After clean miss at 225 yards, buck runs toward stand and turns broadside at 100 yards
When Shreveport construction superintendent Kenny Holsted first saw a big buck at 225 yards Sunday morning, he was instantly afflicted with a bad case of buck fever.
“It was that big rack of antlers that got me shook up. It was like I was looking at a big elk,” Holsted, 58, said. “I shot but just flat out missed.”
The buck took off running — but ran straight Holsted, stopping briefly and turning broadside at only 100 yards. His second shot was on the money, striking the buck in the neck and dropping it on the spot.
“Nobody on our 920-acre lease north of Shreveport had ever seen this deer. We had several good ones showing up on our cameras but not this one,” he said. “One of the ones on camera I was hoping for a chance at is a big 8-point with a 19- or maybe 20-inch spread.”
On Sunday morning, Holsted had settled into his box stand on his hunting club, with the air chilly enough for him to crank up his portable heater.
“As I watched out the window of my stand, I saw two does come out on the lane and noticed they seemed really skittish. They kept looking back and then disappeared into the woods,” Holsted said. “That’s when the buck stepped out and immediately I knew it wasn’t the big 8-point. This was a deer we had never seen on camera or in the flesh.
“I hate to admit it, but I started shaking when I saw the rack on that deer. And even though I couldn’t hold my .300 Weatherby steady, I tried a shot but missed. Fortunately for me, the deer didn’t know where the sound of the shot came from so he took off running right toward my stand, turning at 100 yards which gave me another chance.”
The buck sported a heavy rack with 16 points plus a couple of small sticker points. The inside spread was 17 ½ inches with some palmation, and the 165-pound buck had heavy mass through the rack.
“I haven’t had him scored or aged just yet – I’m taking it to my taxidermist to get these done. I killed a big 10-point once that scored in the 130s, and I know this deer was far larger than that,” he said. “If I was guessing, I’d say the buck was probably 5 ½ years old and will score at least 150 inches.”
Don’t forget to enter photos of your bucks in the Nikon Big Buck Photo Contest to be eligible for monthly giveaways and the random drawing for Nikon optics at the end of the contest.
Read other stories about big bucks killed this season by clicking here.
