Rack Magazine

Any number of factors could’ve altered this tale of whoa to one of woe.

If Darren Ambrose had been hunting with a compound instead of a longbow in 2009, chances are he wouldn’t have had an opportunity for a do-over.

He was so bedazzled by the whitetail sporting a drop tine and 21 other points that he shot over its back from a mere 10 yards. Fortunately for him, the whisper of the longbow’s string wasn’t loud enough to break the buck’s concentration, and an 8-yard follow-up was easy peasy.

In addition to his longtime preference for traditional archery equipment, Darren can also credit a setback for making him climb a tree on Nov.18.

Race Against Riflemen

As far as Darren was concerned, having to work opening weekend of Oklahoma’s rifle season meant surrendering dibs on the giant deer he’d discovered three weeks earlier.

Worried someone else would shoot the deer, the (then) 51-year-old tried unsuccessfully to swap shifts with four different coworkers. But nobody would do it.

“I was sick to my stomach about not being off for the opening day,” he said.

Rather than sing the blues, Darren decided to make the most of his midweek off-days and spend every waking hour aloft in his treestand.

Darren didn’t know the drop-tined whitetail existed when the season opened. His sights were set on a 160-class Typical he’d been hunting for three years.

He first learned that a much bigger buck was roaming the 400 acres during the latter portion of the Sooner State’s muzzleloader season. A doe came onto the field he was watching, followed by a buck. Soon, a second buck appeared on the same trail.

The one bringing up the rear dwarfed the first buck, and Darren was pretty sure its rack sported a drop tine.

The three deer were between 200 and 300 yards distant.

“Too far for my muzzleloader,” Darren said. “Some guys would have taken the shot, but I just don’t take questionable shots.”

For the next three weeks, Darren forgot about the big Comanche County Typical that had given him the slip during the 2006, 2007 and 2008 seasons. Every time he went afield, he thought only of the drop-tined buck he’d nicknamed Big Boy.

Since he was going to miss out on the first two of 16 wear-orange-to-work days, Darren stepped up his game.

“I was scheduled off the three days before the Nov. 21 opener, so I decided I’d better bowhunt hard,” he said.

Darren watched the sunrise from his fairly new creek bottom setup on the first of those three days, a Wednesday. He was in a treestand 17 feet high in a narrow strip of timber between pastures. He’d seen the drop-tined buck and its two companions enter that funnel, which is what prompted him to take a closer look.

When he did, he discovered not only heavily used trails, but also a great deal of fresh buck sign. Moving a stand there was a no-brainer.

“There was hardly any wind the morning of the 18th, and the temperature was in the low 30s,” he said. “The first deer I saw was a small spike at about 7:15.”

During the next 45 minutes, six more deer filtered through the funnel, all beyond the 20-yard range of Darren’s longbow.

“Almost an hour after I saw that first spike, I heard something behind me,” Darren said. “I turned and saw a big doe coming. I hadn’t killed a deer yet that year, and I thought, I guess I’ll shoot her.

“She came right under my treestand. As I was getting into shooting position, she looked up in the tree at me, and I froze. After a minute or two, she calmed down and continued browsing,” he said.

When Darren dared take his eyes off the doe, he saw a flash of brown and looked to his right.

The buck of his dreams was a mere 15 yards away at the tree line, apparently on the doe’s backtrail, which meant it was going to come even closer.

As soon as the deer stepped into an opening at 10 yards, Darren drew, locked his arm, and let go of his bowstring. The 30-year veteran bowhunter was horrified to see the arrow fly a foot over the unsuspecting buck’s back.

“Fortunately, a longbow is super quiet,” he said. “At the shot, the buck didn’t jump or move. It just tightened up and flinched as the arrow hit the leaves behind it.

“That gave me an opportunity to reach into my quiver and grab another arrow,” he added.

Meanwhile, the buck resumed walking toward its heart’s desire, coming even closer.

“The buck had its eyes on that doe, and as he stepped into an opening at 8 yards, broadside, I released a second arrow,” Darren said. “That time, the shot was good.”

Darren saw his carbon Easton’s fletching protruding from the buck’s side as it fled.

“After the shot is when I got nervous,” he said. “I have never been so shook up in my life. I was shaking uncontrollably. It was so bad that when I called my wife, Melany, she laughed at me!”

Three hours later, three friends accompanied Darren back to the site for the recovery. The buck had traveled only 50 yards before collapsing in the grass.

This article was published in the Jan/Feb 2018 edition of Rack Magazine. Subscribe today to have Rack Magazine delivered to your home.

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