Well the deer gods shined on me again today! This nice 5×4 came down the ridge chasing does at 430 pm this afternoon and wouldn’t stop. After many zig zags, ups and downs, and close calls he came back into view. When big rascal finally did stop…..as many of you deer hunters can attest to his stopping point was in a area where his vitals were covered by trees. I knew this deer was not going to stick around long so I took the only shot I had……The neck. The 300 WSM bullet was dead on at 65 yards and he dropped in his tracks. The exit hole in the cape might be a obstacle for the taxidermist, but better safe than sorry!
The trail cam pic of him is one of the only daytime photos we have of this deer…..We have plenty of him at the feeders during night time hours. The rut is an amazing time….It truly brings the big boys out to play!
As a side note….For those of you that enjoy feeding programs and the benefits they can bring. This deer was harvested in a part of NE OK that has no agriculture and is not known for heavy bodied bucks. The Nutra Deer Feeding program we started in August 2010 has helped the antler mass tremendously. Also there is a noticeable difference in over all body conditions of all the bucks, does and fawns in 2011. This was a terrible growing season in NE OK with all the drought and heat but the supplemental feed and mineral is working. This deer ended up weighing in at slightly over 200 lbs and that’s a heavy deer for this part of NE OK. His antler mass is carried all the way through the main beams and tines.
Starting in Jan 2011 on the lease, we have kept Pro Antler 20% in free choice feeders and mixed it half and half with corn at the spin feeders. The corn helps it spin if it takes a direct rain fall on the spin head, otherwise we would spin it at 100% all the time. This lease also has our mineral available at all feeding locations. We keep it there year around as well, but the highest consumption rates occurred from Mar 15th to Sept 15th. I think the greatest benefit of our feeding program has been from this time of year (rut, almost post rut) to the middle of March. There is no doubt our bucks suffer a great deal of weight loss but at the end of 2010 our bucks were very healthy going into the spring. My assumption is the higher than normal fat content in the Pro Antler has helped them re gain the body mass they lost during their travels and chasing. Only one solid year into this program and its exciting to see the benefits. This is not a “booner” or a “monster” deer to most folks but its a big improvement over the typical deer in the area. I cant wait to see what our 2, 3, and 4 year olds look like next season after seeing the benefits from the 1st year.
Another great example that your nutritional program works! 
