This buck sports 33 scoreable points. Photo courtesy of Larry Gilleland
June 21, 2023
By Hunter Schmittou
On Saturday Oct. 29, 2022, just two days before the end of Oklahoma’s muzzleloader season, Larry Gilleland sat quietly, wishing he was able to be with his family hunting the family farm. Tired of sitting around and with just an hour of daylight left, Larry decided to grab his stuff and head behind his house to see what he could see.
Sitting on a five-gallon bucket at the bottom of a brushy tree, Larry scanned the pasture he was overlooking with his binoculars in hopes of seeing a deer coming out of the CRP 100 yards to his right. After a short time, Larry noticed that he was sitting 10 yards from a persimmon tree that was tempting for even the most skittish deer. Fearing he was too close, Larry contemplated moving further from the persimmon tree, but with a good wind and the sun starting to set, Larry decided it was best to stay put.
With tines shooting everywhere, Larry’s buck scores 196 3/8 inches. Photo courtesy of Larry Gilleland With 40 minutes until dark, Larry had a doe come out of the CRP, and she started to work her way towards the persimmon tree. Larry’s fears started to become a reality. As the mature doe approached, Larry was doing everything he could to be still. In typical fashion, the doe sensed something wasn’t right and started to walk off after stomping and blowing a few times.
Shortly after, Larry noticed a decent 8-point feeding his way into the field from the CRP. While looking at the buck in his scope, Larry could see a second deer rubbing a sapling a few feet inside the CRP. Several minutes went by, and the second deer in the CRP finally stepped out.
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When Larry initially saw all the non-typical tines on the buck’s rack, he thought the deer had trash tangled in his antlers. Photo courtesy of Larry Gilleland “When I looked through my scope, I thought he had a bunch of trash on his antlers until he turned his head away from me,” Larry recalls. “All I remember saying to myself was, ‘Oh my goodness!’ I couldn’t believe what I was looking at.”
After quickly placing his crosshairs behind the deer’s shoulder, Larry squeezed off a shot. As the smoke cleared, Larry couldn’t see any signs of the buck. Using his scope to scan the CRP, Larry finally spotted the buck’s head lifting up above the grass. Realizing that the buck was hit good, he waited 15 minutes before getting up to go see what he had harvested.
Larry Gilleland walked out his back door and set up on a bucket before shooting this unique whitetail with his muzzleloader. Photo courtesy of Larry Gilleland After a short and easy track, Larry was able to put his hands on his buck. With 33 scoreable points, Larry’s buck scores 196 3/8 inches.
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