Big White-Tailed Bucks by the Bushel at Oklahoma’s Rut-n-Strut
Another Hunter’s Success
 Editor’s Note: I’ve rarely ever hunted a place where all 8 people on a 5-day hunt either have taken nice deer or missed nice deer. However, on my recent trip to Rut-n-Strut in Sayre, Oklahoma, with outfitter Todd Rogers, that’s exactly what happened. This week, we’ll give you some of the highlights of the hunt and show you photos of deer taken on the hunt.
When I left my blind to go find my buck, I walked a straight line from the blind to the compass reading I had identified on my Bushnell BackTrack GPS. A martin couldn’t go to its gourd any straighter than I went to that deer. I had made a perfect shot, and the Thompson/Center Shock Wave bullet had performed the job it was designed to do.
Our outfitter Todd Rogers had asked all of us to use our cellphones to call him when we took a deer, so that he could immediately come pick up us and the deer. So, I called Todd and left a message for him on his cell phone. In less than 20 minutes, Todd arrived. “I was wondering wht you were doing, because I was about 1/2-mile away watching you with my binoculars, and I couldn’t believe you had come out of your stand as early as you had. I was really wondering what you were doing walking around in front of your stand right after daylight because I never heard the shot.” When I showed Todd my buck, he was as pleased as I was. But that’s not the end of my story – far from it. 
When we arrived at to camp, Rick White, a Hunter’s Specialties’ pro-staff hunter and Jimmy Estes, a videographer for Hunter’s Specialties, had connected with a buck that they had seen and photographed several weeks earlier while scouting. According to White, “We came by Todd’s ranch on the way home from a show we had been doing and stopped off to scout before this hunt since Todd had found a draw where he thought we could take a nice buck, Jimmy and I set-up there, just like we’d be hunting. Then when one buck came in, Jimmy started rolling footage of him. This buck milled-around in the little draw for about 10 minutes and then bristled-up and started looking back in the direction from where he’d come, that’s when we spotted Stickers, a nice 8 point with a sticker point coming off of his G2 antler on the left-hand side of his rack. Jimmy and I kept watching the two bucks, and sure enough they started fighting. They locked horns and couldn’t get free from one another for about 5 minutes.  Stickers finally brought his head from the ground where his horns were locked with the other buck’s straight-up over his head. When Stickers made that move, he threw the younger buck high in the air. The younger buck hit the ground and took off running. I told Jimmy then and there, ‘That’s the buck I want to come back and hunt during blackpowder season.’
“I told Todd what Jimmy and I wanted to do later during blackpowder season. He went back to that spot and dug a hole on the side of the hill where we wanted to sit. We could set-up our Hunter’s Specialties’ Backpacker Blind and be low enough in the blind to not only take the shot but also to film the hunt for a Hunter’s Specialties video. Sure enough, ol’ Stickers came in, and once Jimmy assured me he had Stickers in focus, I squeezed the trigger. What were the chances of picking out a buck you wanted to hunt, being able to choose the place you hunted and modifying that stand site so that you had everything going for you and then that same buck returning on the morning of the hunt? I’d had that kind of hunt before – but they were very rare. Because most of the time, you never would see the buck you were hoping to take when you came back to take him.
For more information about Hunter’s Specialties top-quality hunting products, check-out www.hunterspec.com or call (319) 395-0321.
To learn more about Bushnells’ BackTrack GPS, visit www.bushnell.com.
Visit www.tcarms.com or call to learn about Thompson/Center Arms’ quality guns, ammunition and other products.
To hunt deer, turkeys, quails, doves or predators with Todd Rogers of Rut-n-Strut, call (580) 799-1920 or (580) 225-6831, or email trogers@itlnet.net.
Tomorrow: More Bucks and More Stories |
