Written and submitted by Lisa Boydston. Visit her blog here.
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Deer season has been a little different for a Luther hunter. Like many hunters anticipating deer season, Chase Weeks put his deer feeder out and set up his field camera. Checking the camera often he hoped to get a glimpse of a nice trophy deer to harvest. Much to his surprise he captured an image of something odd. Not knowing what to do he called the game warden for District 5, Dilan King. After reviewing the pictures of the image on the field camera, King confirmed it was a fallow deer. Fallow deer are native to Europe and are an invasive species that have a disruptive effect on native tule elk and black tailed deer. King also stated that it could be shot legally and no tag was needed, since fallow deer are not native to Oklahoma. There are only regulations on animals native to Oklahoma.
Apparently, this was not the first time a fallow deer was spotted in Luther. Fellow hunters told Weeks that someone shot a fallow deer in Luther a couple of years ago. Now, Weeks was on a new mission to not only bag a trophy deer but also get the fallow deer he spotted on the camera.
Almost two weeks later Weeks along with his neighbor Chris Jennings were hunting near the deer feeder. The hunting day was coming to an end and they weren’t seeing anything. So they decided to give it up for the evening. Weeks took a shot at a coyote that was running by and missed it. At that point he felt that he probably scared any deer in the area away. He climbed out of his tree stand to start packing up when he remembered that he forgot to bring his gun down with him. While climbing back up, he spotted some doe in the distance and a lone doe by the deer feeder. He asked Jennings if he wanted to shoot one of the does. Immediately after Jennings said no, Weeks realized what the lone doe was! Now was his chance to get that fallow deer and he couldn’t pass it up. It was a perfect shot and the makings of a great hunting story.
That’s my brother!