Scent bomb brings 170-inch Webster Parish buck right to stunned hunter

Buck first fights off smaller deer, and then walks right up to hunter's stand site.

Sgt. Josh Gandy killed this 170-inch buck after it walked right up to the hunter's stand site.

Sgt. Joshua Gandy, Gonzales, a full-time active-duty soldier with the Louisiana National Guard, is obviously knowledgeable about bombs used in warfare. However, he learned about a different “bomb” late on the afternoon of Nov. 8 when the Buck Bomb attractant he had sprayed on his boots lured a 170-inch, 14-point buck beneath his stand a mere 12 feet away.

Gandy, 26, was hunting with a group of friends who have permission to hunt some land near Minden in Webster Parish when good fortune smiled on him.

"We got to the area around noon, and I headed to a spot I'd already scouted and hung my climbing stand in an area where I'd already found plenty of deer sign," Gandy said. "The wind was blowing, and I spied another tree about 30 yards away I felt would give me a better view of the area which was between a young clear cut and a pin oak flat, so a couple of hours later, I climbed down and moved my stand to that tree."

As the afternoon wore on, Gandy was wondering if he'd chosen the right area because he hadn't seen a deer. Then, as the sun was setting, things started happening.

"First, I saw a small 8-point buck coming down a trail I knew was there, and I had about decided to take him when I noticed he was acting squirrely, so I held off to see what he was nervous about," Gandy said. "About that time, two really nice bucks came out on the trail and began fighting; it was an incredible show. They would clash into each other until the bigger one ran the smaller one off."

What happened next is something deer hunters can only dream of: The big buck caught the scent of the Buck Bomb and began trailing Josh.

"He followed every step I'd made, stopping at the original tree where I first had my stand, and before I could react, here he came and stopped right under my stand, 12 steps away," Gandy said. "I'm looking directly down through the slats of my climber at him."

What do you do when a deer is too close to use your scope? You do what Josh Gandy did, and it worked perfectly.

"I stuck my gun barrel through the slats and manually sighted down the barrel the best I could and pulled the trigger," he said. "The deer whirled and staggered about 40 yards and fell dead."

The buck was, indeed a dandy, worthy of a trip to Simmons Sporting Goods in Bastrop to be entered in the store's big buck contest, where it scored 170 1/8 inches.

Tipping the scales at 187 pounds, the buck sported 14 points on a massive rack, had 24-inch main beams, 10 ½ inch G-2s and bases over 5 inches each. The inside spread showed 18 ½ inches of air.

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