Parker has access to a great deal of farm land in units 126, 127, 146 and 132. The acreage consists of crops and open prairie and is about as wide-open as you can get. Mule deer densities are not as great as in some forest or mountain terrain, but the quality of the bucks is excellent. In six days of bowhunting this past fall with Parker (he also offers rifle hunts), I saw between two and five bucks each day that I estimated would make the Pope and Young minimum of 145. Of course, some of those were bucks I sighted repeatedly on consecutive days. In all, however, I am sure there were at least 10 different bucks involved. My guides said two of the bucks were near Boone and Crockett-size. Ultimately, I had to "settle" for a 5 x 6 buck that scored slightly below the Pope and Young minimum, but that was largely because of the difficulty posed by hunting with a longbow in open country. The three other archers who hunted this season using equipment capable of longer ranges took bucks scoring well into the book. One rifle client took a nontypical that green-scored 232.
The relatively flat, open terrain makes for a non-strenuous hunt. Stalks to within rifle range are possible, but, if the tall weeds are down, bowhunters will have to resort to other tactics, such as drives and ambushes. In addition to mulies, there are some big whitetails out here as well. Although the greatest concentration of them is down in the bottomlands by the rivers, there are whitetails out in the open prairies, too, where........(continued)
