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Patience pays off for Shawnee hunter



by Ed Godfrey
Published: November 22, 2015


photo - Dwayne Carter of Shawnee arrowed this 17-point
buck last Sunday in Pottawatomie County. (Photo Provided)


Shawnee, OK - A hunter's best weapon is often patience.

Dwayne Carter of Shawnee had the drawstring pulled back on a nice 8-point buck last Sunday
morning in Pottawatomie County, but he didn't let the arrow fly.

He had gone hunting last weekend in hopes of shooting a 17-point, non-typical buck that he
had first seen in February while coyote hunting on the land that once was an old dairy farm.
The property has little timber.

“If you look at it, you would never think it would hold deer,” Carter said. “It doesn't really hold
deer, but they travel through it a lot.”

Carter said he hunted for antler sheds of the buck last spring but never could find them. In
August, he started scattering around in hopes that the buck would show up again when
archery season opened in October.

In September, the buck with the gnarly, palmation rack appeared for the first time on Carter's
trail camera at night. Then in October, Carter's neighbors starting getting photos of the deer
on their trail cameras.

“It was the same deer,” Carter said. “The same palmation and the same double main beam on
his right side.”

Earlier this month, more photos of the buck showed up on Carter's trail camera.

“I knew he was on the move and in the area,” Carter said.

Carter had used one buck tag during the muzzleloader season and was hoping to save his last
for the trophy he had spotted eight months earlier.

He had three days to hunt last weekend beginning on Friday. For two days, he passed on
shooting smaller bucks and resisted temptation to shoot the nice 8-pointer Sunday morning,
his third and final day to hunt over the weekend.

He decided to wait and see if the buck that he really wanted would appear. Less than an hour
later, his patience was rewarded.

He claimed his trophy with a 40-yard shot from his Mathews Z7 bow. The deer field dressed at
180 pounds and should score high enough to be a Pope & Young buck, his biggest deer in
more than 20 years of hunting.

“He's definitely a cool deer,” Carter said. “He is so unique.”

Oklahoma's deer gun season opened Saturday and runs through Dec. 6. Archery deer season
remains open through Jan. 15.

That's certainly a unique buck. Congrats to the archer on that one!