Rack Magazine

Who wants to hunt deer when it’s 94 degrees in the shade?

If you’re going to spend an afternoon in a deer stand when the mercury is pushing 100 degrees, you’d better keep the wind in your sweaty face.

Bowhunter Jody Slingo knows this. Even though he could pinpoint — almost to the blade of grass —where an incredible buck would enter an alfalfa field every evening, even though he had a slam-dunk stand positioned in the perfect spot to intercept it, he climbed that tree with only a north or northeast wind.

And in his part of Oklahoma, that pretty much means the 12th of never.

Jody first saw the buck before the 2010 season opened. One evening after he’d dropped his daughter off at church, he decided he needed to empty his mind’s cache, so he went to a secluded spot where he might also see some deer.

He had permission to hunt that field, but scouting wasn’t the primary reason he stopped there. Besides, in the four years since he’d gained access from Manwell Farms, the place had been little more than a doe spot.

When the sun began its rapid descent, the deer came to feed. A small buck led the parade. Two more juveniles and a handsome 10-pointer soon joined it in the knee-high alfalfa. Jody was happy to see the bachelor group in Doe City, but not as happy as when he happened to glance back at the shadowy field’s edge.

“My heart began racing, and I doubted my eyes,” he said. “I struggled to convince myself that the buck was as big as it looked.”

When darkness fell, Jody reluctantly tore himself away from the field and collected his daughter. He also called a friend, Brandon Ward, one of the best hunters he knows, to share the news. He simply had to tell someone.

“When he answered, I said, ‘Brandon, I have a monster buck on my spot.’

‘“Hmmm … How big is he?’ he asked.

‘“Mid- to high 170s, a mainframe 12, narrow and wicked heavy,’ I said.

‘“Jody, you’ve had a bad couple of years,’ he answered. ‘Are you sure you’re not growing him?’

‘“Nope. He is big, Brandon.’

“His reply was simple: ‘You know what to do then,’” Jody recalled.

That meant hanging a stand, quietly, and where the prevailing wind wouldn’t carry Jody’s scent toward the area from which the bachelor group had emerged.

“For the next few days leading up to opening evening, I was anxious and could barely sleep,” he said.

The first time Jody hunted from his new stand, the buck emerged from the timber 300 yards away, but it came toward him. By the time it reached ground zero, however, it was too dark for Jody to take a shot.

The same thing happened the next two days.

If I could just get a northeast wind, he thought, I could hang a stand where the buck is coming out of the woods.

The very next morning, there was a north wind, which never happens in early bow season in Oklahoma. The 12th of never had arrived.

“Excited, I gathered a stand, silently hung it, came home and prepared for the evening,” he said. “As I sat in the new setup, eagerly waiting for the sun to sink low enough for deer to start moving, I thought back to another time when I was in a tree, waiting for a big buck, and suddenly heard footsteps.

“When I focused in that direction, I saw a buck with a massive rack coming down the trail. But as I drew my bow, I made the mistake of looking at those antlers before releasing the arrow, which sailed over the deer’s back,” he continued.

“I had plenty of time after it vanished to evaluate and curse what I’d done.”

He also learned from that mistake, apparently. But he wouldn’t get the opportunity to apply the lesson that day. The big deer never showed.

The next evening, Jody was back in his south-wind stand, hopeful but worried that he’d somehow spooked the big buck, that he’d never see the monster again. But his stress was unmerited.

Once again, it emerged from the same spot as it had appeared four days earlier. Ditto for the next two days, and all Jody could do was watch, sweat and drool.

The high temperature on the windy second Saturday of bow season was 94 degrees, but that didn’t keep Jody from climbing into his stand. At prime time, only a doe and her fawns ventured into the alfalfa.

Jody kept his eyes glued to the edge of the field and the trail skirting it.

“As I eagerly watched the trail, I heard something that I dismissed as a varmint. I was shocked when the heavy 10-pointer appeared 8 yards from the stand,” he said.

It was a bird-in-the-hand kind of a moment.

“As I steadied my breath and began to draw, I heard more crunching leaves and turned to see another buck with an unbelievably long (P2) standing mere feet from my tree.

“I didn't bother looking at the rack again,” he continued. “That one towering point among many others was enough for me to switch targets.”

Jody concentrated only on the crease behind the closest buck’s right shoulder, and when the deer cleared some brush, he drew, steadied the pin and released — almost that quickly.

As the deer disappeared back into the brush, Jody sat back down. He says the small cottonwood supporting him and his stand was shaking like a rattlesnake’s tail. Its leaves were quaking in time with his heartbeat.

“After I calmed down, I found blood and made some calls, among them to my buddy, Orlondo Duran, who accused me of getting excited over shooting a spike. He’s like that,” Jody grinned.

“He was with me when I returned to follow the blood trail, which ended after 60 yards at the dead buck.

“As I walked up to the deer, I was amazed at the rack’s mass and the size of the deer’s body. Londo squealed like a 14-year-old girl at a Justin Beiber concert,” he added.

“He said, ‘Holy (cow), Jody. I have never seen anything like this before. Is he typical, non-typical, or what?’”

Not that it mattered to Jody, who answered “He’s a GIANT is what he is, and he’s down!”

Jody still has to pinch himself sometimes to be sure it wasn’t all a dream.

“To all of you out there who read this and think you will never kill a big buck like that, never say never. I thought that. I even said it.

“Boy, was I wrong,” He said.

Hunter: Jody Slingo
BTR Score: 192 3/8
Compound Bow
Semi-irregular

– Photos Courtesy Jody Slingo

This article was published in the August 2014 edition of Rack Magazine. Subscribe today to have Rack Magazine delivered to your home.

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