"We're gonna take a tour of the property" he said as I hopped into the truck with the spry 70 something year old deer hunter. I felt quite honored that the man who knows the most about the property that we were going to hunt was the one who had taken me under his wing to help educate me about the thirty something hundred acres of southeast Arkansas hunting property. "I killed my first deer here in 1943. I have been killing deer here ever since" my host said. "This Ruger 10/22 is the first one that ever came to Arkansas. I bought it at a store in Little Rock back in '59, and they told me it was the first one to come to Arkansas. I like these little guns. I have several of them and all of my grand kids have one. They all have a .20 gauge shotgun, too."
I knew that I was in for a special day. My host was not just the patriarch of this hunting club, but he was also instrumental in establishing Arkansas as a place to kill a Boone & Crockett Record Book buck many years ago. David T. Hyatt was part of the "posse" that helped Dr. Rex Hancock round up enough record book whitetails in during the '50's and 60's to make Arkansas rank as #2 in record book entries, second only to Saskatchewan. When Dr. Hancock and D.T. as he is known quit scoring deer for the record book, Arkansas quickly lost its standing, failing to have an official buck scored and entered into the record book for over two decades.
This man who is a veteran, having represented our country for many years has a heart and passion for hunting and people. After leaving the service, he became a county Sheriff for more than 30 years. He is still a high profile person today, one who also spends part of every day in the woods doing something hunting related. "I was awake almost all night," he said. "It upset me so bad about those folks in California not allowing our soldiers in that airport. I don't know what has happened to our country. There is no respect for our soldiers. If I had been in charge of that situation, I would have taken over that airport. That's simply no way to treat our men and women who represent our country. It is a disgrace!" he said as tears welled up in his eyes. Like I said, here is a man who has a passion and respect for people, especially those who so proudly represent our great country.
"There have been a lot of good bucks killed out of that stand over the years. I don't think anyone has hunted it in the last couple of seasons, though. I don't know why, because you can see deer out of it every day," Mr. Hyatt explained as we eased down the narrow woodland road that meanders through the hunting lease in his 4 wheel drive truck. "That is a Quercus Alba L, better known as a forked leaf white oak. The acorns have a yellow bottom. This is one of the deer's favorite acorns. Look here, see the split hull that the deer spit out? That's the way the deer eat them. They are using this tree some, but not like I would like for them to," he continued as he pointed to the tall white oak tree with the smooth, light gray bark, and the acorns lying on the ground. "This acorn here is a striped acorn," he said as he then gave me the scientific name for that particular tree. "The deer like them, too. This is a good acorn. There are a lot of different kinds of acorns, but the deer have their favorite and there are trees that they like more than they do others. I'll show you some that they really like."
"See this hole of water? There are some big hogs using it. Look at that! There's been a biggin' using it today. He's a monster. I killed one over 500 pounds here one time. I used to trap a lot of hogs. The hogs have been using that for the last 75 years that I know of. This used to be a field. I remember killing quail out of it a long time ago. There's some big bucks here. Am I boring you? My wife thinks I am crazy," my host said.
Bored? No possible way! I was like a sponge soaking up as much wisdom and knowledge as I could from this great man who knows more about what the deer are doing, and what they are going to do on this big chunk of property than any other person. I felt a little overwhelmed and greatly privileged to be able to spend the day with David T. Hyatt, along with being very grateful for the vast information on deer movement on this big piece of real estate. Mr. Hyatt shared decades worth of deer patterns and movement trends that he had observed in particular places over the years, things that it would take me years to learn on my own. Truly, I had the awesome privilege to spend the day with a deer-hunting giant, David Taylor Hyatt.
