Jackson’s David Hill arrived home from work Dec. 29 after working a dog shift, and hurried to the little 100-acre piece of property he hunts in East Feliciana Parish. On the way to his stand, he did something he has read about.
“I’ve read about it, and I started peeing in scrapes,” Hill said. “Once I started peeing in them, the deer started tearing up scrapes.”
So when he found a new scrape beneath an overhanging privet near his stand, Hill took care of business.
“I pulled it out and sprayed it down,” said Hill, who goes by “ddhill” on the LouisianaSportsman.com forum.
After zipping up, Hill walked past a corn pile about 10 yards from the scrape and climbed into the box stand to wait.
It didn’t take long for there to be some action.
“I was putting my head gear and gloves on, and I looked and there was a deer right in that corn pile,” Hill said.
With the light still fairly faint, Hill couldn’t see if it was a buck or doe. A big pine tree used to help hide the stand from feeding deer didn’t help matters.
The hunter put his rifle in position to check the deer out through the scope, and saw the animal moving back and forth.
“When I seen it (through the scope), it was actually looking behind it,” Hill said.
Before it was even possible to determine what if any antlers the animal wore, the deer spooked.
“It bolted, kicking up corn,” Hill said.
Confident he hadn’t done anything to spook the deer, Hill had one thought.
“I thought, there’s a buck coming,” he said.
So Hill smoothly swiveled his crosshairs about 3 feet to the edge of the privet thicket – just in time to catch a deer stepping out.
“The deer walked right in the cross hairs,” Hill said. “He came out with his head down, and I thought he was a 10-point we had been getting pictures of.”
Without hesitating, the hunter squeezed the trigger and the deer simply disappeared.
“I didn’t see him fall. I didn’t see him run,” Hill said.
At that point, Hill was calm. But as the minutes ticked by, the shakes started setting in.
“I called my brother-in-law who was hunting on another stand, and you can usually tell if someone has hit a deer,” Hill said. “He said, ‘I don’t know. I couldn’t tell.’”
So in a bit of panic, Hill exited the stand.
“I told my brother-in-law I don’t know if I jumped out of the stand or slid down the ladder,” he laughed. “I know I didn’t hit too many rungs on the way down.”
Hill saw a welcome site as he walked to the trail from which the deer appeared.
“I could see the white of his belly,” he said. “When I had shot him, it spun him around. He was in the edge of the thicket under a privet.”
Still thinking he had downed a nice 10-point, the hunter took a few more steps – and his breath left him.
“I saw that double main beam, and thought, ‘Holy cow!’” Hill said.
The buck was massive, later tipping the scales at 225 pounds, and its rack was equally impressive. It included 13 scoreable points and a third long main beam.
Hill pulled out his cell phone to take a photo to text to his brother-in-law, but there was a problem.
“I was shaking so bad I could not get the camera to take a clean picture,” Hill laughed.
Click here to see a picture showing what Hill saw when he walked up to the deer.
Amazingly, the animal had never been captured on the six trail cam pictures placed around the property.
The rack a 16 5/8-inch inside spread between the two primary main beams, with a 19-inch inside spread using the 22-inch extra main beam. The right primary main beam was 24 inches long, while the left beam taped out at 22 4/8 inches.
The unofficial Boone & Crockett score totaled 178 5/8 inches. Click here to see other photos of the buck.
To make his season even better, Hill killed a 135-inch 8-point from the same stand Tuesday (Jan. 4). Click here to see this buck.
That was more than his brother-in-law could stand.
“My brother-in-law is so mad at me right now that I told him we would switch stands and see if it’s luck or location,” Hill laughed.
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