Colvin drops 150-inch buck — 21 days after his first shot
Late on the afternoon of Dec. 4, 37-year-old Daniel Colvin finally saw his quest for a big Union Parish buck finally start to pay dividends. He had hunted the big 10-point all season on the 1,300 acres he and his dad own. Finally, the big deer stepped into the log set Colvin had converted into a food plot and he touched the trigger on his .264 Winchester magnum.
A crack shot with his deer rifles, Colvin watched in disbelief as the buck failed to drop on the spot — and instead took off as if nothing had happened.
“Frankly, I was shocked,” Colvin said. “I got down, walked to the spot and found two drops of blood and some hair.”
His search for the deer produced nothing, so he called a friend who had a tracking dog to help. After hours of following the dog, the friend gave up, noting that the deer was running in circles. He was of the opinion Colvin’s buck was not seriously hurt.
“I began watching for buzzards the next couple of days but saw none,” Colvin said. “Then I got the shock of my life when three days after I shot him, there he was again on my trail cameras at the same spot where I shot him.”
Fast forward to Christmas day. Colvin had hunted his stand overlooking the food plot just about every day without seeing a deer. Then late that afternoon, just before legal shooting time ended, the buck he had shot three weeks earlier stepped into the plot at exactly the spot where he had taken the earlier shot. The deer showed no sign of being injured by the earlier encounter.
But this time, Colvin’s aim was true and the buck dropped on the spot.
“I took my time with my shot and wanted to make sure I wasn’t going to screw up this time. After looking him over, I saw that my first bullet had hit the small area just below the spine and above the vitals,” Colvin said. “Although the shot did some damage, it was not lethal and he survived long enough to give me another crack at him.”
The buck was a mature 10-point with a 20 ½-inch inside spread, 22-inch main beams and bases measuring almsot 6 inches each. The deer was estimated to be 5 ½ years old and tipped the scales at 180 pounds, with earlier trail camera photos revealing that it had lost weight as the result of the injury. The unofficial green score measured 150 3/8 inches of antlers.
