That is one awesome deer. Congrats!

Damn nice buck, congrats!!!!

I would say beast is right, nice looking family and home to

sweet buck!

Well it goes like this....I run a "bowhunting only" lodge with about 4k acres to hunt on. We just completed the lodge this year and is my first year to hunt on most of this land. My plan is to take at least 8 doe off the 4k acres to balance out the herd. In Oklahoma you can take 4 doe per hunter BUT you can only take 2 with a bow. You can take 2 more with muzzleloader or gun. There is a 17 day rifle season. See where this is going?

Anyway Saturday morning I took my bow and rifle to my stand to hunt and my plan was to take a doe late with my rifle as I have 2 does to get in the next week. This is my first time to touch this rifle in 2 or more years. I go to my bow stand and start having crazy problems with my bow and equipment. After about 2 hours of frustration I decide to switch stands and go nanny wacking with my rifle.I have been having nothing but problems andamtrying tonot be frustrated. I pray to keep my spirit up becase I was on the edge of just calling it quits and going for a nap. SoI walk to the closest stand and leave the bow on the ground and a lightbulb goes off over my head.... "why don't I walk250 yards north to a bench I was going to put a bow stand on next week and sit on a clif overlookingthis bench" So I leave my bow, my decoy and take the rifle at 9:30 am and hike over thinking I am going to wack the first doe I see moving through there. I have been seeing doe movement past noon on many days and was prety confident I would see one. After an hour of not seeing anything I decide to rattle and grunt. 2 mins later here comes this guy like a freight train right to me! He is coming like he is the lord of the forrest and how dare a buck be anywhere he is. He stops to make a scrape on his way right to me and put one right through his heart, blew it it two! He runs 50 yards toward me and pile up right below me in some brush so I can't see him but I know he is there. I didn't ever really look at his antlers, I just knew he was a shooter and I wasn't going to pass on him even with my rifle.
So I wait a bit then go down and see him....OH MY! Biggest buck of my life. So happy! Only thing is, I wish I had my bow....but if I had not been having bow issues I probably would have not gone to this spot. I am sure he was comming into bow range because he was coming right for me due to the the rattle... If I would have had the decoy out it would have been even easier but....oh well.

Some friends told me to just lay my bow on him and take a pic.... but thats just not me. Things happen for a reason and now I am not sad I had the worst morning of hunting ever and that landed me on that cliff face at 11 am.

Man Nice buck and cute kids.

Nice buck...how old do you think he is?....thats a great picture by the way!!!

4.5 to 5.5 years old... His body wasn't that big really.

Congrats on an awesome buck!!! 163 looks about right to me!!! Walt

Beautiful buck, beautiful house, beautiful kids. You are a blessed man.