Page 3 - Now2011ST

A LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
It’s the second day of Oklahoma Whitetail Rifle season and I am sitting in a ground blind at 2:00PM
with my wife trying to score a good buck or a doe at last light before heading back to civilization. As
most activity will happen in a couple hours, I finally have a bit of time to reflect on the last few
months since the last ST – what a couple of months!
I went Elk hunting in the Wyoming Mountains with a bow and my horse named Tuff. We had a
great 10 days trying to get within bow range of a big elk, but in the end we only have great
memories and completion of the trip of a lifetime (lucky me I get to do it every year but that is for
another time). What normally comes next is chasing speed goats in the pan handle with a bow, but the season changed
this year and this is a topic I am not very fond of.
Antelope season in Oklahoma used to be Mid Sept, with a bow, which was in time to catch some rutting bucks. It was
the fist big game season of the year and kicked off the spectacular fall. Now however, this season begins Oct 1, which
also is the opening day of Whitetail Season for bow, what a conflict in my house! DO we go after our passion and chance
whitetails after 9 boring months, or speed goats? Well speed goats lost till the second weekend, but by then tracking
Antelope down to 50 yards was impossible as they had been chased my Rifles for weeks and were out of the rut, maybe
I will take some time in January to cover this topic a little more.
OK, OK, I need to chill as it’s now 2:55 and the wife is wondering if I am going to pay any attention looking for whitetail’s
- Speaking of, what a great year so far. I was lucky enough to spend about 20 days in the field with my bow (no BBD but
I am a bit picky-) and as I said, it is now rifle season. My oldest daughter in the house went on her first ever deer hunt
and my second oldest is next with the youngest not wanting to do it till she can use her bow - What a great life I have!!
- Well. Better put a bit of focus in the field and less on this keyboard, I’ll see if we can put a good BBD mug in by press
time or maybe even a bit more story time for this month.
Make sure you check out the Essay Contest articles later on in this month’s issue (I think I may drop them a line and see
if they want to do some more work, really good stuff). Our future outdoor world is looking like we have some great
hands to pass it on to. Our cover story was done by one of last year’s winners and I will tell you that this is what it is all
about!! The trophy room has some early entrants from this years Oklahoma Country side and we have some discussions
on high intest items around the SCI world as well.
We are starting to temp your taste buds for next year’s adventures now too. You will find some of the GREAT items we
will be having at or upcoming 27th Annual Convention Banquet and Fundraiser and after the success of last year and
some of the post trip reports coming in, I think the impossibility of outdoing last years night can be achieved. Start
saving now folks, just think of it like the mom and dad plan, for every dollar you save and put towards a new adventure,
you will get a dollar in return either directly of though the memory of a lifetime!
Well, I just got elbowed by the Mrs.’s, which is how she wakes me up when there are deer within sight, so I better put
this down and get back to the passion. Get a cup of your favorite beverage, sit back and enjoy the rest of this month’s
edition of Oklahoma Station SCI - Safari Trails