Flashback Friday: Outdoor Mentors Hosts It's First Deer Hunt

Flashback Friday

Our first deer hunt with the fledgling Outdoor Mentors program in ‘02 was to the Z Bar Ranch, owned by Ted Turner, near Medicine Lodge, KS. I had met the ranch manager, Keith Yearout, and when he heard about our new program, he invited us to bring some kids out to the ranch during the September youth season.

Our first hunt had 5 kids from the Kansas Big Brothers Big Sisters program and their mentors. I have poor quality picture of the harvest taken late that evening without much light, but you can make out 4 deer in the back of a truck, so it was a successful hunt. The Z Bar had plenty of does on the property at that time.

The ranch is situated in the scenic Red Hills area of Kansas and it’s pretty much unlike anywhere else in the state. At the time, they were running about 3,000 head of buffalo on the ranch of 42,000 acres. It was quite an experience not only for the kids, but the mentors as well!

Over the years, we’ve been fortunate to get to hunt deer and turkey on the ranch and we have gotten to fish some of the many ponds as well.

And they always wrapped up the day with some buffalo burgers or buffalo chili before heading back home.