Dusty Nelms might be three weeks away from finally learning what his 2019 Oklahoma buck scores, at least by the B&C yardstick. Since Nov. 26, he’s received only wild guesses, no two alike.
The state Department of Wildlife Conservation is hosting a day-long Rack Madness scoring event in Oklahoma City on Feb. 25. Qualifying animals will be entered into their Cy Curtis record book.
There’s no doubt the gnarly whitetail Dusty shot two days before Thanksgiving will qualify.
Dusty took the deer off a 400-acre lease in Pottawatomie County. He’d worked that morning at Tinker Air Force Base. The 36-year-old paints airplanes there, a 45-minute commute.
He knew the buck existed; had known since 2017. He’d nicknamed it Hook. But the Tecumseh hunter’s choice of stands that day boiled down to a whim.
“I just had a feeling this buck was going to walk a tree line where I’d see him earlier,” Dusty told Gita Smith, who’s writing the story for Rack magazine.
It’s a quarter-mile hike to his stand, a chair beside an unplanted culvert. He reached it between 4:30 and 5 p.m.
When Dusty saw several deer emerge from the timbered bedding area 800 yards distant, he fought the urge to move closer to them, even though the wind was favorable. His restraint paid off handsomely.
A little more than an hour into his vigil, his Most Wanted buck walked out of the woods at 300 yards. A quick peek through binoculars confirmed he was looking at Hook.
Dusty was so rattled and the distance so far – and getting farther – that he couldn’t hold his rifle still.
To solve the problem, he rose from his chair and knelt, resting his .30-06 on a shooting stick. Hook had stopped walking when Dusty took the broadside shot.
“It was pretty awesome, knowing that I didn’t kill this deer over a bait pile or something of that nature,” he said, adding that it would’ve been perfectly legal. “Best of all, there was no ground shrinkage!”
Based on early trail camera photographs and sightings, he estimates the buck was 6 ½ years old. It’ll likely be scored for the BTR this spring.
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