Tulsa World: Selecting your shot

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Selecting your shot
Knowing when to pull trigger is often a snap decision

The face of a young six-point white-tailed deer is framed by the antlers of a smaller six-point buck at an Osage County ranch at sunrise on Friday. KELLY BOSTIAN / Tulsa World

By KELLY BOSTIAN Outdoors
Published: 11/29/2009 2:29 AM
Last Modified: 11/29/2009 7:37 AM

Read Kelly Bostian's blog

Motioning with my thumb like a hitch-hiker, I pointed toward the back of Tim Wyman's tent-like pop-up hunting blind.

"That's close," Wyman whispered as he heard the light "huff huff" and unmistakable hoof steps in grass on the other side of the canvas-like material.

We had deer, really close deer, but would this be the right deer for Wyman's day-after Thanksgiving hunt?

The right moment to shoot is a key decision point in any deer hunter's season. For all the preparation that goes into a hunt, the time to decide on the shot often comes with little warning. Sometimes a hunter just has to rely on what feels right at the time.

Wyman, who lost his right leg in a motorcycle accident, killed his first deer four years ago the day after Thanksgiving on the same ranch we hunted Friday. He and friend Vince Olzawski, who lost a leg and a foot to infection, hooked up with guide Jack Morris on his ranch for his Day-After Thanksgiving Hunt four years ago thanks to the National Wild Turkey Federation's Wheelin' Sportsmen program. The day has become tradition for them.

Morris annually invites the pair of hunters as well as children of friends and their acquaintances, mostly by word of mouth, who are looking for a hunting opportunity for a young hunter. The hunters are allowed to take any doe; a part of managing the deer population at the ranch.

Deciding which doe was right wasn't a problem for Taylor McGuire, 11, of Sapulpa. She shared a hunting stand with her father, Kevin. The petite hunter wearing the pink snow boots and insulated Carhartt bibs used a scoped Thompson Contender single-shot .243. "It's perfect for her," her dad said of the sturdy, lightweight firearm.

Just after sunrise the pair saw a doe in the company of a young six-point buck and watched them for a little while. Taylor McGuire summed up her hunt neatly. "I just shot it," she said.

And so she did. The doe fell dead where it stood, shot cleanly through both lungs. The sixth-grader at Lone Star School admitted she was a little nervous when it came to the moment of the shot, but nervousness gave way to excitement once the doe was down.

The doe, which likely dressed at about 70 pounds, was the right doe for her. Any doe would have been a perfect first deer. Ask Taylor if she would like to hunt deer again, and she will nod her head in the affirmative.

Max Fuller, 15, hunted deer for the first time with his father, Greg, on Friday. Max didn't get a doe, but the pair did have "a monster buck" very near their hunting stand late in the day. "He's excited about it now. He said he wants his own rifle," Morris said. "That's what it's all about."

Quentin Fowler, 16, hunting with his father, Daryl, also killed a doe Friday. It was their third year at the day-after hunt. He took a doe his first year on the hunt as well. "We've always enjoyed this," Daryl Fowler said. "It's a nice tradition."

Things just weren't quite as easy for the adult hunters this year.

Olzawski didn't see a doe, so the deer made his decisions for him. As for Wyman, the deer behind our blind did indeed turn out to be a doe, which suddenly bounded into the meadow in front of us. Wyman drew down on her but paused with the doe in his scope, thinking she was small. "What do you think?" he asked.

"She's acting like there are more around," I said. "I guess she'll probably go 70 pounds dressed."

He passed up the shot and hoped for a more mature doe.

Indeed the doe had company. She was soon chased off by a small eight-point buck, followed by a little buck with forked antlers and yet another buck with spike antlers.

Moments later, Wyman heard deer moving in the brush to our right. "A little fork-horn," he said. And that buck was followed by another forked buck and another little six-point buck. "Figures you're looking for does and all you see is bucks," Wyman said with a smile. "Ah well, I get wrapped up watching the deer and forget to shoot half the time anyway."

He passed on the only doe he saw all day, but if it had been the right deer for him there wouldn't have been a question. A hunter knows when to pull the trigger.

By KELLY BOSTIAN Outdoors

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