Massive West Feliciana deer tapes out at 181 inches Boone & Crockett.
The buck was no secret on the St. Francisville lease: Everyone had seen the trail cam photos of the huge deer last season, but the beast seemed to have disappeared midway through that season.
Baton Rouge’s Todd Tregre and his buddies fretted the deer had been shot elsewhere, and then the animal’s image appeared on a trail cam in February.
And then nothing. Not a photo of the deer was found well into this hunting season. Again, club members worried the deer was gone for good.
Tregre then got a call that a picture of the deer had been posted on a Web site, and a quick check revealed the buck had been photographed by a trail cam on another piece of property in the area in early November.
All of the club members scheduled their vacations so they could be in the woods between Christmas and New Years, when the rut should be kicking up.
Not a single sighting of the deer was reported by the time the holidays were over, and the masses of hunters left the camp to start the new year of work.
Tregre stayed in the woods, and on Tuesday (Jan. 3) nailed the animal that has been scored in the mid 180s on the Boone & Crockett system.
The hunter said all he had to do was make a simple move from where he and his buddies had been hunting.
“We had been hunting the fields so we could cover more area,” Tregre said. “I decided to go hunt one of my bow stands in the woods where there were some thickets.”
He made it to the climbing stand about 2 p.m. that afternoon, and quietly ratcheted up the tree after placing scent canisters about 50 yards away on both sides of his stand.
He was sweating by the time he finished the ascent.
“When I climb a tree I wear just a T-shirt and put on my jacket after I cool down,” Tregre said.
He hadn’t even stopped sweating before a noise caught his attention.
“I was sitting there cooling down, and about 10 minutes later I heard something in the thicket,” Tregre said.
He listened intently, and then he heard a distinct sound.
“I heard it grunt, and I knew it was a buck,” Tregre said.
However, the deer was still in the thicket, so Tregre started thinking about pulling his binoculars out of his pocket.
Then he caught a glimpse of antlers in the thick cover. He started digging around for his nocs to get a better look.
And the buck stepped into a clearer area and headed straight toward one of the scent bombs the hunter had placed only moments before.
“The first full view I got was of the back of the antlers, which make them look even bigger,” Tregre said. “When I saw that, I quit worrying about binoculars.”
Although he wasn’t certain of the exact size of the antlers, that quick look was all he needed to see. There was no doubt the animal was a shooter.
“I thought it was just a big 8-point,” he admitted. “Once I got a confirmation it was a shooter on our place, I quick looking at the horns.”
Tregre pulled his rifle up as the deer reached the tree from which the scent bomb was hanging.
“He scraped it up, knocking limbs out, tearing the canister out,” Tregre said.
And then the buck walked around, and was soon broadside at only 25 yards.
Tregre placed the crosshairs of his scope on the buck’s shoulder and squeezed the trigger. The buck collapsed, and then pushed away from the concealed hunter and disappeared into a bottom.
At that point, he still had no idea exactly what he had just shot. A few minutes later, he was standing over a deer that took his breath away: It was the same monster everyone in the area had been gunning for the past two seasons.
“I seriously doubt I could have killed it with my bow because I would have had to really look at the deer, and I would have known it was this buck,” Tregre said. “I would like to know if I could keep my composure and get a shot.
“It would have been a good test, but I’ll try it on the next one.”
The deer featured sweeping beams that held 10 typical tines, with at least eight more scorable points. The left beam along holds 11 points, including four around the base.
“There’s one more that’s possibly long enough and a couple of others that are broken off,” Tregre said.
The bases of the rack are massive, with the left one so convoluted that Tregre’s taxidermist was unsure exactly where measurements should be taken.
When the last computations were made, the green score came out to 181 inches.
“He went the conservative route, so I’m hoping that when it gets officially scored it might gain a couple of inches,” Tregre said.
See other bucks killed this season – and add photos of your own – in the Nikon Big Buck Photo Contest, which is open to all registered users of this site.
All entrants into the contest, no matter how big or small the deer, are eligible for a random drawing for a set of Nikon Monarch ATB 10×42 binoculars.
Not a member of the Sportsman team yet? It’s free! Just fill out the short registration form to get started today!