trouble!” I quickly climbed down out of the stand and called Jesse Morehead, he was so excited, and made me feel so awesome for harvesting this buck. I finally got my hands on the buck and he was a stud!

Knowing time was fighting against me, I took my jacket off and left it covering the buck, since the coyotes were bad in the area. I sprinted, if that’s what you want to call running in slick ice mud and rubber hunting boots, to the car. I changed clothes in the parking lot of the church building and washed up in the bathroom. I couldn’t tell you a word said at that rehearsal, all I could think of was the buck. I snuck out of the slideshow and called my buddy Mason to help me drag the deer out. We took him to BassPro to check him in and he tipped the scales at 199 pounds even. The next day we took photos of the buck, and all my buddies were headed to the house to see the buck, which officially scored 168” Pope and Young.

Fast forward to August 2008, we are checking the cameras and seeing a direct descendant of the big buck with a unique kicker off his right G-2, well see about getting Terra a big buck this year!