Tensas NWR lottery hunt removes almost 200 deer from 80,000-acre refuge

Chris Hartwell

This unidentified hunter killed a Tensas NWR 9-point that looked to be in the 150-inch range.

Additional Images

Hunters took just less than 200 deer during the second Tensas National Wildlife Refuge lottery hunt held last weekend (Dec. 11-2), according to the refuge’s Kelly Purkey. Of those kills, 107 were bucks, and 89 were does.

That’s down from the November lottery hunt’s 251 kills, which included 126 bucks and 125 does. However, the combined results of the two hunts totaled 447 deer: 233 bucks and 214 does.

During the December hunt, the author stopped by the check station on the way back from his Sunday-morning hunt to see a huge 10-point being measured by refuge ranger Jean Mikeal. And there were reports of other big bucks being taken; LouisianaSportsman.com is looking into the reports, and will be posting photos and stories as the hunters are tracked down.

While the author and his hunting party weren’t successful killing any deer, a black bear made a regular visit to one of their stand sites. Dan McKinzey, known as “dmckinzey” on the LouisianaSportsman.com forum, filmed the bear and posted the vid on the deer-hunting forum.

Click here to read and post reports from Tensas NWR hunts.