Twelve-year-old hunter downs deer animal Jan. 22.
When 12-year-old Thomas Artall finally realized that the deer whose rear he was looking at sported a big rack on the other end, a couple of problems quickly became evident. First, Artall tried to get his gun over the shooting rail, but the rail was too tall. Second, he discovered his scope was dialed too high to find the big animal only 20 yards away.
The youngster solved the initial problem by quietly moving his Remington .30-06 bolt-action to a lower rail.Artall then calmly dialed the scope back, found the deer in the crosshairs and squeezed the trigger on a massive 15-point buck that later scored more than 190 inches Boone & Crockett as part of Simmons Sporting Goods’ Big Buck Contest.
“My dad, older brother Nicholas and I were hunting on family land in St. Landry Parish on Sunday, Jan. 22,” the young Artall said. “There is an old road that runs through the property, and we were all hunting in different stands along the road.”
The stand the youngster was assigned was a homemade affair that featured a seat up in a big tree and some 2x4s to which burlap had been draped to form a makeshift blind.
But he didn’t have to wait long before there was some action.
“It was just getting good daylight around 7 a.m. when I heard something walking really close to my stand,” Artall said.. “I looked up to see the rear end of a deer walking slowly along the edge of the road.
“I peeked under the shooting rail and saw that the deer had a rack – a big rack.”
He knew this was a deer he wanted to shoot; however, the rail was too high for him to rest his rifle comfortably, so he shifted to a lower rail, only to faced with the fact he couldn’t find the buck in the scope; it was set on a high power.
“I dialed it down until I found the deer, bumped it up just a little bit, put the crosshairs on the shoulder and squeezed off a shot,” Artall said. “The deer didn’t run; it just started walking off. I bolted in another bullet, but by then the deer had gotten behind some trees and I couldn’t get off another round.
“However, I thought I heard the deer fall and then get back up again. I was just praying I’d made a good shot.”
The Opelousas Catholic School seventh-grader called his dad for instructions. After telling his dad Pat he’d heard the deer fall, he was instructed to stay put for an hour, just in case the deer was still alive.
After an agonizing wait, Thomas finally saw his dad walking his way.
“When dad got there, I pointed out where the deer was standing when I shot,” the younger Artall said. “He couldn’t believe it was so close. Dad found blood, took a couple of steps and hollered, ‘You got him!’”
The deer traveled only 30 steps before expiring.
The buck, which tipped the scales at 200 pounds, sported 15 points. The inside spread was only 15 3/4 inches, but the mass more than made up for the relative narrowness.
Pat Artall took the rack to Simmons Sporting Goods in Bastrop to entered in the Big Buck Contest, and it was green scored at 191 inches – good enough to unofficially take the lead in the Youth Division.
“My son is a natural born hunter, having started early,” Pat Artel. “He was sitting in the stand with me when he was 3 years old and saw me down a nice 8-point buck. His brother, Nicholas, shot a very nice 8-point buck this year, one with 24-inch main beams.
“To have both my boys accomplish what they have this season is something hard to express.”
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